Robert Louis Stevenson settles in Samoa, a consumptive writer building a house at Vailima and siding with the chief Mataafa against the white officials. Told through his journal entries and a narrator's reflections, it follows his doubts about his own art until his sudden death.
Books mentioned in Light, Wind and Dreams (25)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson: “The South Sea Letters are said to have disappointed editors and readers. The author of Treasure Island, they seem to feel, ought to go on writing about pirates and buried treasure for ever. [auto-translated]”
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: “With the History of Samoa finished, I can at last give myself wholly to David Balfour. It is the sequel to Kidnapped. I have started it many times and dropped it, but this time I may see it through. [auto-translated]”
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: “In fact it was Fanny who made him throw into the stove the first draft of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which he had written in three sleepless nights. [auto-translated]”
The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne: “The Wrecker is at last finished, and A Footnote to History is coming along too. How hard it is to write contemporary history, especially when every character is an acquaintance of your own. [auto-translated]”
The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: “David Balfour is to be the first work since The Master of Ballantrae that can really count. Nobody else can quite understand how fond the author is of young Davie. [auto-translated]”
A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: “The Wrecker is at last finished, and A Footnote to History is coming along too. How hard it is to write contemporary history, especially when every character is an acquaintance of your own. [auto-translated]”
The Ebb-Tide by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne: “Lloyd, the stepson, has picked up the habit of writing fiction himself. Now that they live together at Vailima, a plan is made for a new joint work, The Ebb-Tide. [auto-translated]”
St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: “I have begun a new work in my illness and dictate it to Belle: the experiences of a French nobleman held prisoner in England. His name is Anne de Saint-Yves, which in English I think of calling St. Ives. [auto-translated]”
Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Weir of Hermiston and St. Ives are both going to need them, those reference books on the customs of France and Scotland and on prison conditions in the 1810s. [auto-translated]”
The Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Cassell's wants to bring out The Bottle Imp and The Beach of Falesa together as The Island Nights' Entertainments. The two are so different in flavour that it seems odd to me, and I suggest adding two more stories. [auto-translated]”
History of the Origins of Christianity by Ernest Renan: “In the evening I read Renan's History of the Origins of Christianity. It is wonderfully interesting. [auto-translated]”
Essays by Michel de Montaigne: “Lately I have been reading Montaigne's Essays, the second book, straight through. I read this book once before, before I was twenty, for the sake of learning style, and I am astonished at it now: what could I possibly have understood of it then? [auto-translated]”
Beauchamp's Career by George Meredith: “A courteous letter from Mr. Meredith. An honour! Beauchamp's Career is still one of my favourite books here in the South Seas. [auto-translated]”
Waverley Novels by Walter Scott: “A proposal from Chatto and Windus to publish my collected works, bound in red like the forty-eight volumes of Scott's Waverley Novels, twenty volumes in a limited edition of a thousand copies. [auto-translated]”
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: “Madame Bovary is without doubt a masterpiece. And Oliver Twist, what a childish domestic novel! Yet I think Dickens, who left stories for children, may be more of an adult than Flaubert, who wrote the novel for adults. [auto-translated]”
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: “Madame Bovary is without doubt a masterpiece. And Oliver Twist, what a childish domestic novel! Yet I think Dickens, who left stories for children, may be more of an adult than Flaubert, who wrote the novel for adults. [auto-translated]”
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: “Speaking of Robinson Crusoe, my Treasure Island is naturally in question. It is strange that most people do not believe I put all my strength into that work; I wrote it as seriously as I later wrote Kidnapped and The Master of Ballantrae. [auto-translated]”
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson: “To me the plot, the story, of a work is like the backbone in a vertebrate. Scorning events in a novel is a pose, a child trying to look grown up. Compare Clarissa Harlowe and Robinson Crusoe. [auto-translated]”
History of Hindostan by Robert Orme: “St. Ives is not so bad, but it is hard going. At present I am reading Orme's History of Hindostan and find it very interesting: a faithful, unlyrical account in the eighteenth-century manner. [auto-translated]”
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: “To give clear expression to things that have no name or place, as A Midsummer Night's Dream puts it, is the work of the poet and writer. By that measure Stevenson was surely a born storyteller. [auto-translated]”
Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: “On the other hand, The Wrecker is said to be selling very well, while Catriona (the retitled David Balfour) is poorly received; it is ironic that such a work sells better, but I shall not despair and shall wait for a second crop. [auto-translated]”
The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Cassell & Co. write proposing to publish The Bottle Imp together with The Beach of Falesa as 'Island Nights' Entertainments'. [auto-translated]”
The Beach of Falesa by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Cassell & Co. write proposing to publish The Bottle Imp together with The Beach of Falesa as 'Island Nights' Entertainments'. The two are too different in flavour; is that not odd? [auto-translated]”
The Isle of Voices by Robert Louis Stevenson: “The two are so different in flavour that it seems odd. Why not add The Isle of Voices and The Waif Woman? [auto-translated]”
The Waif Woman by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Why not add The Isle of Voices and The Waif Woman? ... Fanny, however, objects to including The Waif Woman. [auto-translated]”