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Reprint. Hard cover 8vo. in vertically striped green cloth with the publisher's art deco style logo to center front board and the titles to spine blocked in gold, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, the Author portrait with facsimile signature tissue-guarded frontispiece, title page with ruled frame, and one more black and white full page illustration. CONDITION: Very Good Plus, or better. Unwritten in, clean and pages remain bright. A few pages remain unopened. Three pages roughly opened, with closed tears. 407 pp. **This collection contains seven of Stevenson's short stories, including his most famous, the classic gothic tale, "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A well-regarded Doctor is inexplicably tied to a vicious criminal who terrorizes the weak and vulnerable in Victorian London. For RLS fans, however, the other stories are also well-deserving of attention. In "The Merry Men," (first pub. July, 1882) a young student from Edinburgh University visits his cousin and uncle upon the remote fictional Hebridean island, Eilan Aros. A mysterious party of Spaniards clandestinely searches for the wreck of a ship from the Spanish Armada, The "Espirito Santo." Greed and bad luck conspire to shipwreck the searchers, except for one of their comrades left behind. Themes of natural justice, superstitions and the psychological perils of the isolation of island life make this a rich tale, in addition to the lyrical descriptions of the landscape. Another notable supernatural tale included here is "Thrawn Janet," first published 1881, about demonic possession of a Scots woman. "Markheim" explores the mind of a thief and murderer who struggles with his conscience after the death of an antiques store owner. 1885's story "Olalla" has been called an overlooked vampire novella, about a Spanish woman who tends to a wounded Scottish soldier in her home. "The Treasure of Franchard," is about a young man, Jean-Marie, who's guardians have died, and the benevolent Doctor Desprez and his wife adopt the lad and depart for a new home in Gretz, France, where the former's struggles for monetary success and social recognition come into conflict with the needs of the child.
Ref: RLS 9269
$40.00