Essays in the Art of Writing

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About this book

Robert Louis Stevenson's "Essays in the Art of Writing" lists seven pieces in its contents: "On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature", "The Morality of the Profession of Letters", "Books which have Influenced Me", "A Note on Realism", "My First Book: 'Treasure Island'", "The Genesis of 'The Master of Ballantrae'" and a preface to that novel. The copy is dated London, 1905.

In one passage Stevenson sorts the arts into those that represent, such as sculpture, painting and acting, and those that only present, such as architecture, music and the dance, and says the motive of any art is to make a pattern. He adds that music and literature weave their pattern of sounds and pauses in time. In another he writes that the most influential books are works of fiction, because they do not pin the reader to a dogma.

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).