Five Stevenson titles are on this shelf, published between 1883 and 1889, and two of them appeared in the same year: Jekyll and Hyde and Kidnapped, both 1886.
Treasure Island began as a map drawn for a child, and it reads like the adventure story that made the genre possible.
Stevenson’s five books here span 26,000 to 85,398 words and three kinds of writing: the adventure story (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Black Arrow), the Gothic case study (Jekyll and Hyde), and the historical novel of manners (The Master of Ballantrae). He wrote Treasure Island for a boys’ magazine and Jekyll and Hyde from a dream he was ill enough to have twice.
At the site’s reading speed the whole shelf is under a day. Jekyll and Hyde is about an hour and a half and Treasure Island about four; Kidnapped, The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae are four to five each. That makes him the best author here for a long train journey, and the only one whose entire shelf fits in one.
Start here: Treasure Island. At 68,000 words it is about four hours, and it is the shortest of his full-length adventures apart from Jekyll and Hyde.
Robert Louis Stevenson: which book first
Every Robert Louis Stevenson title on editions.ink, with the reading time for each. The first row is the one to start with.
| Book | Year | Words | Read time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treasure Island — start here | 1883 | 68,000 | 4 h |
| Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | 1886 | 26,000 | 1 h |
| The Black Arrow | 1888 | 74,000 | 4 h |
| The Master of Ballantrae | 1889 | 85,000 | 5 h |
| Kidnapped | 1886 | 85,398 | 5 h |
| All five | 338,398 | 19 h |
What to read after the first one
- Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — 26,000 words, one sitting, and structurally unlike anything else here
- Kidnapped — the Scottish historical novel, and the one Stevenson thought his best
If you would rather see the whole shelf in chronological order first, the Robert Louis Stevenson books in order page lists every title by publication year with the same word counts. The Robert Louis Stevenson author page collects all the editions in one place,, and the author index has the other writers on the site. If you want a follow-up by a different author, the read next guide pairs ten classics with what to read after them.
Questions readers ask
Which Robert Louis Stevenson book should I read first?
Treasure Island (1883, 68,000 words). If you want something shorter, Jekyll and Hyde is 26,000 words and takes about an hour and a half.
Are Jekyll and Hyde and Kidnapped connected?
No. They were published in the same year, 1886, but they share nothing except the author.
Are these Stevenson editions free?
Yes, all five are free DRM-free downloads in three formats.