Would there be interest in exploring RLS's weird writing? Most of it is fiction, but I wrote "Writing" because I wanted to allow a passage from Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes and perhaps other nonfiction.

His stories belonging to the genre include The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, "Markheim," "Thrawn Janet," "The Isle of Voices," "The Bottle Imp," "The Body Snatcher," and perhaps others, including the one I propose we start with, "Olalla."


[www.gutenberg.net.au]

I don't want to say anything more about the story right now other than that this story is based on one or more nightmares and is the real deal. If you have never read it before, I recommend you do so now, & I don't think you will be sorry you did.

Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would there be interest in exploring RLS's weird
> writing? Most of it is fiction, but I wrote
> "Writing" because I wanted to allow a passage from
> Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes and perhaps
> other nonfiction.
>
> His stories belonging to the genre include The
> Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
> "Markheim," "Thrawn Janet," "The Isle of Voices,"
> "The Bottle Imp," "The Body Snatcher," and perhaps
> others, including the one I propose we start with,
> "Olalla."
>
>
> [www.gutenberg.net.au]
>
>
> I don't want to say anything more about the story
> right now other than that this story is based on
> one or more nightmares and is the real deal. If
> you have never read it before, I recommend you do
> so now, & I don't think you will be sorry you did.


I plan to read it today or tomorrow. I started reading your link, then downloaded and converted to EPUB and will be able to read it on an e-reader at the gym.

--Sawfish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps if I say a little more about "Olalla," some additional EDers will want to read it too. Hammond in his Robert Louis Stevenson Companion describes it as "a sustained study in horror which owes much in style and conception to the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. ...Again and again the reader is struck with the force of writing, so reminiscent of Poe." Stevenson's story "bears all the hallmarks of having been most carefully written," and "each element contributes to the unforgettable aura which pervades the story as a whole." The story is narrated "in the first person, [and] relates the experiences of a wounded soldier who journeys to a remote house in the Spanish mountains to convalesce. His hosts are a strange, taciturn family: an ageing, once beautiful mother; a son, Felipe, a bestial half-wit; and a mysterious, enigmatic daughter, Olalla, to whom the narrator is drawn by an irresistible attraction".... Hammond regards "Olalla" as "one of [Stevenson's] most consistently rewarding tales."

I think the soldier is from the British Isles, perhaps from Scotland like RLS himself. I don't remember if the story gives us information or clues that would indicate just when it is supposed to occur. In fact it might be that RLS deliberately doesn't go into detail on some humdrum details, as, say, Poe doesn't in "Fall of the House of Usher." But "Olalla" is probably closer to the length of Blackwood's "Willows" than to the length of the typical Poe story.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 27 Jul 21 | 04:47PM by Dale Nelson.

The Padre who visits the family at the residencia commends the narrator for having suffered in the "good cause." I'm wondering if possibly the soldier-narrator had been serving in the First Carlist War. Here's Wikipedia:

-----During the First Carlist War [1833-1840], Britain subsidised the Spanish armed forces, just as it had done during the Peninsular War. This was vital to the Spanish war economy, as, since the Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish armed forces had been poorly funded, a legacy of the loss of the majority of Spain's colonial empire. Furthermore, the UK provided a large direct military contribution; the 10,000-strong British Legion, led by George de Lacy Evans, saw action in Navarre and contributed greatly to the suppression of the revolt.------

"Olalla" did not make a strong impression on me on first read. Perhaps I was setting myself up for disappointment. Someone had suggested it as a werewolf story, which is perhaps not really accurate. As I child, I had had nightmares about werewolves, inspired by a Pauline Baynes illustration from the Narnia books. As a result, I have always sought out werewolf stories that might replicate that feeling of horror, but have usually been disappointed.

On second read "Olalla" still does not make much impression on me. There are moments of horror, but no climax. The story just sort of peters out.

I much prefer "Thrawn Janet".

Platypus, as soon as I read what you said about Pauline Baynes's drawing, I remembered the picture you must have in mind. For those who don't remember it or haven't seen it: Baynes's conception of a werewolf is quite different from the "Wolfman" conception. It's more wolfish. If a live actor in pre-CGI days had been going to wear a costume to approximate Baynes's conception, that actor would've needed to be someone like Sandra Gimpel at the time she played the role of the "salt vampire" in Star Trek's "Man Trap" teleplay -- or the remarkable Janos Prohaska.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 28 Jul 21 | 09:47AM by Dale Nelson.

So far as descriptive technique in setting and character development, plus choice of expository actions (e.g. Filipe "singing" as they walked--which added a certain depth to who/what Filipe is) Stevenson is terrific!

Too there is a brief transition in the weather that is nothing so much as a description of something a lot like a SoCal Santa Ana. These, too make people very edgy, especially close to the coast.

I still must finish it, but I've really enjoyed his ability to set up a tale.

--Sawfish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 28 Jul 21 | 10:38AM by Sawfish.

Here are some comments I wrote up.


“Olalla” invites discussion of numerous topics, but my first observation is that it’s an intriguing story from that late 19th-early 20th-century period from which many masterpieces of high fantasy, dark fantasy, and science fiction come. One has only to mention the names of M. R. James, Henry James, Blackwood, Machen, Hodgson, MacDonald, Morris, Doyle, Stoker, Haggard, Wells, Buchan, de la Mare, Onions (“The Beckoning Fair One”) et al. to get a sense of it; and Stevenson was one of the greatest figures in this panoply.

A strength of these authors, certainly of Stevenson, typically was the capacity to conjure a sense of place. Reading “Olalla” again, I found that there were many details of plot that I’d forgotten, but I’d remembered the atmosphere of the isolated Spanish residencia. It’ll be the desire to revisit that eerie setting that’ll draw me back to this story again rather than primarily a desire to experience particular plot elements, e.g. the sensational incident of the vicious bite endured by the soldier.

Stevenson’s handling of the degeneracy plot contrasts with the schlocky way, I suppose, a pulp author of the subsequent period would have handled it (the soldier and the daughter would’ve had a torrid night and then she or her mother would’ve attacked him & he’d have barely escaped or would’ve killed her/them in self-defense).

Restraining the potential for the lurid lets Stevenson make the story altogether more persuasive, imaginatively. It could be called a story of the man’s world of action (the soldier’s life) and the woman’s domestic world. But where he is, presumably, accustomed to a straightforward milieu of obedience to authority, of the rules of engagement with the enemy, of known risks, etc., now he finds himself dealing pretty much on his own with situations and emotions he doesn’t understand, partly, of course, due to his being a foreigner in someone else’s country, but more basically because at the residencia he doesn’t understand at first what has been happening away here on the plateau as an ancient family has declined.

He is greatly attracted to Olalla – I take it that he really does fall in love with her at first sight and she with him. But tragedy awaits him. Olalla is the last of her “race” (the mother is presumably past childbearing and Olalla’s brother is unlikely to beget children), and she knows she carries the potential for transmitting hereditary madness. I take it that, at the end, Olalla is on her way to a convent where she will become a nun, sacrificing personal happiness because that is the right thing to do. She has indeed chosen the world of contemplation rather than that of action by one great action she’s about to make. The narrator-protagonist is not only not a Roman Catholic but not a Christian of some other variety, so this aspect of Olalla too is somewhat to him (emphasized by his reactions to the wayside shrine).

Thus “Olalla” is a story of character too, as it would not be in a pulp treatment. It’s like Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” in that way. All of the characterization seems to me successful. The narrator succeeds as a stand-in for the reader, a visitor from our world, a good guy, admirable. The supporting characters function well. The mother is a sinister catlike being, roasting herself in the sun but capable of sudden violent action. Olalla’s brother is good as a source of plot excitement – interesting, unpredictable, possibly dangerous, and pathetic.

Some readers might find the brief dialogue between the soldier and Olalla about their love to be too rhetorical. If Stevenson were obviously trying to write a naturalistic story in the manner of Hemingway or Steinbeck this would be a fault, but Stevenson would be at fault if he wrote the dialogue in their manner. The dialogue RLS did write is appropriate for more reasons than one. It helps to convey the sense that this story occurred in an earlier time, for one thing. Also, though it might seem too literary to some, RLS is sparing in his use of it; there really isn’t very much. And, at least for the time it takes to read the story, one ought to grant Stevenson’s postulate that human beings are – or used to be – capable of experiences of the soul that are transformative, transcending the more humdrum feelings of daily life and, certainly, the mere instinctual life of animals. If it helps, one might think of Hawthorne’s story already mentioned, the famous novels of the Brontës, of opera, etc. There may be a “higher realism” possible to literature that requires elevated diction in dialogue. Such at least is the testimony of thousands of years of literature. It’s not that elevated diction is good or is bad in itself; is it well done and appropriate for the literary occasion? I think it’s at least satisfactory here.

Olalla's appearance reminds me of Mary McCarthy's description, in her book on Florence I think, of the modern conception of beauty as a mixture of strangeness and allure.

I hope there can be some more discussion here and now about "Olalla," but our next Stevenson story could be another one named for a woman character, "Thrawn [Twisted] Janet."

Here is a link to the text of "Thrawn Janet."

[www.gutenberg.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 28 Jul 21 | 06:18PM by Dale Nelson.

Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Platypus, as soon as I read what you said about
> Pauline Baynes's drawing, I remembered the picture
> you must have in mind. For those who don't
> remember it or haven't seen it: Baynes's
> conception of a werewolf is quite different from
> the "Wolfman" conception. It's more wolfish.

Yes. And I think it became even more wolfish in my dreams. When I later encountered the fur-faced werewolves of early Hollywood, I thought them a sad joke. But what struck me about the werewolf was that, even though it was just a static sketch, you could tell that the werewolf was moving fast. It is leaping onto Caspian with mouth open, and you can tell that it will reach Caspian before Caspian can his sword out of his sheath, as he is trying to do.

In my dreams, I would see the werewolf, and, upon noticing me, the werewolf would come loping toward me with giant strides on it's half-canine hind legs, and of course then I would wake up because no other escape was possible.

But speaking of dreams, and of "Olalla", Stevenson says in his essay "A Chapter on Dreams" that "Olalla" was based on some dreams he had. As I understand, his dreams included certain scenes in the interior of the Residencia and its court; all the external events having been added. It is maybe no accident that the interior scenes are the ones most vivid and haunting.

Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Padre who visits the family at the residencia
> commends the narrator for having suffered in the
> "good cause." I'm wondering if possibly the
> soldier-narrator had been serving in the First
> Carlist War. Here's Wikipedia:
>
> -----During the First Carlist War [1833-1840],
> Britain subsidised the Spanish armed forces, just
> as it had done during the Peninsular War. This was
> vital to the Spanish war economy, as, since the
> Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish armed forces had been
> poorly funded, a legacy of the loss of the
> majority of Spain's colonial empire. Furthermore,
> the UK provided a large direct military
> contribution; the 10,000-strong British Legion,
> led by George de Lacy Evans, saw action in Navarre
> and contributed greatly to the suppression of the
> revolt.------


I'm not sure it is necessary to go that far back. The Third Carlist War, which ended 1876, was more recent, and since no specific war is mentioned, that might be the more natural assumption. The story does not mention any official involvement of British troops fighting under a British flag, so perhaps there is no need to look for indications of that in prior wars. Rather, the Spanish doctor seems to regard the protagonist as a veteran of Spanish forces, to whom locals and the current regime therefore owe some responsibility.

There is mention of a "lost convoy" if anything can be made of that.

Wikipedia says, I don't know on what basis, that the story is set following the Peninsular War of circa 1814, which is even further back. But of course Wikipedia is not a source, and they don't give a source.

Platypus Wrote:

> But speaking of dreams, and of "Olalla", Stevenson
> says in his essay "A Chapter on Dreams" that
> "Olalla" was based on some dreams he had.

I'll have to look up that essay in the next day or two -- thanks for the tip. RLS's essays have mostly been, so far, neglected by me.

Platypus Wrote:

> I'm not sure it is necessary to go that far back.
> The Third Carlist War, which ended 1876, was more
> recent, and since no specific war is mentioned,
> that might be the more natural assumption. The
> story does not mention any official involvement of
> British troops fighting under a British flag, so
> perhaps there is no need to look for indications
> of that in prior wars. Rather, the Spanish doctor
> seems to regard the protagonist as a veteran of
> Spanish forces, to whom locals and the current
> regime therefore owe some responsibility.
>
> There is mention of a "lost convoy" if anything
> can be made of that.

The impression I had is that the narrator, who's clearly from the British Isles, had been left behind, expected to die in Spain; and that the First Carlist War was the one in which British troops had been most active. But I know next to nothing about them.

Platypus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dale Nelson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Padre who visits the family at the
> residencia
> > commends the narrator for having suffered in
> the
> > "good cause." I'm wondering if possibly the
> > soldier-narrator had been serving in the First
> > Carlist War. Here's Wikipedia:
> >
> > -----During the First Carlist War [1833-1840],
> > Britain subsidised the Spanish armed forces,
> just
> > as it had done during the Peninsular War. This
> was
> > vital to the Spanish war economy, as, since the
> > Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish armed forces had
> been
> > poorly funded, a legacy of the loss of the
> > majority of Spain's colonial empire.
> Furthermore,
> > the UK provided a large direct military
> > contribution; the 10,000-strong British Legion,
> > led by George de Lacy Evans, saw action in
> Navarre
> > and contributed greatly to the suppression of
> the
> > revolt.------
>
>
> I'm not sure it is necessary to go that far back.
> The Third Carlist War, which ended 1876, was more
> recent, and since no specific war is mentioned,
> that might be the more natural assumption. The
> story does not mention any official involvement of
> British troops fighting under a British flag, so
> perhaps there is no need to look for indications
> of that in prior wars. Rather, the Spanish doctor
> seems to regard the protagonist as a veteran of
> Spanish forces, to whom locals and the current
> regime therefore owe some responsibility.
>
> There is mention of a "lost convoy" if anything
> can be made of that.
>
> Wikipedia says, I don't know on what basis, that
> the story is set following the Peninsular War of
> circa 1814, which is even further back. But of
> course Wikipedia is not a source, and they don't
> give a source.

There are the clues in the text that the narrator may be Scottish...

"...Some thoughts of Scottish superstition and the river Kelpie, passed across my mind; I wondered if perchance the like were prevalent in that part of Spain; and turning to Felipe, sought to draw him out."

and

"...He said never a word, but he turned his mule about, end for end, retraced some part of the way we had gone, and, striking into another path, led me to the mountain village, which was, as we say in Scotland, the kirkton of that thinly peopled district."

Stevenson was Scottish, and so in a way this binds the narrator more closely to Stevenson, himself.

--Sawfish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> late 19th- early 20th-century period from which many masterpieces
> of high fantasy, dark fantasy, and science fiction
> come. One has only to mention the names of M. R.
> James, Henry James, Blackwood, Machen, Hodgson,
> MacDonald, Morris, Doyle, Stoker, Haggard, Wells,
> Buchan, de la Mare, Onions (“The Beckoning Fair
> One”) et al. to get a sense of it; and Stevenson
> was one of the greatest figures in this panoply.
>
> A strength of these authors, certainly of
> Stevenson, typically was the capacity to conjure a
> sense of place.

The peculiarity of this short period, is that it weirdly also had an open window onto the spiritual dimension. And they truly believed in it. Not just using it for imaginative metaphor or psychological symbolism.