More excellent examples of Stevenson's short story stylings. In addition to "The Body-Snatcher", "The Sire de Maletroit's Door", and "Olalla", we encounter:
"The Pavilion on the Links" - Praised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this tense, claustrophobic novella tells of two loners in love with the same woman who try to protect her criminal father from the Italian mafia. In a house on a barren beach riddled with quicksand, they await the arrival of their private boat, hoping it comes before the pursuing avengers close in."Markheim" - A dark Christmas story, equally inspired by Faust and Crime and Punishment, the title character wrestles with conflicting thoughts while committing a senseless crime.
"The Bottle Imp" - An ingenious twist on the genie legend, this fantasy story involves a magic bottle that grants infinite wishes to the owner with no consequences - unless the owner cannot sell the bottle to someone else before their time runs out...
"The Beach of Falesa" - Gritty realism and colonial greed play out in this novella of the South Seas. The narrator, an uneducated British trader, arrives at Falesa to manage his company's trading post, which has seen the sudden death of several of his predecessors. Fake marriages, manipulation of the natives, and the absence of morality make this something of a precursor to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Weir of Hermiston - Unfinished at Stevenson's death (he was dictating Chapter 9 to his daughter-in-law when a stroke stopped him mid-sentence), this Scottish novel presents several striking, flawed characters as it examines family, rebellion, disappointment, and the love triangle. The projected plot would have incorporated some turbulent action and a dramatic legal dilemma as father tries son, but what we have are shards of sometimes brilliant, sometimes tedious character portraits. The tedium comes from page-long descriptions which hopefully would have been tightened, had he had the chance to finish and edit the work. Regardless, it is an intriguing first section that shows Stevenson at the height of his narrative art.
Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 pursuing avengers
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