Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Catriona’ based on real woman ‘he loved’
By ANISaturday, January 15, 2011
LONDON - A new research has concluded that Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel ‘Catriona’ was based on a real woman the author fell in love with.
The work continues the story of Stevenson’s Kidnapped hero David Balfour, who falls for and eventually marries the eponymous heroine.
Author Jeremy Hodges conducted the research into Stevenson’s life for his book ‘Lamplit, Vicious Fairy Land’.
“There was a Kate Drummond who can be linked with Stevenson’s low-life Edinburgh haunts as a young man,” the Scotsman quoted Hodges as saying.
A 1924 biography of Stevenson previously named Drummond, but studying birth and census records has allowed Hodges conclusively to establish that a real Drummond did indeed exist - and that she bore many similarities with Stevenson’s Catriona. (ANI)
