Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Beach of Falesa"

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The Beach of Falesá

is a novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson based on his experience in the Samoan archipelago, where he elected to live out his days. In fact, although it was originally meant to be part of a collection of stories set on an imaginary island called Ulufanua (

Letters

3: 334), the work was actually inspired by a superstitious fear Stevenson experienced when cutting a path through the wild and uncanny forest around his house, named Vailima, in 1890: “[it] just shot through me like a bullet in one of my moments of awe, alone in that tragic jungle. […] It is very strange, very extravagant, I dare say” (Letters 3: 238-39). On the other hand, he repeatedly insisted on the story’s realistic depiction of life in the Pacific islands. This work indeed marked an…

2315 words

Citation: Gay, Julie. ""The Beach of Falesa"". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 May 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39028, accessed 09 October 2024.]

39028 "The Beach of Falesa" 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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