Robert Louis Stevenson, The Ebb Tide

Julie Gay (Université de Poitiers)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1893

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

The Ebb-Tide: A Trio and Quartette

is a novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, during their travels and sojourn in the South Pacific, where Stevenson elected to live out his days. They had first intended it to be a long novel, entitled

The Pearlfisher

, which was to be the second of the “South Sea Yarns” they were working on, the first being

The Wrecker

The Ebb-Tide

was first started by Lloyd Osbourne in 1889, then put aside, and finally resumed by Stevenson who eventually decided to make it a much shorter novella in 1893 when he worked on it relentlessly for about five months, progressing slowly and laboriously as he experienced gruelling difficulties with its narrative development and style: “But O, it has been such a grind!…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1972 words

Citation: Gay, Julie. "The Ebb Tide". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 February 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10953, accessed 20 April 2024.]

Save this article