Robert Louis Stevenson

death, his family and friends set to work to fashion the legend of Robert Louis Stevenson, or R.L.S as he became known - one of the few writers familiar from his initials alone. Subsequent works of biography then turned him into a writer of almost religious importance. One example was the literary critic Balfour, who in 1901 portrayed Stevenson's family as ministering angels to the dying genius during his final illness. Similarly, the biographer Crouch absurdly overstated Stevenson's significance by placing him in the same company as Shakespeare and Keats. The reaction to this nonsense was a number of highly critical assessments of Stevenson's legacy in the 1920s. B. Normally, the critical pendulum can be relied on to swing back again, but there are several aspects of Stevenson's work that have until recently acted against a more balanced appraisal. First is the allegation that Stevenson was a mere master of linguistic fireworks who lacked moral depth. Some critics accused him of being a literary charlatan, juggling words very prettily to strike effects that overawed an ignorant public, and serving to distract from the inadequacy of his ideas.