Almost every adult & child is familiar with his Treasure Isl&, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote isl&, which was squabbled over by colonial powers much as Captain Flint`s treasure was contested by the mongrel crew of the Hispaniola. In 1890 Stevenson settled in Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South Pacific. He was given a Samoan name & became a fierce critic of the interference of Germany, Britain & the U.S.A. in Samoan affairs
- a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde`s sneers, & brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded him as a menace & even threatened him with expulsion from the isl&. Joseph Farrell`s pioneering study of Stevenson`s twilight years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much weight to the Samoa & the Samoans
- their culture, their manners, their history
- as to the life & work of the man himself. For it is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa & the political situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, that Stevenson`s lasting & generous contribution to its cause can be appreciated.