Record Number: 28856

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'At last, son of night, I receive a communication […] Oh no, it is not the penny. It is the one-volume story demanded by Hueffer for the New Tarterly [sic]. It’s a real story, damned fine; but the dénouementdoesn’t please me yet: the beginning is so good, that it is difficult to get up to that pitch again, and the story sort of dies away.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between Dec 1877 and 15 Feb 1878

Country:

France

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Paris

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

Uncommitted

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

France

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

William Ernest Henley

Title:

n/a

Genre:

Personal letter from Henley to RLS.

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Letter

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28856

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

242-3

Additional Comments:

Letter 512, To W.E. Henley, [? 15 February 1878], [Paris]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The foregoing material in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 242-3, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28856, accessed: 07 October 2024

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Additional Comments:

Note 1 to Letter 512 reads: "This may well be a continuation of Letter 510, after receipt of a letter from Henley", the said letter from Henley, solicited by RLS at the end of Letter 510, now being the RE, to which RLS is replying.
Francis Hueffer was the editor of The New Quarterly Magazine. Is this a reference to ‘The Story of a Lie’? which had been ‘apparently commissioned by Kegan Paul for the New Quarterly Magazine, where it eventually appeared in October 1879’ (vol. 2, p.302, Note 3 to Letter 600).