Thrawn Janet
"Thrawn Janet" is a short story, written in Scots, by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. He wrote the story in the summer of 1881 while he stayed at the rented Kinnaird Cottage in Kinnaird, a hamlet near Pitlochry, with his parents and wife. When he read the story to his wife Fanny, she said of it that it "sent a cauld grue [shudder] along my bones" and "fair frightened" Stevenson himself. It was first published in the October 1881 issue of the Cornhill Magazine. It is a dark tale of satanic possession.[1][2][3][4]
The story is one of only two stories ever written by Stevenson in Scots, the other being "The Tale of Tod Lapraik". Stevenson was aware that his readers might not understand the broad Scots the story was written in and so fully expected the Cornhill Magazine to reject "Thrawn Janet" on its first submission.[5] However, Cornhill Magazine's editor, Leslie Stephen, put it straight into print in the next issue.[5]
References
- ^ Mehew, Ernest (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26438.
- ^ Stevenson, Robert Louis (1881). "Thrawn Janet". The Cornhill Magazine (October). London: John Murray: 436–443.
- ^ Gray, William (2004). "Robert Louis Stevenson: A Literary Life". www.springer.com. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-230-51034-0.
- ^ J&H Mitchell Solicitors. "Kinnaird Cottage, Kinnaird, Pitlochry, PH16 5JL" (PDF). www.psps.co.uk.
- ^ a b "Strange Tales: Three Uncanny Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson". np.netpublicator.com. Retrieved 2016-11-14.