A Robert Louis Stevenson Reading List for Schools
On this page you will find a recommended reading list for young scholars of RLS, including works on Treasure Island (1883), Jekyll and Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886). You will also find a useful list of collected edited editions of Stevenson with introductions, and a list of general works on RLS.
Works on Treasure Island
Study Guides: Treasure Island
Carey, Gary, CliffsNotes on Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Kidnapped (Cliffs Notes, 1974)
MacLachlan, Christopher Scotnotes: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, Catriona and Treasure Island (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2006)
The “Scotnotes” booklets are a series of study guides to major Scottish writers and texts frequently used within literature courses, aimed at senior secondary school pupils and students in further education.
SparkNotes: Treasure Island, (SparkNotes, 2003)
Useful Editions of Treasure Island
Wilkes, Angela, Treasure Island, Young Reading Series 2 (Usborne Publishing, 2007)
A version of Treasure Island for young readers.
Stevenson, Robert Louis,Treasure Island, ed. and intro. by Emma Letley (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2008)
Works on Jekyll and Hyde
Study Guides: Jekyll and Hyde
Burke, Tony, York Notes: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (London: Longman, 1998)
Carruthers, Gerard, Scotnotes: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Master of Ballantrae and The Ebb-Tide (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2004)
The “Scotnotes” booklets are a series of study guides to major Scottish writers and texts frequently used within literature courses, aimed at senior secondary school pupils and students in further education.
Carter, Ronald and John McRae, eds., Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Penguin Student Editions (Harmondsworth: Penguin: 1998).
Students’ guide: main ideas and themes; the main characters; language; key events in the narrative; further reading.
Roberts, James L., Cliffs Notes on Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, (Cliffs Notes, 1984)
Useful Editions of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror, ed. and intro. by Robert Mighall (London: Penguin Classics, 2003)
Stevenson, Robert Louis, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, ed. and intro. by Roger Luckhurst (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2008)
Stevenson, Robert Louis, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, ed. and intro. by Martin A. Danahay (Toronto: Broadview Press, 2005)
Other Jekyll and Hyde
Haugh, Stephen B., Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (San Diego, CA: Zane Publishing, 1996). PowerCD. CD-ROM
This CD-ROM, aimed at school audiences (it contains a dictionary), consists of: a general discussion and analysis of the book (Overview; Introduction to JH; Life of RLS; Creation of JH; Response; Analysis), information on play and movie versions, stills and audio clips from the three main movie versions (Frederick March’s lecture on the duality of man and the equivalent after-dinner discussion by Spencer Tracy), a copy of the text, many short extracts (numerous reviews and passages from literary critics), photographs of Stevenson and his family. A well-researched collection on a rather old-fashioned “platform” (the advantages of CD-ROM apart from the audio clips not immediately obvious); it includes the whole text of Sullivan’s theatre version from the New York Public Library copy, so this is the first full publication of any version (later published in a definitive edition collating the three extant versions by Danahay & Chisholm [2005]).
Works on Kidnapped
Study Guides: Kidnapped
Carey, Gary, Cliffs Notes on Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Kidnapped (Cliffs Notes, 1974)
Jeffares, A. Norman and Suheil Badi Bushrui, York Notes: Kidnapped (Longman, 1981)
MacLachlan, Chistopher Scotnotes: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, Catriona and Treasure Island (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2006)
The “Scotnotes” booklets are a series of study guides to major Scottish writers and texts frequently used within literature courses, aimed at senior secondary school pupils and students in further education.
Useful Editions of Kidnapped
Stevenson, Robert Louis, Kidnapped, intro. by Alistair Gray (London: Penguin Classics, 2007.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, Kidnapped, intro. by John Seeley and afterword by Claire Harman (London: Signet Classics, 2009)
Stevenson, Robert Louis, Kidnapped, intro. by Alexander McCall Smith (London: Puffin Classics, 2009)
Collected Edited Editions with Introductions
The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, ed. by Barry Menikoff (New York: Modern Library , 2002)
The Scottish Novels: Kidnapped, Catriona, Master of Ballantrae and Weir of Hermiston, ed. and intro. by Jenni Calder and Roderick Watson (Edinburgh: Canongate Classics, 1997)
General Works on RLS
Carruthers, Gerard, Scotnotes: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Master of Ballantrae and The Ebb-Tide (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2004)
The “Scotnotes” booklets are a series of study guides to major Scottish writers and texts frequently used within literature courses, aimed at senior secondary school pupils and students in further education.
Dunlop, Eileen, Robert Louis Stevenson: The Travelling Mind (Edinburgh: National Museums Scotland, 2008).
150 pages. A concise narrative of Stevenson’s life, which, though it makes no new contributions to our knowledge, tells the story well and offers convincing interpretations of key moments (quarrels with father and W.E. Henley, family relations on Samoa).
Gherman, Beverly, Robert Louis Stevenson: Teller of Tales (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
Biography focusing on the events of the life. Illustrated with photographs, 136 pages; designed for readers 8-12 years.