The Master of Ballantrae.
BY
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Twentieth Thousand. Price 3s. 6d.
The Times says:— "'Treasure Island' and 'Kidnapped' had as many admirers as readers, and 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' was a marvellous tour d'esprit. But in 'The Master of Ballantrae' we have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Stevenson surpasses all his former performances, and in our opinion there are very few novels which so nearly approach perfection. It is compact, and it is so artistically constructed that you can hardly afford to skip a sentence. The story is sensational in the highest degree, yet the sensation of startling incident is subordinated throughout to the interest excited by the evolution of character. There is a subtle analysis of the mixed motives which elude any clear conclusions, and there is an ingenuity in the development of the incidents which keeps curiosity perpetually on the stretch."
The Observer says:— "We have here a work so original in conception, so superlatively artistic in texture, as almost to exempt a reviewer from the need of exercising his critical functions."
The Pall Mall Gazette says:— "Mr. Stevenson has done it at last: in 'The Master of Ballantrae' he has produced something very like a classic.... The strength of the book lies in the combined subtlety and poignancy of its spiritual drama. We have here delicacies of analysis that Mr. Meredith has scarcely surpassed, flashes of the keenest imaginative insight.... Old Lord Durrisdeer, too, is drawn with unfailing felicity, a quite original character, yet one whom Scott would not have disowned."
The Illustrated London News says:— "Mr. Stevenson has literally gone through each mode of the lyre, and has mastered them all. His last victory is his greatest. . . 'The Master of Ballantrae' is one of those few books of which even a poor man says to himself, when he has finished it, 'I would give a guinea never to have read it, that I might read it again for the first time.'"
The Scotsman says: — "'The Master of Ballantrae' has a thousand excellences in its rich language, its many characters, its varied procession of beautiful scenes, the harmonious conduct of the narrative, and the fine spirit of romance which animates it all."
The Irish Times says:— "This tale, which Messrs. Cassell & Co. have published for Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, will add vastly to his reputation as a romancist of the higher modern order."
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, Litigate Hill. London; and all Bookseller:
