Books in Order: A Comprehensive Guide to Robert Louis Stevenson's Works

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) is best remembered for Treasure Island (1883) and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but this guide covers a lesser-known corner of his catalog: the two Balfour novels. His very first attempt at a novel, The Hair Trunk or The Ideal Commonwealth, was never finished or published — not every writer's debut makes it to print.

Kidnapped came out in 1886, followed seven years later by its sequel, Catriona, in 1893. Stevenson's reputation actually dipped for a stretch after World War I, when critics like Virginia Woolf dismissed him as second-rate, before later admirers such as Roger Lancelyn Green restored him to his place among writers of real, lasting skill.