Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have very mixed feelings about this book. As a fictionalized account of Robert Louis Stevenson's life, it captured my heart with the romantic involvement of Louis (as he was known) and Fanny, an older woman who moved with her children to Europe for their education and to get away from her philandering husband.

I was familiar with some of RLS's works, Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses. The story covers all of those and some I have not read, but all to capture the personality and adventurous nature of RLS, his assortment of friends, associates, publishers, etc who were essential to his writing career.

What I didn't know was that he was a sickly child, and a semi-invalid for most of his adult life. And it was his wife Fanny (whom he married after her divorce) who nursed him and kept him alive.

The book is very long, in some places tedious, but I plodded through. This was a book club selection and I'm a good book club member. 

Finished reading December 2, 2014.

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