On ‘Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson

With his tall, thin body and his long arms and legs, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) looked more like a bag of bones than a world-famous Scottish author. It was his eyes, though, which suggested his literary genius. His friend Mark Twain called them “Stevenson’s special distinction and commanding feature.” His wife, Fanny, said, “Behind them, burned the fires of hell.” In Leo Damrosch’s new biography, Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, he attempts to “reilluminate Stevenson’s unique qualities in their full range and depth.” And for the most part, he succeeds.