Robert Louis Stevenson

Prince Otto Robert Louis Stevenson

Prince Otto is an interesting (and happy) choice as the first volume to appear in the Edition of the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. Everyone will recognise that it is not one of Stevenson's best known works, but it is a remarkably interesting work and a splendid example of what Stevenson could do even when writing at his ordinary best rather than his very best. As an opening volume it reminds us that there is more to Stevenson than 'just' his most famous works. More importantly, perhaps, it reminds us of the extraordinary range and variety of his work. Children's poetry, young adult fiction, crime fiction, travel writing, historical fiction, memoir, (post)colonial fiction, short story - if Stevenson was not the first to write each of these, he is one of the great innovators in each genre, someone who moved it forward in new and exciting ways, proving himself one of the most versatile and innovative writers of the modern age. But while his contemporaries recognised his brilliance as a writer, his reputation declined quite rapidly after his death, at least in the English-speaking world. Luckily, and none too soon, his star is again on the rise and the New Edinburgh Edition is only one of the many manifestations of recent renewed interest in his work.