Author: G. K. Chesterton was a devoutly Catholic journalist, poet and novelist of the early 20th century. His most apt nickname is “The Prince of Paradox.”

Overview:

Before getting into this book, it’s unfortunately necessary to clarify which book I’m talking about. Robert Louis Stevenson (1927) is Chesterton’s second book by that exact title, the first having been co-authored in 1902 with W. Robertson Nicoll. The first is only 40 pages and includes a brief message about Stevenson’s triumphant suffering; this book, however, weighs in at 259 pages, was authored solo by Chesterton, and is largely a defense of Stevenson as a writer.

Seeing Stevenson’s Life in His Novels

Stevenson died in Samoa in 1894, and his memory was still quite fresh in 1902 when the first little book was written with Nicoll. By 1927, with Robert Louis Stevenson decades cold in his Polynesian grave, the novelist had attracted a host of critics, and Chesterton took it upon himself to defend Stevenson, though they were not personally acquainted (Chesterton was only 20 years old when Stevenson died, but he had several mutual acquaintances with Stevenson.)

This book makes no pretence of being even an outline of the life of Stevenson. In his particular case I deliberately omit such an outline, because I find that it has cut across and confused the very sharp and lucid outline of his art. . . . In short, I propose to review his books with illustrations from his life; rather than to write his life with illustrations from his books.

G. K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1929 ed., ch. IX, p. 16,27

The above paragraph is typical of Chestertonian biographies. In his “biographies” he usually deals with people as thinkers more than dealing with the events of their lives. When he covers specific events in the lives of Stevenson (or, for example, Robert Browning), they are usually the moments of decision. Chesterton only gives an outline of events, instead dealing at length with internal dillemmas and pressing issues of character.

After all, Chesterton had already dealt with what he saw of Stevenson’s suffering and loneliness in his earlier essay, already mentioned.

Stevenson’s Youth

In Stevenson’s twenties, he had left home for France, fallen into dissipation and left the religion of his youth. For the time period, it sounds rather typical of agnostic, pleasure-seeking life on the European continent. His irreligion was tempered by time, which is legible enough in his stories. Chesterton does not defend Stevenson’s godlessness, of course, but frames it as not totally foreign to a Edinburgh upbringing. In addition, Chesterton was no friend to Calvinism.

The normal, or at least the ideal, development of a man’s destiny is from the coloured chamber of childhood to an even more romantic garden of the faith and tryst of youth. It is from the child’s garden of verses to the man’s garden of vows. I do not think that time of transition went right with Stevenson . . . The east wind of Edinburgh Puritanism blew him out of his course, so that he returned only long after to anything like a secure loyalty and a right human relation. In a word, I think that in his childhood he had the best luck in the world, and in his youth the worst luck in the world; and that this explains most of the story.

G. K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1929 ed., ch. III, p. 78

Defending Stevenson Against His Critics

Stevenson’s critics then considered him as a mere writer of “penny dreadfuls”, a term then used for adventurous or romantic short stories that were cheaply produced and appealed to readers’ basest impulses. Chapter VI, “The Style of Stevenson”, defends Stevenson against the criticism of being melodramatic in his language. “For of all things he hated dilution; and loved to take language neat, like a liqueur.” (ch. I, p.13) In Chapter IX, “The Philosophy of Gesture”, Chesterton defends Stevenson against a introspective trend in literature, driven partly with modern trends in psychology.

. . . It is nonsense to think only of thoughts and not of words or deeds, since words are only spoken thoughts and deeds are only acted words.

G. K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1929 ed., ch. IX, p. 211

Chesterton saw Stevenson as quite novel in the creation of the genre of the “boys’ story” as opposed to various genres of “novels”. With such a popular appeal, Stevenson may be low-hanging fruit for criticism. But time has probably been kinder to Chesterton than to Stevenson’s detractors. Stevenson is held in general acclaim, and his works have received a total of more than 2,000 translations, more than Ernest Hemingway, J. R. R. Tolkien, or Plato.