Record Number: 28857

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'My dear people, I shall tell you as soon as I am able to come over: and I can say no more. How can I? I hope it will be very soon, but it cannot be immediately. I did not answer my father’s proposal by return of post, as he asked, because I hoped I should be able to give a more definite and satisfactory answer; but I cannot yet.
I am so glad to hear that Janie is better. What a pitiful thing about Chalmers! The bulletin looks bad. I hope he will pull round; for he is one of the best people going.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 17 Feb 1878 and 22 Feb 1878

Country:

France

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Paris
Hotel Canterbury, 44 Boulevard Haussmann

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:

Margaret Isabella and Thomas Stevenson

Title:

[letter]

Genre:

Ephemera, Personal letter or letters from his parents to RLS.

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Letter

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28857

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:

244

Additional Comments:

Letter 515, To his Parents, Friday [22 February 1878], [Hotel Canterbury], 44 Boulevard Haussmann [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. 244, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28857, accessed: 14 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

RLS is referring to points raised in a letter or letters recently received by him from his parents. Editors’ Note 2 to Letter 515 reads: “On 1 February MIS [Margaret Isabella Stevenson] recorded: ‘Janey Mackintosh has inflammation of the lungs’; on 16 February she wrote: ‘Janey better.’” Jane Mackintosh, born Stevenson, was RLS’s cousin, married to William Mackintosh, later Lord Kyllachy. Editors’ Note 3 to Letter 515 reads: George Paul Chalmers (see Letter 467, n.2) was attacked and robbed when leaving a dinner of the Scottish Academy on 15 February, and died of his injuries on the 20th. TS [Thomas Stevenson] went to the funeral.” According to the brief Note 2 to Letter 467 George Paul Chalmers (1836-78) was a Scottish painter.