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Файл:Жизнь Роберта Льюиса Стивенсона. Учебное пособие – книга для чтения на английском языке
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R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Mr and Mrs Stevenson finally reached England to
find a hearty welcome waiting for them. When Robert
Louis Stevenson had left home only publishers and
writers had heard of him. When he returned, everyone
knew he was the famous author of adventure stories for
young people.
And it was
Treasure Island
that had done it all.
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions. When required,
introduce the answers by using:
If Im not mistaken; Im not quite certain, but it seems
to me that...; Frankly speaking I dont remember; Im
afraid I dont know exactly.
1. Where did the Stevensons rent a house?
2. How did he feel at that time?
3. What did he write staying at Kinnaird?
4. Where did the family live for the last month of
the summer?
5. What kind of place was Braemar?
6. What did Stevenson begin thinking about?
7. Why did he think of becoming a professor at
Edinburgh University?
8. What did he do to practice for the job of
professor?
9. Whom did he read a paper on law?
10. What did Lloyd advise him to do?
11. What book did Stevenson decide to write?
12. What magazine published
13. Why did Stevenson use a pen-name Captain
George North?
14. How did the idea to write a book of childrens
poems come to his head?
15. Who did he want to dedicate the book
Garden of Verses
to?
As far as I remember;
Treasure Island
as a serial?
A Childs
101
C. O. Peare
16. What second adventure book did Stevenson make
up his mind to write?
17. What made Stevenson go to southern France
again?
18. How did Stevenson keep in touch with friends
and family?
19. Who came to France to visit him?
20. What was the reason of Henleys coming?
21. How was Robert Louis Stevenson welcomed when
he came back to England?
22. What book made him famous?
II. Analyse Lloyds feelings when Stevenson read a
long paper on law to him.
III. Speak about the games Stevenson and Lloyd
liked to play.
IV. Dramatize the talk between Stevenson and
Lloyd when Stevenson asked him to be his audience
while he read a paper on law to him.
V. Memorize these expressions and tell in what
situations they are used in the chapter:
to do a world
of good, to be full of energy, to let things run their
course, to be truly frightened, to be in a panic, to keep
in touch with, to wait eagerly.
VI. Give as many facts as you can to prove that
Fanny was a good and loving wife. What did Stevenson
write about Fanny in a letter to his mother?
102
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Chapter XIV
S
KERRYVORE
In spite of every care, RLS was exhausted when he
reached London. He couldnt even go to the theatre to
see the opening night of
went, and he and Stevenson talked about it afterward
with great pleasure. It was a great triumph! They agreed
they must write some more plays together.
Of course it wasnt quite a triumph. The play was
all right and many people liked it, but that was all.
Both Henley and Stevenson were invalids; they were
both excitable. Each of them could go up in the air
over nothing.
2
So no one told them anything.
Meanwhile Louis and Fanny didnt want to stay in
London. The climate of Scotland was out of the
question.
Lets go to Bournemouth where we can be near
Lloyd, they agreed.
Everybody approved the idea, because Bournemouth
was known as a good place for people with tuberculosis.
It was on the southern coast of England, and there
1
. But Henley
1
Skerryvore
2
go up in the air over nothing выйти из себя из-за пустяка
['skerIvL]
Скерривор
103
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
were plenty of pine forests around. It was popular with
artists as well.
Thomas Stevenson, who no longer quarrelled with
his son, decided to make Fanny and Louis a present of
a house at Bournemouth. It was a two-story brick house
with plenty of trees and flower gardens around it.
We shall call the house Skerryvore, said RLS.
That was in honour of the Skerryvore Lighthouse
marking dangerous reefs on the west coast of Scotland.
Skerryvore Lighthouse had been built by Stevensons
Uncle Alan and his father.
At Skerryvore in Bournemouth Stevenson spent most
of his time in bed during the daytime. He had chills
and fevers. Nights were once more as bad as they had
been when he was a little boy in Heriot Row. He
would be awake for hours coughing.
Yet visitors were surprised to see him so cheerful
during the daytime. Often he tried so hard to be
cheerful that he was too gay.
His imagination never stopped working, and he
managed to do a little writing each day. He finished
some old stories.
was soon published in the
The Body Snatcher
Pall Mall Gazette
was one, and it
1
.
How
that startled everyone! It was the story of a man who
earned his living stealing bodies from graves for the
medical students.
He began to work on
another one he had started some time back called
2
Otto
.
Kidnapped
again, and on
Prince
At the end of his first winter at Bournemouth
A Childs Garden of Verses
came out. Just as he had
promised, the book was dedicated to Cummy. It is his
most loved book, even more than
Treasure Island
. It is
1
in the Pall Mall Gazette
2
Prince Otto
«Принц Отто»
в журнале «Пэл-Мэл»
105
C. O. Peare
a book that will never grow old; it will just go on
forever. Every new generation of children will memorize
its verses, and they in turn will teach the verses to
their children.
RLS could not go about and enjoy his increasing
fame and the thousands of readers who were learning
to love him. He sat in bed, wrapped in an old red
blanket, his writing board was on his knees; and the
world came to him. John Singer Sargent, the famous
painter, came and painted his portrait. Other writers
came for advice about their work. His true friends came
too Henley, Colvin, Cousin Bob. His parents came
down from Edinburgh once in a while, whenever his
father felt well enough to make the trip. Lloyd was
there during his vacations from school.
Stevensons health held out when he did exactly
as the doctor told him to do. But he was too excitable
to lie peacefully in bed when he didnt feel sick. After
he had been at Skerryvore about a year, he grew restless
and wanted a change of scenery. Fanny had to let
him take a short trip to London and other places in
England. She and Lloyd went along, just in case.
1
It
was a good thing they did, for Louis fell ill again.
They had to get him back to Skerryvore the best way
they could.
Back to bed back to big old blanket back to
fever and coughing and medicine, until he was well
enough to sit up and do a little writing each day.
One night he frightened Fanny with cries for help.
She rushed to his side, expecting that this was surely
the end. He was still asleep so she shook him to waken
him.
I was dreaming! he told her. I was dreaming a
horrible, wonderful dream about a man who found a
1
just in case нa всякий случай
106
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
drug that could change him from one person to
another.
Fanny just patted his forehead and hand and said,
There, there!
He shut his eyes quickly and put his head down on
the pillow. Dont wake me! Let me dream again! he
said. I must finish that story.
The next day he wrote swiftly, and when the tale
was finished he gave it to Fanny to read. That was the
beginning of the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Fanny wasnt completely satisfied with the first draft.
She and Robert Louis talked over the story for a long
time. He had developed the
Deacon Brodie
idea in a
new and important way.
This is a very important story, Lou, she said.
Its an allegory.
He promised her he would go over it again. The
next time she came into the room, he pointed to the
fireplace. The manuscript was gone. He had burned it.
Im going to write the whole thing all over again,
he told her.
He did, and when Fanny had read once more
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
1
she smiled
happily. It was one of the best things he had ever
written.
How that mysterious tale interested his readers!
What would their Stevenson write next! He had
dreamed the story while he had a fever. He had written
it while he had a fever. The sales went up like a fever
thermometer.
Stevenson settled happily back and finished writing
Kidnapped
it ran as a series in
. During his second summer at Skerryvore
Young Folks. At the end of the
1
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll
«Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда»
107
['GJkIl]
and Mr Hyde
C. O. Peare
summer it came out as a book. Young and old enjoyed
Kidnapped
just the way they had enjoyed
Treasure
Island.
The next winter at Skerryvore passed quietly. The
happiest event was the arrival of Stevensons mother
and father. They came down from Edinburgh to live
near their famous son. The saddest event was the death
of Woggs. Like all dogs, he simply did not live so long
as his master.
When spring came round again, the whole family
realized that Thomas Stevenson was nearing his last
days. His wife took him back to Heriot Row. In two
weeks she sent a note of alarm to her son. Louis and
Fanny boarded a train right away and went north. But
they arrived too late. Mr Stevenson was unconscious.
In a few more days he was gone. Robert Louis
Stevenson felt the loss very deeply. The two men were
devoted to each other. Even though they had quarrelled
in the past, their quarrels had been forgotten long
before this.
A while later when Louis and Fanny were speaking
at Skerryvore, he said, We really dont have to stay
here any more, unless we want to.
She understood what he meant. He meant that
he didnt have to stay near Scotland now that his
father was gone. She understood how he felt, too.
RLS liked to travel, and he liked a change of scenery
every once in a while. He liked Switzerland, and he
grew tired of it. He loved southern France, but he
even grew tired of that. Now he was tired of
Skerryvore.
Now that youre a successful author, said Fanny,
we can go anywhere in the world. He was about to
smile, and his eye twinkled, and that meant that he
had had an idea in his mind long before this
conversation.
108
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Soon it was out. He wanted to visit America once
more, and he knew his American wife wouldnt be
against that.
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions:
1. Where did Louis and Fanny want to live?
2. What present did Fanny and Louis get from
Thomas Stevenson?
3. How did they call the house?
4. What books did Robert Louis work on?
5. What book came out in his first winter at
Bournemouth?
6. Who was it dedicated to?
7. What happened to Louis one night?
8. What was his dream about?
9. What did he do with the first manuscript of the
story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
10. Why did he do so?
11. How did Fanny appreciate
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
rewritten it?
12. What bad news came to Robert Louis Stevenson?
13. What were Louis and Fanny going to do after
his father had died?
The Strange Case of
when Robert Louis had
II. Object to the statement. Use the conversational
formulas:
I dont agree with you; Im afraid I must
disagree; Im afraid youre wrong; Nothing of the sort;
Nonsense; Thats not true; Just the reverse; Just the
other way round.
Keep the conversation going.
1. When RLS reached London he went to the
theatre to see the opening night of
109
Deacon Brodie.
C. O. Peare
2. The play wasnt a success.
3. When the Stevensons went to live in Bournemouth,
they had to rent a house there.
4. When Stevenson lived in Bournemouth, his
imagination stopped working and he couldnt
write anything.
5. When RLS lived in Bournemouth he met with
the thousands of readers as he felt very well.
6. Stevensons story
and Mr Hyde
7. Young and old didnt enjoy
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll
didnt interest his readers at all.
Kidnapped either.
8. RLS didnt like to travel as he didnt like a
change of scenery.
9. He wasnt tired of Sherryvore, and he didnt
want to go anywhere in the world.
III. Describe the scenery of the town of Bournemouth.
Explain why the Stevensons approved the idea of going
there.
IV. Explain why the Stevensons house at
Bournemouth was called Skerryvore.
V. Give as many facts as you can to prove that
Robert Louis Stevenson was a very strong-willed,
persistent and industrious man.
VI. Recall the situations in which these expressions
are used in the chapter:
to be exhausted, to be a great
triumph, to go up in the air over nothing, to be popular
with, to be excitable, to grow restless, to be satisfied
with, to have an idea in ones mind.
110
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