Library of Babel
10353 L’Isola delle Voci
Robert Luis Stevenson. Edited and with an introduction by Jorge Luis Borges
1979 I ed. .
Language: Italian
Some of Stevenson’s best tales, set in an enchanting London, Scotland, and in the South Seas, with plots interlacing family discord, murder, lootings and gales.
Robert Louis Stevenson, born in Edinburgh in 1850, despite his many travels always felt he had a bond with his native Scotland, so much so that he set several tales there, including Thrawn Janet part of this collection, which takes up the theme of the duplicity of the human soul, already explored in the famous Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Along with this, the book also includes The Isle of Voices and The Bottle Imp, two stories that share an exotic setting but also the theme of the conflict between good and evil, which also returns in Markheim, set in the backstreets of London. Stevenson was a master of style. He believed that the exercise of prose was more difficult than that of verse, since once a verse is composed, it gives us the model for the following, whereas prose demands continuous, pleasing, and concatenated variations. His skill and studies in this regard are also reflected in these short stories.