The Wrecker (Stevenson novel)

For other uses, see Wrecker (disambiguation).
The Wrecker

Author Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne
Country Scotland
Language English
Genre Adventure novel
Publisher Cassell
Publication date
 1892
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)

The Wrecker (1892) is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne.

Plot

The story is about a "sprawling, episodic adventure story, a comedy of brash manners and something of a detective mystery".[1] It revolves around the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud at Midway Island. Clues in a stamp collection are used to track down the missing crew and solve the mystery. It is only in the last chapter that different story elements become linked.[2] Stevenson described it as a "South Sea yarn" concerning "a very strange and defective plan that was accepted with open eyes for what seemed countervailing opportunities offered". Although the book sold well, reviews were mixed, with a The New York Times reviewer concluding that:[2]

The Wrecker is a kind of blank-cartridge romance with a big explosion, which raises a dust, and if anything really has happened it escapes you in the flash and the cloud of smoke.

The different, loosely connected stories reflected how Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne wrote the book. Each contributed different sections, but agreed to develop characters and descriptions of places they both knew well. The following are examples:

Adaptation

James Garner as Bret Maverick

"The Wrecker", an episode of Roy Huggins' TV Western Maverick (1957) starring James Garner and Jack Kelly, is described in the closing credits as "From a Novel by Robert Louis Stevenson & Lloyd Osbourne". The Maverick brothers buy the wreck of the Flying Scud at an auction, and try to find out why its cargo is so valuable.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Watson, Roderick (2007). "'"The unrest and movement of our century": the universe of The Wrecker" (PDF). The Journal of Stevenson Studies. 4.
  2. 1 2 "Tales by Stevenson and Others" (PDF). The New York Times. July 17, 1892. p. 19.
  3. ↑ The Cruise of the Janet Nichol among the South Sea Islands A Diary by Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson (first published 1914), republished 2004, editor, Roslyn Jolly (U. of Washington Press/U. of New South Wales Press)
  4. ↑ Robert Louis Stevenson: A Critical Biography, 2 vols. John A. Steuart, (1924). Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
  5. ↑ Treasured Islands: Cruising the South Seas With Robert Louis Stevenson. Lowell D. Holmes, (2001). Sheridan House. ISBN 1-57409-130-1
  6. ↑ James Cowan, (1937). R. L. S. and his Friends Some Stevenson Memories. New Zealand Railways Magazine, 12(2):59-61.
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