The biographical edition of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson

With the single exception of Falstaff, all Shakespeare's characters are what we call marrying men. Mercutio, as he was own cousin to Benedick and Biron, would have come to the same end in the long run. Even Iago had a wife, and, what is far stranger, he was jealous. People like Jacques and the Fool in LEAR, although we can hardly imagine they would ever marry, kept single out of a cynical humour or for a broken heart, and not, as we do nowadays, from a spirit of incredulity and preference for the single state.

Robert Louis Stevenson, long recognized as a master storyteller and essayist, was also a prolific letter writer. His letters, some 2800 pieces of correspondence, have been published in eight volumes. Volume VII covers the period from September 1890 to January 1893.