Evidence: | 'I can say this much that your paper has impressed me very much, and I shall never get the village out of my head; I know the place; it is called (to imitate Bunyan) the village of Hope-deferred, and near it goes the river of the Shadow of Suicide.' |
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Century: | 1850-1899 | ||||||||||
Date: | Until: 31 Oct 1874 | ||||||||||
Country: | Scotland | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | city: Probably Edinburgh. | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
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Reader: | Robert Louis Stevenson |
Age | Unknown |
Gender | Male |
Date of Birth | 13 Nov 1850 |
Socio-economic group: | Professional / academic / merchant / farmer |
Occupation: | Aspiring writer and intermittent law student |
Religion: | Church of Scotland (wavering) |
Country of origin: | Scotland |
Country of experience: | Scotland |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | John Bunyan |
Title: | The Pilgrim?s Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream |
Genre: | Other religious, Fiction |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | Part I, 1678 (Part II, 1684) |
Provenance: | unknown |
Record ID: | 17649 | |
Source - | ||
Author: | Robert Louis Stevenson | |
Editor: | Bradford A. Booth | |
Title: | The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879 | |
Place of Publication: | New Haven and London | |
Date of Publication: | 1994 | |
Vol: | 2 | |
Page: | 62-3 | |
Additional comments: | Letter 323, To Katharine de Mattos, [? October 1874]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors. |
Citation: | Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879 (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 62-3, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=17649, accessed: 28 March 2024 |
RLS?s remarks here seem to be an amalgam of religious allusions. In Pt I, section 1, of The Pilgrim?s Progress we read: ?in yonder Village (the village is named Morality) there dwells a Gentleman whose name is Legality.? The King James Bible, Proverbs 13, v.12 has: ?Hope deferred maketh the heart sick?. Hopeful is the name of one of Christian?s companions on his pilgrimage. Christian has to pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and later, when Christian and Hopeful are imprisoned in Doubting Castle, Despair beats them and encourages them to commit suicide so as to escape their suffering. See also the King James Bible, Psalms, 23, v. 4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)