10 books to mark

BY ALAN TAYLOR AND ROSEMARY GORING

November 13 is Robert Louis Stevenson Day, and Edinburgh World City of Literature is hosting an abundance events to celebrate the date (see their website for details). Before then, here are a few of his most interesting works, to whet the appetite.

1 Travels with a Donkey

In which the young, hard-up author goes walkabout in the Cevennes with a donkey that has a mind of its own. An early example of outdoor writing, it remains decidedly modern in tone, like all his work.

2 A Child's Garden of Verses

Full of evocative rhymes, these simple but catchy poems for young readers recall Stevenson's childhood in affluent Edinburgh, a time when he was often bed-ridden.

3 Moral Emblems

Also written for children, these poems have a more satirical edge, and were intended for his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. RLS composed them while convalescing in Switzerland. Illustrated by his own simple woodcuts, this is a delightful slim work, the author's personality present in the drawings as well as the words.

4 Fables

Exquisitely illustrated by E R Herman, these short philosophical squibs in the form of fairytales begin with a post-modern conversation between Long John Silver and Captain Smollett. They are arguing over whether there is such a thing as an author, and if so, which of them he prefers. "He does me fathoms better'n he does you," boasts Silver, before the pair hear the author dipping his pen in ink to begin the next chapter of Treasure Island, and disappear sharpish.

5 Catriona

The sequel to Kidnapped, which was the story of David Balfour claiming his inheritance. In this, its under-rated companion, he creates in Catriona MacGregor Drummond, Rob Roy's grand-daughter, one of the most enduring romantic heroines in Scottish literature. A galloping thriller, with the Appin murder at its heart.

6 Across the Plains, and Travels from Scotland to California

A natural travel writer, RLS used his gruelling trip to America to settle his future with his lover Fanny Osbourne as the material for these two accounts (and others). Honest and colourful, they are at the same time urbane and informative.

7 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

This needs no introduction, save to say that thanks to this tale, RLS must join James Hogg in taking the blame for the idea that Scotland is a place where good and evil, light and dark, are often twinned in our psyche.

8 The Beach of Falesa

A sinister tale of a trader who arrives on this fictional South Sea Island, is gifted a young Polynesian wife, and then finds himself caught in a series of seemingly supernatural occurrences. As H E Bates wrote of it, "Stranger things than the events in this story have happened in the South Pacific and no doubt will do so again."

9 Treasure Island

Perhaps his best-loved work, this tale of pirates and robbers, terror and gold on the high seas, was the book that made his name. Stevenson had a wet summer holiday to thank for its inspiration, when he drew a map and wrote a story to accompany it to amuse his bored stepson. Weather that's good for nothing but reading is just one of many excellent reasons to holiday here.

10 Weir of Hermiston

Unfinished at his death, this powerful novel about a son and his objectionable judge of a father, hinted that the author had found his mature voice. That promise went unfulfilled, Stevenson dying in Samoa at the age of 44, in 1894.