Robert Louis Stevenson's Ethics for Rascals

ETHICS FOR RASCALS spotlights the romantic adventures, provocative ethics, and playful philosophy of the prince of storytellers, Robert Louis Stevenson, quixotic wanderer and prototype for Sir James M. Barries Peter Pan. This unique introduction to RLS and his spirited mate, Fanny Osbourne -- who fell in love in the romantic environs of Paris and married under the spell of California's Big Sur-Monterey coast -- throws down the gauntlet, daring readers to turn every trial into an adventure, to do nothing that insults their own souls, and to have a little open-hearted fun along the way to El dorado. Recognizing the inner illumination of even the humblest life, Stevenson urges: "Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all. In the joy of the actors lies the sense of any action. That is the explanation, that the excuse!"