Critic on the Hearth:

Name: The Black Arrow - Critic on the Hearth:
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

No one but myself knows what I have suffered, nor what my books have gained, by your unsleeping watchfulness and admirable pertinacity. And now here is a volume that goes into the world and lacks your IMPRIMATUR: a strange thing in our joint lives; and the reason of it stranger still! I have watched with interest, with pain, and at length with amusement, your unavailing attempts to peruse THE BLACK ARROW; and I think I should lack humour indeed, if I let the occasion slip and did not place your name in the fly-leaf of the only book of mine that you have never read - and never will read.

That others may display more constancy is still my hope. The tale was written years ago for a particular audience and (I may say) in rivalry with a particular author; I think I should do well to name him, Mr. Alfred R. Phillips. It was not without its reward at the time. I could not, indeed, displace Mr. Phillips from his well-won priority; but in the eyes of readers who thought less than nothing of TREASURE ISLAND, THE BLACK ARROW was supposed to mark a clear advance. Those who read volumes and those who read story papers belong to different worlds. The verdict on TREASURE ISLAND was reversed in the other court; I wonder, will it be the same with its successor?

R. L. S.

SARANAC LAKE, April 8, 1888.

THE BLACK ARROW - A TALE OF THE TWO ROSES

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Chicago: Robert Louis Stevenson, "Critic on the Hearth:," The Black Arrow, ed. Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell), 1852-1915 and trans. Curtin, Jeremiah, 1835-1906 in The Black Arrow Original Sources, accessed May 5, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=I3KV7DPH9GH2TKT.

MLA: Stevenson, Robert Louis. "Critic on the Hearth:." The Black Arrow, edited by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell), 1852-1915, and translated by Curtin, Jeremiah, 1835-1906, in The Black Arrow, Original Sources. 5 May. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=I3KV7DPH9GH2TKT.

Harvard: Stevenson, RL, 'Critic on the Hearth:' in The Black Arrow, ed. and trans. . cited in , The Black Arrow. Original Sources, retrieved 5 May 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=I3KV7DPH9GH2TKT.