Harvard’s Leo Damrosch on Robert Louis Stevenson & Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Great Hearts Academies’ Dr. Helen Baxendale interview Leo Damrosch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature Emeritus at Harvard University, and acclaimed biographer of some of the world's greatest literary figures. Prof. Damrosch discusses his newest book Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. He reflects on Stevenson's childhood in Scotland and the close relationship he maintained with his nanny, Alison Cunningham. He shares how Stevenson lived an adventurous life, with his travel inspiring classics like Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and A Child’s Garden of Verses. Prof. Damrosch explores the moral dualities in Stevenson’s gothic masterpiece, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, examining how the novella reveals humanity’s capacity for good and evil. He also discusses Stevenson’s later years in Samoa, his marriage to the American Fanny Osbourne, and his involvement with the politics and people of the South Pacific islands before dying at the age of 44. Prof. Damrosch concludes with reading an excerpt from Treasure Island.