Mr. Damrosch brings to Stevenson’s life the calm, humane interpretive powers that he deployed with such success in his 2019 book about 18th-century literary life in London, The Club ... It is hard to avoid a feeling of poignant envy, reading Storyteller ... Mr. Damrosch’s account is full of amusing aperçus ... [Damrosch]...takes trouble to describe the plots of the major works, a decision that has the happy effect of initiating the newcomer while rewarding the aficionado.
Damrosch pays particularly close attention to Stevenson’s poetry, mining it for compelling biographical insights ... Damrosch builds a compelling case for Stevenson as an innovator and stylist whose accomplishments have long been undervalued ... Damrosch writes with pacy aplomb ... Damrosch has little to say about whether Stevenson is widely read today ... Damrosch restores Stevenson to the literary prominence he richly deserves.
Thoughtful, informative ... It’s reassuring to sense that we are not about to watch another biographer eviscerate a subject or pounce on the scandal that might sell the book ... Damrosch makes a convincing case for him as a skilled stylist and innovative narrator ... The book’s last chapters are at once its most engaging and unsatisfying ... The clarifying perspective of our historical moment does make you wish that Damrosch had looked more deeply into the complexities of the Stevensons’ position in the world around them ... Damrosch does a good job of summarizing the major novels and highlighting their virtues, but I can’t say I finished the last page of Storyteller and raced off to find my copy of Treasure Island.
Damrosch’s survey of the rest of Stevenson’s work, including his genius as an essayist and letter writer, is welcome .. Storyteller is a less immersive read than The Club, partly because some of Damrosch’s cultural references can seem glancing ... The chance to sketch out Stephen more fully feels like a missed opportunity.
A dazzling life of Robert Louis Stevenson, centering on family and landscape as the axes of his imagination ... This magnificent biography of Robert Louis Stevenson reveals much about a writer that we think we knew ... Fanny Stevenson and her sister, Nellie, come alive here in rich quotations from biographies and letters.
