Record Number: 17649

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I can say this much that your paper has impressed me very much, and I shall never get the village out of my head; I know the place; it is called (to imitate Bunyan) the village of Hope-deferred, and near it goes the river of the Shadow of Suicide.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 31 Oct 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Probably Edinburgh.

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

John Bunyan

Title:

The Pilgrim?s Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Part I, 1678 (Part II, 1684)

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17649

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

62-3

Additional Comments:

Letter 323, To Katharine de Mattos, [? October 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 62-3, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17649, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

RLS?s remarks here seem to be an amalgam of religious allusions. In Pt I, section 1, of The Pilgrim?s Progress we read: ?in yonder Village (the village is named Morality) there dwells a Gentleman whose name is Legality.? The King James Bible, Proverbs 13, v.12 has: ?Hope deferred maketh the heart sick?. Hopeful is the name of one of Christian?s companions on his pilgrimage. Christian has to pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and later, when Christian and Hopeful are imprisoned in Doubting Castle, Despair beats them and encourages them to commit suicide so as to escape their suffering. See also the King James Bible, Psalms, 23, v. 4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.