Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale by Robert Louis Stevenson (1889)

The Master is a real page turner; RLS makes the most readable stories, this is an extremely engaging story.
The story begins 1745 when two brothers flip a coin to see which one will go to the Jacobite rebellion and which will go to the crown. The family is attempting to hedge their bets during the uprising the end result is the splitting of it.

My 1918 printing has a Preface written by RLS' wife and describes the story of his trials and their travels while finishing this story.

A rough copy but all there.

I really like the cover leaf patterning.
This story takes place over more than 20 years and this family is one dysfunctional mess. The older brother "The Master" with all the gifts; looks, charm, education, hates his younger brother. The younger "steady Eddie" has none of the advantages of birth other than the wealthy family. The Master is an insane risk taker, the younger brother stays at home to rescue the family fortune.

I really recommend looking into this story because of the outstanding stories sub stories, and side stories.

The one passage I set aside that speaks directly to my visions goes something like this:
"Hard by, I told myself, was the grave of our enemy, now gone where the wicked cease from troubling, the earth heaped for ever on his once so active limbs.  I could not but think of him as somehow fortunate to be thus done with man’s anxiety and weariness, the daily expense of spirit, and that daily river of circumstance to be swum through, at any hazard, under the penalty of shame or death."

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