Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa

@2@Almost every adult and child is familiar with his @18@Treasure Island@19@, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled over by colonial powers much as Captain Flint's treasure was contested by the mongrel crew of the @18@Hispaniola.@19@@3@@2@In 1890 Stevenson settled in Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South Pacific. He was given a Samoan name and became a fierce critic of the interference of Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. in Samoan affairs - a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde's sneers, and brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded him as a menace and even threatened him with expulsion from the island.@3@@2@Joseph Farrell's pioneering study of Stevenson's twilight years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much weight to the Samoa and the Samoans - their culture, their manners, their history - as to the life and work of the man himself. For it is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa and the political situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, that Stevenson's lasting and generous contribution to its cause can be appreciated.@3@

About the author

Joseph Farrell is Emeritus Professor at the University of Strathclyde. His books include a cultural history of Sicily and biographies of Dario Fo and Leonardo Sciascia. He is also a renowned translator from the Italian, whose translations include works by Leonardo Sciascia, Vincenzo Consolo, Dario Fo and Valerio Varesi. He lives in Glasgow.

Product details

• Authors: Joseph Farrell, Farrell Joseph
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 31.03.2019
• EAN: 9781848668812
• ISBN: 978-1-84866-881-2
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 196 mm x 22 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; Non-fiction book > Art, literature > Biographies, autobiographies; Samoa, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, HISTORY / Social History, HISTORY / Oceania, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Travel writing, Polynesia, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Australasian & Pacific history, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Australasian and Pacific history, Samoan Islands