Name: Lay morals
SKU: 61436937
Price: 1067.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Ballin, G-Ph ; Stevenson, Robert Louis
ISBN: 9781542893091

Type

Physical Book

Author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

308

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x1.6 cm

Weight

0.41 kg.

ISBN13

9781542893091

Synopsis "Lay morals"

Extract: PREFACE BY MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON In our long voyage on the yacht Casco, we visited many islands; I believe on every one we found the scourge of leprosy. In the Marquesas there was a regular leper settlement, though the persons living there seemed free to wander where they wished, fishing on the beach, or visiting friends in the villages. I remember one afternoon, at Anaho, when my husband and I, tired after a long quest for shells, sat down on the sand to rest awhile, a native man stepped out from under some cocoanut trees, regarding us hesitatingly as though fearful of intruding. My husband waved an invitation to the stranger to join us, offering his cigarette to the man in the island fashion. The cigarette was accepted and, after a puff or two, courteously passed back again according to native etiquette. The hand that held it was the maimed hand of a leper. To my consternation my husband took the cigarette and smoked it out. Afterwards when we were alone and I spoke of my horror he said, 'I could not mortify the man. And if you think I liked doing it-that was another reason; because I didn't want to.' Another day, while we were still anchored in Anaho Bay, a messenger from round a distant headland came in a whale-boat with an urgent request that we go to see a young white girl who was ill with some mysterious malady. We had supposed that, with the beach-comber 'Charley the red, ' we were the only white people on our side of the island. Though there was much wind that day and the sea ran high, we started at once, impelled partly by curiosity and partly by the pathetic nature of the message. Fortunately we took our luncheon with us, eating it on the beach before we went up to the house where the sick girl lay. Our hostess, the girl's mother, met us with regrets that we had already lunched, saying, 'I have a most excellent cook; here he is, now.' She turned, as she spoke, to an elderly Chinaman who was plainly in an advanced stage of leprosy. When the man was gone, my husband asked if she had no fear of contagion. 'I don't believe in contagion, ' was her reply. But there was little doubt as to what ailed her daughter. She was certainly suffering from leprosy. We could only advise that the girl be taken to the French post at Santa Maria Bay where there was a doctor. On our return to the Casco we confessed to each other with what alarm and repugnance we touched the miserable girl. ........

Robert Louis Stevenson

(Author)

View Author's Page

(Edinburgh, 1850 - Samoa, 1894) British novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of sixteen to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lighthouse engineer, a career he would later abandon. His nautical studies allowed him to come into contact with seafaring people and customs, key ingredients in some of his most famous works. His renowned work, Treasure Island, was published under the pseudonym Captain George North in 1881. In 1886, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one of the great classics of literature, was released. He died on the island of Samoa, at his home, Vailima.

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