The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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Stevenson was a most dramatic reader. "When he came to stand in the
place of Silver you could almost have imagined you saw the great
one-legged John Silver, joyous-eyed, on the rolling sea."

The book was not long in springing into popularity. Not only the boys
enjoyed it but all sorts of staid and sober men became boys once more
and sat up long after bedtime to finish the tale. Mr. Gladstone caught a
glimpse of it at a friend's house and did not rest the next day until he
had procured a copy for himself, and Andrew Lang said: "This is the kind
of stuff a fellow wants. I don't know when, except Tom Sawyer and the
Odyssey, that I ever liked a romance so well."

It was translated into many different languages, even appearing serially
in certain Greek and Spanish papers.

"Kidnapped" followed; a story founded on the Appan murder. David
Balfour, the hero, was one of his own ancestors; Alan Breck had actually