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’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.
