FAMILIAR STUDIES
OF
MEN AND BOOKS
BY
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
[Picture: Decorative graphic]
_ELEVENTH EDITION_
* * * * *
London
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICADILLY
1896
* * * * *
TO
THOMAS STEVENSON
CIVIL ENGINEER
BY WHOSE DEVICES THE GREAT SEA LIGHTS IN EVERY QUARTER
OF THE WORLD NOW SHINE MORE BRIGHTLY
THIS VOLUME IS IN LOVE AND GRATITUDE
DEDICATED BY HIS SON
THE AUTHOR
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/425/425-0.txt
PREFACE
BY WAY OF CRITICISM.
...Of the _Pepys_ I can say nothing; for it has been too recently through my
hands; and I still retain some of the heat of composition. Yet it may
serve as a text for the last remark I have to offer. To Pepys I think I
have been amply just; to the others, to Burns, Thoreau, Whitman, Charles
of Orleans, even Villon, I have found myself in the retrospect ever too
grudging of praise, ever too disrespectful in manner. It is not easy to
see why I should have been most liberal to the man of least pretensions.
Perhaps some cowardice withheld me from the proper warmth of tone;
perhaps it is easier to be just to those nearer us in rank of mind. Such
at least is the fact, which other critics may explain. For these were
all men whom, for one reason or another, I loved; or when I did not love
the men, my love was the greater to their books. I had read them and
lived with them; for months they were continually in my thoughts; I
seemed to rejoice in their joys and to sorrow with them in their griefs;
and behold, when I came to write of them, my tone was sometimes hardly
courteous and seldom wholly just.
R. L. S.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
VICTOR HUGO’S ROMANCES 1
SOME ASPECTS OF ROBERT BURNS 38
WALT WHITMAN 91
HENRY DAVID THOREAU: HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS 129
YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO 172
提到松陰傳記時為何冠以「日本國內最早」這一修飾語,這是有原因的。因為,還存在著「世界最早的」吉田松陰傳記。令人意外的是,這居然出自於以《金銀島(Treasure Island)》、《化身博士(Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)》聞名的英國小說家史蒂文森(Robert Louis Stevenson)之手。史蒂文森在愛丁堡(Edinburgh)遇到了來自日本長州的技術人員正木退藏,正木少年時代在松下村塾受過松陰熏陶。史蒂文森從正木那裏聽說了吉田松陰老師的事蹟後,深受感動,於1880年寫成短篇小說《Yoshida Torajirou》(吉田寅次郎),發表在雜誌上。寅次郎是松陰的一般稱呼。在這篇文章裡描寫的松陰的魅力,比起之後在日本出版的任何一部松陰傳記都更加生動。
https://www.nippon.com/hk/features/c01801/
FRANÇOIS VILLON, STUDENT, POET, AND HOUSE-BREAKER 192
CHARLES OF ORLEANS 236
SAMUEL PEPYS 290
JOHN KNOX AND WOMEN 328
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