Читать книгу The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – Swanston Edition. Volume 8 - Robert Louis Stevenson - Страница 1

No one but myself knows what I have suffered, nor what my books have gained, by your unsleeping watchfulness and admirable pertinacity. And now here is a volume that goes into the world and lacks your imprimatur: a strange thing in our joint lives; and the reason of it stranger still! I have watched with interest, with pain, and at length with amusement, your unavailing attempts to peruse “The Black Arrow”; and I think I should lack humour indeed, if I let the occasion slip and did not place your name in the fly-leaf of the only book of mine that you have never read – and never will read.

That others may display more constancy is still my hope. The tale was written years ago for a particular audience and (I may say) in rivalry with a particular author; I think I should do well to name him – Mr. Alfred R. Phillips. It was not without its reward at the time. I could not, indeed, displace Mr. Phillips from his well-won priority; but in the eyes of readers who thought less than nothing of “Treasure Island,” “The Black Arrow” was supposed to mark a clear advance. Those who read volumes and those who read story papers belong to different worlds. The verdict on “Treasure Island” was reversed in the other court: I wonder, will it be the same with its successor?

R. L. S.

Saranac Lake,

April 8, 1888.