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The Story of a Recluse is an unfinished work by Robert Louis Stevenson, probably written in the mid 1880s. It tells the story of Jamie Kirkwood, an Edinburgh minister's son who finds himself waking up in a room identical to his own in the house of a mysterious man called Manton Jamieson. Stevenson only completed three pages.[1][2]
Adaptation
editThe work was adapted into a television play by Alasdair Gray. Written in 1985, the TV screenplay completes the original story by means of flashbacks from the 1930s. When broadcast it starred Stewart Granger, Peter Capaldi and Cristina Higueras.[3][4] The Independent's W. Stephen Gilbert thought its style "brilliantly cheeky".[5] However according to Gray's biographer, Rodge Glass, the writer was unhappy with the final product.[4]
Gray, in turn, adapted his screenplay into a short story in the anthology Lean Tales. It involved some alterations to the television play's plot, concentrating for the most part on a metafictional discussion of the reasoning by which Gray deduces how Stevenson's story should end.[6]
References
edit- ^ Stevenson, Robert Louis (1921). Harper, Henry Howard (ed.). Robert Louis Stevenson; hitherto unpublished prose writings. Boston: The Bibliophile Society. p. 110.
- ^ "Bizarre". Daily Record. 24 December 1987. p. 24. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ "Christmas day, BBC2 TV listing". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 24 December 1987. p. 22. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ a b Kinninmont, Tom (26 January 2024). "What would Alasdair Gray think of Poor Things?". The Spectator. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Stephen Gilbert, W (24 December 1987). "Putting a Pay-Off on RLS". The Independent. p. 14. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ "Alasdair Gray: Every Short Story 1951-2012 (Canongate)". The Herald. 17 November 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
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