Robert Louis Stevenson and the Art of Collaboration - by Audrey Murfin (Paperback)

About the Book

This book investigates Stevenson's literary collaborations with family and friends as he travelled Scotland, America and the South Pacific.

Book Synopsis

Explores Robert Louis Stevenson's collaborative process
Contains new readings of thirteen works by Robert Louis Stevenson, including several rarely discussedSheds light on connections between authorship, celebrity, the literary marketplace and the creative processSupported by extensive manuscript research
This book investigates Stevenson's literary collaborations with family and friends as he travelled Scotland, America and the Pacific. With critical readings of both major and minor Stevenson texts, supported and contextualised by unpublished manuscripts and letters by both Stevenson and those he wrote with, this book argues that Stevenson's writings are both a product of and a meditation on collaborative writing.
Stevenson's self-reflective body of work reimagines late-Victorian authorship by examining the ways that authors choose material, negotiate the marketplace and, ultimately, maintain power over their own words, or let that power go.

From the Back Cover

Explores Robert Louis Stevenson's collaborative process This book investigates Stevenson's literary collaborations with family and friends as he travelled Scotland, America and the Pacific. With critical readings of both major and minor Stevenson texts, supported and contextualised by unpublished manuscripts and letters by both Stevenson and those he wrote with, this book argues that Stevenson's writings are both a product of and a meditation on collaborative writing. Stevenson's self-reflective body of work reimagines late-Victorian authorship by examining the ways that authors choose material, negotiate the marketplace and, ultimately, maintain power over their own words, or let that power go. Audrey Murfin is Associate Professor of English at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.

Review Quotes

Murfin gives us a fresh perspective on the art of collaboration and makes a persuasive case for seeing collaboration as central to Stevenson's evolving sense of what narrative art can do. She nests Stevenson securely in the contexts of his historical moment while also delineating the contours of his originality.-- "Stephen Arata, University of Virginia"

About the Author

Audrey Murfin is Assistant Professor of English at Sam Houston State University. Her publications include "Arthur Morrison, Mimesis and Social Justice: Following Dickens's Dark Legacy through the Late-Victorian Slums." The Literary London Journal 11 (2014): 4-21, "'Part Alive, Part Putrescent' Coral, Culture, and Contagion in the Island Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson." Victorians Institute Journal 40 (2012): 33-56, and "The Gothic Challenge to Victorian Realism: Buried Narratives in Villette, Aurora Leigh, and Lady Audley's Secret." The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies 10 (2011): 31 pages.