The Secret of St. Ives

I won't rate the film here, because I did not see it. In fact, until I noticed it's title and checked, I was surprised that a movie based on ST. IVES had been made.

Most people hearing the title ST. IVES will think it refers to a Charles Bronson movie of that name. But before Bronson's film, there was this novel. When Robert Louis Stevenson died of a brain hemorrhage in 1894 he had several uncompleted projects in manuscript. Rightfully he recognized that his best work was WEIR OF HERMISTON, which he completed about two thirds of, and had left the actual conclusion in the air. But he had also done three quarters of a novel about French Prisoners of War in England and Scotland in the early 19th Century, entitled ST. IVES (give it the French pronunciation - it is the name of the hero's aristocratic family).

Whenever WEIR OF HERMISTON is printed today it is usually in a volume with THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE, as they represent Stevenson's most mature work as a writer. ST. IVES, actually merits it's own volume. This is ironic, because Stevenson's letters suggest he was getting bored by the book, and felt it was a second-rate collection of improbable adventures (the hero escapes from Edinburgh by balloon at one point). But he had written so much, Fanny Stevenson decided to try to have it completed. So it was finished by Arthur Quiller-Couch, a prominent critic and writer of the period. It was serialized and then published formally in 1896. It was still in publication (in the EVERYMAN edition) up to the middle of the 20th Century.

Hopefully, one day, the film will be shown again on television, and a more proper review of it will be made.