CLASSIC STORIES, STORY:

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON’S ‘THE BOTTLE IMP’

 

While submissions are open for the GBP Short Story Prize 2016/17, we'll be posting some classic short stories for our friends and entrants to access freely.

 

This week Sarah Crown – literary journalist and the director of literature at the Arts Council, as well as one of this year’s judges for the GBP Prize - has suggested Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Bottle Imp’. ('I read it again,' she said, 'and scared myself silly.')

 

Best known as a writer of adventure stories and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson’s legacy as a popular writer frequently underestimates his profound understanding of narrative and its mechanisms. Dismissed by F.R. Leavis as a romantic writer guilty of fine writing, Stevenson has nevertheless continued to attract writers as diverse (and impressive) as Henry James, Nabokov, and Borges.

 

You can read ‘The Bottle Imp’ here.

 

An article about Robert Louis Stevenson can be accessed here.

 

To enter or find our more about this year's GBP Short Story Prize, head here.