Robert Louis
Stevenson
Could the
duality of personalities of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde come from the
black-and-white nature of his interest in chess?
Lawrence Totaro
The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson to His Family
and Friends Volume: 1. Contributors: Sidney Colvin - editor, Robert
Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons. Place of
Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1899.
Page 176
TO W. E. HENLEY
[MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA, October, 1879.]
Again, choose, in your head, the best volume of
Labiche there is, and post it to Jules Simoneau, Monterey, Monterey Co.,
California: do this at once, as he is my restaurant-man, a most pleasant
old boy with whom I discuss the universe and play chess daily.
Page 253
TO MRS. SITWELL
[THE COTTAGE, CASTLETON OF BRAEMAR, August, 1881.]
Last night I was beaten at chess, and am still
grinding under the blow. -- Ever your faithful friend, R. L. S.
The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson to His Family
and Friends. Volume: 2. Contributors: Sidney Colvin - editor, Robert
Lewis Stevenson - author. Publisher: C. Scribner's Sons. Place of
Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1902.
To JAMES PAYN
[February 4th, 1890, SS. "LÜBECK."]
(Why can't I spell and write like an honest,
sober, God-fearing litry gent? I think it’s the motion of the ship.) Here
I was interrupted to play chess with the chief engineer; as I grow old, I
prefer the "athletic sport of cribbage," of which (I am sure I misquote) I
have just been reading in your delightful Literary Recollections.
Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Volume: 1.
Contributors: Graham Balfour - author. Publisher: C. Scribner's Sons. Place
of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1901.
Page 242
By Christmas he wrote: "I had to give up
wood-engraving, chess, latterly even patience, and could read almost
nothing but newspapers. It was dull but necessary. I seem hopelessly
hidebound, as you see; nothing comes out of me but chips."
RLS: Stevenson's Letters to Charles Baxter.
Contributors: Charles Baxter - author, DeLancey Ferguson - editor, Robert
Louis Stevenson - author, Marshall Waingrow - editor. Publisher: Kennikat
Press. Place of Publication: Port Washington, NY. Publication Year: 1973.
Page 2
[Edinburgh, 1872?]
Dear Charles,
Couldn't you look down this afternoon, or at 1/2 past eight this
evening and play one game of chess? I'll stand Sam.
Yrs, R. L. S.
I'm confined to the house.
MS, Yale.
Chess in his works
The Wrong Box ; the Ebb Tide. Contributors:
Lloyd Osbourne - author, Robert Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher: Charles
Scribner's Sons. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1909.
Page 288
"The Sunday paper is one of the features of the
age," said Mr. Finsbury. "In America, I am told, it supersedes all other
literature, the bone and sinew of the nation finding their requirements
catered for; hundreds of columns will be occupied with interesting details
of the world's doings, such as water-spouts, elopements, conflagrations,
and public entertainments; there is a corner for politics, ladies' work,
chess, religion, and even literature; and a few spicy editorials serve to
direct the course of public thought.
Memories and Portraits. Contributors: Robert
Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher: C. Scribner's Sons. Place of
Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1910.
Page 137
Men and women contend for each other in the lists
of love, like rival mesmerists; the active and adroit decide their
challenges in the sports of the body; and the sedentary sit down to chess
or conversation.
New Arabian Nights: [And] More New Arabian Nights.
The Dynamiter. Contributors: Robert Louis Stevenson - author.
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons. Place of Publication: New York.
Publication Year: 1910.
Page 115
THE RAJAH's DIAMOND
STORY OF THE BANDBOX
U P to the age of sixteen, at a private school and
afterwards at one of those great institutions for which England is justly
famous, Mr. Harry Hartley had received the ordinary education of a
gentleman. At that period, he manifested a remarkable distaste for study;
and his only surviving parent being both weak and ignorant, he was
permitted thenceforward to spend his time in the attainment of petty and
purely elegant accomplishments. Two years later, he was left an orphan and
almost a beggar. For all active and industrious pursuits, Harry was
unfitted alike by nature and training. He could sing romantic ditties, and
accompany himself with discretion on the piano; he was a graceful although
a timid cavalier; he had a pronounced taste for chess; and nature had sent
him into the world with one of the most engaging exteriors that can well
be fancied.
The Wrecker. Contributors: Lloyd Osbourne -
author, Robert Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1905
Page 31
It was a Wednesday morning when the things
arrived, and set me in the seventh heaven of satisfaction. My father (for
I can scarcely say myself) was trying at this time a "straddle" in wheat
between Chicago and New York; the operation so called is, as you
know, one of the most tempting and least safe upon the chess-board of
finance.
Page 551
For the mind of the reader, always bent to pick up
clews, receives no impression of reality or life, rather of an airless,
elaborate mechanism; and the book remains enthralling, but insignificant,
like a game of chess, not a work of human art.
Thrawn Janet ; Markheim: Two Tales.
Contributors: Robert Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher: Mosher. Place of
Publication: Portland, ME. Publication Year: 1906.
He played a game of skill, depending on the
rules, calculating consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the
defeated tyrant overthrew the chess-board, should break the mould of their
succession?
St. Ives; Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner
in England. Contributors: Robert Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher:
C. Scribner's Sons. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1912.
Page 1
ST. IVES
CHAPTER 1
A TALE OF A LION RAMPANT
My English, which had brought me into that scrape,
now helped me very materially to bear it. I had a thousand advantages. I
was often called to play the part of an interpreter, whether of orders or
complaints, and thus brought in relations, sometimes of mirth, sometimes
almost of friendship, with the officers in charge. A young lieutenant
singled me out to be his adversary at chess, a game in which I was
extremely proficient, and would reward me for my gambits with excellent
cigars.
Page 13
How, if she came no more, how was I to continue to
endure my empty days? how was I to fall back and find my interest in the
major's lessons, the lieutenant's chess, in a twopenny sale in the market,
or a halfpenny addition to the prison fare?
The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses.
Contributors: Robert Louis Stevenson - author. Publisher: Charles Scribner's
Sons. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1896
Page 202
CHAPTER II.
"IN MINE ENEMIES' HOUSE."
All guests were made welcome. Minstrels, tumblers,
players of chess, the sellers of relics, medicines, perfumes, and
enchantments, and along with these every sort of priest, friar, or
pilgrim, were made welcome to the lower table, and slept together in the
ample lofts, or on the bare boards of the long dining-hall.
Familiar Studies of Men and Books. Contributors: Robert Louis
Stevenson - author. Publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company. Place of Publication:
New York. Publication Year: 1887.
CHARLES OF ORLEANS.
Page 231
Born ( May 1391) of such a noble stock, Charles was
to know from the first all favors of nature and art. His father's gardens
were the admiration of his contemporaries; his castles were situated in the
most agreeable parts of France, and sumptuously adorned. We have preserved,
in an inventory of 1403, the description of tapestried rooms where Charles
may have played in childhood. "A green room, with the ceiling full of
angels, and the dossier of shepherds and shepherdesses seeming (faisant
contenance) to eat nuts and cherries. A room of gold, silk and worsted, with
a device of little children in a river, and the sky full of birds. A room of
green tapestry, showing a knight and lady at chess in a pavilion. Another
green room, with shepherdesses in a trellised garden worked in gold
and silk. A carpet representing cherry-trees, where there is a fountain, and
a lady gathering cherries in a basin."
Page 259
The company hunted and went on pleasure-parties;
they played chess, tables, and many other games.
Page 261
This was when Jehan Nègre, the Lombard, came to
Blois and played chess against all these chess-players, and won much money
from my lord and his intimates; or when Baudet Harenc of Chalons made
ballades before all these ballade-makers.
Page 270
But with Charles literature was an object rather
than a mean; he was one who loved bandying words for its own sake; the
rigidity of intricate metrical forms stood him in lieu of precise thought;
instead of communicating truth, he observed the laws of a game; and when
he had no one to challenge at chess or rackets, he made verses in a wager
against himself.
Read much more about Charles of Orleans from
Mary Jo-Arn’s page
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