A short (98 pp.) imaginary biographical episode: Stevenson meets a newly arrived missionary called Baker, wearing a hat similar to his own; he subsequently attends a local feast where he admires a teenage girl, who is later found raped and murdered; a hat like Stevenson's is found at the scene of the crime and he becomes a suspect in the murder and in a later case of arson, which results in further deaths. The reader is never sure whether Baker is the culprit or if Baker is a figment of Stevenson's imagination or a manifestation of his personality. The text is also (as befits the author A History of Reading) a meditation on life and art, somewhat in the manner of Antonio Skarmets’ Il postino. “It is above all the story of an man who has lived well, who knows he is going to die and yet does not submit himself to his fate. A story told with great elegance and simplicity” (Réginald Martel, www.Cyberpresse.ca, 23 sept. 2001. “A superb tale which performs the marriage of Eros with Thanatos and with fiction understood as direct product of desire”. The Scotsman (13.11.05) reports that Scottish Screen has given £20,000 for the writing of a screenplay of Manguel’s story, to be produced by Ros Borland for Gabriel Films (Glasgow).

Nicely fitted in between 2 library books.
I too would never have come across this book if it had not been for BC .. and been the poorer for it. Thank you Annelis for not only finding this little gem but also for deciding to share it! I am glad to see that more people have joined this ray after me .. you are in for a treat.
It is not often I come across books that get the old grey cells doing overtime, but this one did and I had such fun with the process. I still can not get over the fact that when I encountered the word “tusitala” I knew immediately what it meant because I had seen it before... I still do not know where and when, but I am thinking about it (and no, neither google nor wikipedia has enlightened me), and probably because I did not read the other JEs before reading, I am thinking that Stevenson read Hans Christian Andersen’s The Shadow before writing his Jekyll/Hide book.
I do not think that any magic realism can be detected .. thankfully, as I am allergic to the stuff ... ( )

“Robert Louis Stevenson left the house and walked the long trek down to the beach just as the day was setting. From the verandah the sea was hidden by the trees, six hundred feet below, filling the end of two vales of forest.To enjoy the last plunge of the sun before the clear darkness set in, the best observation-post was among the mangrove roots, in spite (he said bravely to himself) of the mosquito and the sand-flies. He did not immediately notice the figure because it appeared to be merely one more crouching shadow among the shadows, but then it turned and seemed for a moment to be watching him. The man was wearing a broad-rimmed hat not unlike Stevenson’s own and, even though he could see that the skin was white, he could not make out the man’s features……”

This is the start of Stevenson under the palm trees and is a fictionalised account of the last days of the author of books such as, Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Jekyll and Hyde to name just a few. It is set in Samoa and the man he sees and meets is a Scottish missionary, named Baker whose appearance not only stirs long buried memories of Stevenson’s past, but also appears to be the catalyst for a whole spate of crime, ranging from arson to rape and murder with the finger of suspicion turning like some compass needle in the direction of the writer, when his hat is found beside the corpse of a young Samoan girl. What at first seems a glorious idyll amongst the natives whose exuberance with life enchants him and his family, slowly crumbles as he faces the hostile stares of the Samoans.

This is one of those books, that when you’re reading it, you stop, turn it over in your hand as though looking for the trick, like some magic act, you saw it happen, you were real close, but ……? This book is including notes and woodcuts (Stevenson’s own) only 105 pages long and yet Alberto Manguel manage to pack in so much as it focuses on Robert Louis Stevenson’s last days dying of consumption on a tropical island. It plays with the idea of moral duality as in Stevenson's own Novella (Jekyll and Hyde), is Baker real or some Edward Hyde persona of Stevenson's allowed free reign whilst he slept. Also the writers attitude to the indigenous population as childlike innocents whose amoral existence was counterpoint to his 18th century Scottish Calvinist upbringing. That Alberto Manguel has managed to conjure up through Stevenson’s own Tales (The Beach of Falesa), letters and biography a beautiful little book that plays with many ideas and questions concerning sensuality and repression, waking and dreaming, plus the whole craft of writing itself. Like his mentor Jorge Luis Borges, Manguel seems to place his own reading centre stage in his writing, by which I mean his dominant subject matter are books themselves, not as some influence on his writing but as the subject of it. If I played the game of who I would invite to some fictitious dinner party, Alberto Manguel’ s name would be high on that list, as he appears to be the epitome of a representative of the Reading Life.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/stevenson-under-palm-trees.html ( )

This was a very short, fictionalized account of Robert Louis Stevenson's life in Samoa.

I enjoyed it very much, but, somehow, it seemed to be missing a little something. I think it may be due to a very rare case of over-editing. At least that's what it felt like to me.

Still, it held my interest and captured my imagination. ( )

Alberto Manguel is probably best known for his books about books, which include A History of Reading and The Library at Night. Despite my love of anything bookish, I haven't read him before, so I decided to start small with this slim little novella about the final months of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Set around Stevenson's home in the village of Vailima, on the Samoan island of Upolu, it relies upon the same concept of duality that Stevenson himself utilises in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the book, Stevenson meets a Scottish missionary, a rather odious man called Mr Baker, on the beach and finds himself caught up in a religious and ideological battle against Baker's Puritanical sensibilities. But all is not quite as it seems, and the reader is left to figure out who is wreaking havoc upon the Samoan islanders - Stevenson or Baker?

It was interesting to learn about the end of Stevenson's life, and how the local villagers welcomed him into their community. The vibrancy of the culture is vividly evoked in spare, finely honed prose; the flowers, the music, the sensuality of Samoan life come alive under Manguel's pen through careful snapshots of imagery and description. There are some interesting moments as Stevenson and Baker argue about dreams, reality and the nature of religion, though I found them a little obtuse at times. Sometimes it just felt a little too pretentious - like Manguel was writing with future literature students in mind, rather than readers - and I was left frustrated by the rapid and inconclusive ending.

Perhaps a reader more familiar with Stevenson's life and works would gain more satisfaction from Manguel's tribute than I did, I don't know. At the very least, I can say that this was a quick and intriguing little read, and that it's inspired me to pick up more of Stevenson's books and to delve a little deeper into his life and travels. A gateway to bigger and better things, perhaps?! ( )