An Apology for Idlers, and Other Essays

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About this book

An Apology for Idlers, and Other Essays is by Robert Louis Stevenson. The contents list four pieces: An Apology for Idlers, El Dorado, The English Admirals and Child's Play. The title page gives Portland, Maine, and 1916 for this printing, and lists earlier editions of 1905 and 1908.

The first essay argues that idleness, so called, does not consist in doing nothing but in doing a great deal not recognised by the ruling class. One passage brings in Johnson at Oxford, being addressed by an old gentleman, and says books are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. In another, Walter Raleigh answers hostile ships with insulting trumpets, Essex throws his hat into the sea when he hears an attack is decided, and Benbow, after losing a leg, directs the fight from a basket on deck. A further passage describes a little boy troubled by the ball in a game, who explains it to himself with an elaborate story of enchantment.

About the author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for the novels Treasure Island (1883), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Kidnapped (1886) and for the poetry collection A Child's Garden of Verses (1885).