Empire, Exile and the Exotic

Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad are two very differentwriters. Stevenson found an ever-increasing audience with his poetryand early travelogues, as well as Treasure Island, The Strange Case of DrJekyll and Mr Hyde and his Scottish romances. Conrad first led a lifeat sea and began his writing career with tales and novels set in the FarEast, Africa, South America and later, in Europe. But these two writersalso had a lot in common. Their experiences with the British empire,exile and the exotic differed, but their assessments of these experiencesdemonstrate an astonishing amount of convergence.This collection of essays is the result of a long-term research interestwhich aimed at bringing these two authors more closely together inliterary and cultural criticism. In these texts, most of which were separatelypublished over the past two decades, Stevenson and Conrad'ssubstantial criticisms of colonial relations are contrasted with theirloves for the sea, its attractions and challenges. The volume also includesessays on the sea as a cultural space and is rounded off by areading of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which synthesises topics dealt withearlier concerning the Victorian fin de siècle.