Bom in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson came of age during the late Victorian era, a time of widespread scientific, technological, and social change. Stevenson, although Scottish-bom, spent most of his life out of the country and married an American. Desperate for money and fighting a fit of depression, he allegedly wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde within ten weeks while residing in Bournemouth, England. The success of the novel cemented Stevenson's writing career.
Stevenson and Scottish Calvinism. As a child, Stevenson was raised in an extremely devout Calvinist environment. This Protestant sect taught that humans were innately sinful and could only be saved by the grace of God. Each person's fate was determined before birth; people were predestined for either heavenly salvation or eternal hell. Stevenson's father, a particularly religious man, often told the child tales of destiny and damnation.
Perhaps even more influential in Stevenson's religious upbringing, however, was his nurse Alison Cunningham, known as "Cummy." Cummy was a zealously religious Calvinist as well as an avid storyteller.
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