1. In your opinion, what are the strengths of Wood's biography of Stevenson?

2. Even as a grown man, English prime minister Winston Churchill used to read Stevenson's Treasure Island once a year.

What do you think this says about Churchill? About Stevenson?

3. Robert Louis Stevenson became a fully qualified lawyer but never practiced. Why not?

4. A master of several prose forms, Stevenson also wrote verse all of his life but never considered himself more than an amateur as a poet. How do the requirements for good prose and good poetry differ?

5. How did his long years of invalidism affect Stevenson as a writer?

6. What qualities did Fanny Stevenson possess to make her marriage successful?

7. A modern writer of thrillers, Stephen King, has admitted that he has difficulty creating believable women. Likewise, Stevenson's works, especially the earlier ones, do not depict women in major roles. Why...