Kings and Queens of Crime

Essays on major Crime Writers

Alanna Knight on Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

A legend in his own lifetime, famed for the world, wide success of The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Treasure Island, news of Stevenson's early death in Samoa ( not from consumption but from a cerebral hemorrhage induced by overwork) had everyone of slight acquaintance, or none at all, rushing into print. Articles in newspapers and literary magazines evolved into dusty theses by worthy Eng. Lit. students regarding the significance of his lesser known works.

More than a century later, the Stevenson cult continues. Hardly a year passes without the publication of yet another acclaimed biography. In paradise, Stevenson must smile. He entertained no exalted ideas about his writing dismissing Treasure Island as 'tushery':  'No need for psychology or fine writing. it 's awful fun, boys' stories; ' you just indulge the pleasure of your heart no trouble, no strain - just drive along as the words come and the pen will scratch.'

A frail sick man all his life, he wrote out of hunger and the need to survive "a few years more" to support his family. His novels came from desperation rather than inspiration. The exception was Jekyll & Hyde. Living in Bournemouth (the house Skerryvore, a potential shrine, was demolished by a German bomb in World War 2), Fanny Stevenson was aroused by his screams in an opium-induced nightmare,

"Why did you wake me?' he demanded, "I was dreaming a fine bogey tale,"

Daybreak found him writing with feverish activity. Three days later the first draft of 30,000 words was dismissed by Fanny, a lady with literary pretensions. Angrily Stevenson threw it on the fire and for the next three days the family walked on tiptoe glimpsing him sitting up in bed, surrounded by written and torn up pages.

Sixty four thousand words in six days, more than ten thousand words a day! Another two days to copy out the entire manuscript, and on the third day it was in the post.

Later to a critic, he wrote: "The wheels of Byles the Butcher drive exceedingly swiftly and Jekyll was conceived, written, rewritten, re-rewritten and printed inside ten weeks."  Even in our computer age, such writing is an astounding feat and robust Victorian writers considered a daily thousand a pretty good average,

Fanny wrote: "That an invalid in my husband's condition performed the manual labour alone seems incredible. He was suffering from continual hemorrhages and hardly al1owed to speak, his conversation carried on by means of a slate and pencil."

Success was immediate and phenomenal. Used as a text in churches (including St Paul's), pirated in America, with many translations, Jekyll & Hyde added a new phrase to the language.

Stevenson was aware of the monster he had created, writing to a friend: "I send you herewith a Gothic gnome, interesting I think, and he came out of a deep mine, where he guards the fountain of tears." To another: "Jekyll Is a dreadful thing, I own, but the only thing I feel dreadful about is this damned old business of the war in the members. This time it came out; I hope it will stay in, in future."

Signing family letters: "Jekyll and not Hyde" he wrote of a holiday in Matlock: "My father gave me a furl dose of Hyde this morning... the dose at breakfast finished me (Jekyll had been in the ascendant till now!)"

His writing life was short but prolific; fifteen novels in twelve years, but for us Stevenson is immortalised in Jekyll & Hyde. it remains one of the first and finest of all classical crime/horror stories.

Alanna Knight:

Also by Alanna Knight

The Passionate Kindness (the love story of RLS & Fanny Osbourne) Milton House, England 1974; Molendinar Press, G1asgow 1980

The Robert Louis Stevenson Treasury (Shepheard-Walwyn, London; (St Martin's Press, NY, 1982)

R L Stevenson In The South Seas: an Intimate Photographic Record, (Mainstream, Edinburgh; Paragon, NY 1986)

Bright Ring Of Words: A Centennial Tribute (with Elisabeth S. Warfel); Balnain Books, Scotland 1994

Plays and Media

The Private Life Of R L S: Wilfion Books, Scotland, 1984.

Stage productions include Edinburgh Fringe 1984-86

Across The Plains (Adaptation of "The Amateur Emigrant") BBC 1, London 1987

The Ballad Of Robert Louis Stevenson with David Jensen, script by Alanna Knight. (pilot TV by Bon Accord Productions 1988)

Crime Novels

(The Inspector Fare Series published by Macmillan. London)
Enter Second Murderer, 1988; Blood Line, 1989; Deadly Beloved, 1990; Killing Cousins, 1990; (Published by St Martin's Press, NY) A Quiet Death, 1991; To Kill A Queen, 1992; The Evil That Men Do, 1993; The Missing Duchess, 1994; The Bull Slayers, 1995; Murder by Appointment, 1996 Inspector Faro & the Edinburgh Mysteries, 1994; (contains first three titles) and Inspector Faro's Casebook; The Second Omnibus, 1996 (titles five to seven published Pan Books, London

Other Crime Novels
The Sweet Cheat Gone, 1992; This Outward Angel, 1993 Angel Eyes, 1997 ( Severn House, London )