Robert Louis Stevenson: Writer of Boundaries

Preface

The small town of Gargnano (with its dependent villages of Villa and Bogliaco) lies on the northwestern side of Lake Garda in Italy, on a sliver of shore between a low shoulder of hillside to the south, around which the road curves on an oleander-lined corniche, and a mighty headland of precipitous lake-cliffs to the north. With mountain slopes beginning right behind the little town, there is no room for expansion and, the local people miraculously having managed to hold on to many of the houses, the place retains the charm and coherence of a traditional community. Everyday life goes on, with much meeting and talking outside, especially in the inner street parallel to the lakefront. Just to the south, Villa is even prettier and (unlike other picture-postcard villages) is without busloads of trippers looking for something to photograph or buy. From five until dinner and then in the evening, the mothers in their floral pinafores meet to chat and knit, while their children run around or sit on the harbor wall and play cards in their outdoor communal living room. It was here at the end of August  that the editors of the present volume organized a Robert Louis Stevenson conference that aimed both to continue the interest already shown at a series of Stevenson conferences in centenary-year  (at Guelph and Yale) and  (at Stirling, Little Rock, and Cerisy), and to lay the foundations for a series of biennial conferences. The venue was Palazzo Feltrinelli, the University of Milan’s small conference center on the lakefront at the northern end of the short Gargnano ix        lungolago, a square Beaux-Arts palazzo of beige and orangey brown. In the center of the ground floor and extending out to the back is the main conference hall, ending in three French windows, the central one left open, so that those on the dais at the other end had a constant view of the changing sparkling blue of the lake and, twice in the morning, and twice in the afternoon, could see the arriving or departing ferry, with its colorful passengers at the rails, glide seemingly just past the end of the room. Those in the audience could hear the gentle ruffling beat of the propellers and were perhaps unconsciously aware of a slight change of luminosity and the sound of the wash against the terrace. This was no distraction: the passage of the ferry was like a passing breeze on the face while reading at an open window in summer: allowing you to continue still absorbed with what you are doing, yet concurrently aware of—yourself—this place—this time. And a memorable time it was. Part of the magic of Gargnano was ending a session and stepping out to the flowery gravel terrace for coffee or lunch or to meet there in the long Gargnano twilight for an aperitivo or dinner. We talked around the tables, in friendly groups or at the terrace edge in a frieze of moving figures against the shining lake (understanding, by glances that informed as unconsciously as breathing, the simple pleasure of living inside such a landscape, always the same, always different); and as we talked the atmosphere of the place fused with an easy conviviality that helped the free exchange of ideas and opinions. But it was also a memorable conference because of the high level of all the papers and the way that themes were taken up and added to by different speakers. This we will leave readers to discover for themselves. The two organizers and co-editors would like to thank all those who took part for helping to create such a successful event, with a special thanks to the University of Milan, to Paolo Mantegazza, then president of the university , to Fabrizio Conca, dean of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, for providing the financial support that in part went also into helping produce the present volume, and to the Dipartimento di Scienze del Linguaggio e Letterature Straniere Comparate for institutional support. In Gargnano, Francesca Cuojati, Cinzia Giglioni, Paolo Cassinari, Sara Rizzo, and Marco Manunta, students and graduates from the University of Milan, with brio and savvy dealt with all sorts of emergencies plus giving at least as much as they got in the exchange of ideas that characterized life there in between sessions. When more complex problems arose, Alda Gandini was always present to sort them out. Very special thanks to Marina...