How public funding will change RLS into Mr Hyde

Published on Sunday 13 November 2005 00:03

THOUSANDS of pounds of public money has been ploughed into a movie script which portrays one of Scotland's most revered literary figures as a rapist and murderer, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Scottish Screen has given 20,000 towards an adaptation of a story about Robert Louis Stevenson which weaves the facts of his final years in Samoa into a fictional tale involving unspeakable crimes.

The novella, Stevenson Under the Palm Trees by Argentinian-born writer Alberto Manguel, has already sparked controversy for suggesting Stevenson was responsible for the rape and murder of a local teenage girl.

But the decision to put public money into a movie adaptation has caused wider concern and been described as "offensive" by one of Stevenson's biographers.

A century after his death, Stevenson's books still sell in huge quantities around the world and his works have been filmed more than 100 times.

There has never been any serious suggestion that Stevenson was a rapist, murderer or criminal of any sort, though his own writing and contemporary accounts suggest that in his youth he was no stranger to the brothels and drinking howffs of his native Edinburgh.

Manguel's fictionalised account of Stevenson's stay in Samoa has him meet a newly arrived missionary called Baker, wearing a hat similar to his own. Stevenson subsequently attends a local feast where he admires a teenage girl, who is later found raped and murdered.

A hat like Stevenson's is found at the scene of the crime and he becomes a suspect in the murder and in a later case of arson, which results in further deaths. The reader is never sure whether Baker is the culprit or if Baker is a figment of Stevenson's imagination or a manifestation of his personality.

Manguel is alluding in his story to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson's classic tale of a split personality, a scientist and his evil alter-ego. The novella has appealed mainly to fans of serious literature and is hardly a bestseller: the paperback edition ranked no higher than number 259,580 in the UK sales chart of internet bookseller Amazon last week.

But concern is widespread that making a movie of the book will bring Manguel's Stevenson to a much wider audience, some of whom will struggle to separate clever literary fiction from fact.

Jenni Calder, a biographer of Stevenson, said: "There's something offensive about playing with somebody's reputation in that kind of way. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

"A film would inevitably reach a wider audience and you can just imagine the sort of scenario evolving where people see the film and, the next time they come across a mention of Stevenson, saying, 'Oh, that's the guy who raped young girls in the South Seas.' These things kind of gather currency."

Andrew Hook, a former professor of English literature at Glasgow University, said: "I think there's a limit to how far a novelist can take a real person, a real historical figure, and transform them into some exaggerated, lurid character, wholly out of keeping with anything that's known about that real person."

And Michael Matheson, the SNP's culture spokesman, added: "A story of this nature could be misinterpreted by some viewers as being factual and tarnish the outstanding reputation of Stevenson. I would hope that the film's producers would be guarded in the way in which they present Stevenson, to ensure that the viewers are left in no doubt that this is purely a fictional story."

Karl Miller, the Scots-born critic and former professor of modern English literature at University College London, accused Manguel of defamation when he reviewed the book last year. "Literature and its allied trades are a place where, without evidence and without much fear of reprisal, you can get to defame people," he wrote. "Mud does sometimes stick."

Glasgow's Gabriel Films, which made the award-winning drama AfterLife in 2003, has received the 20,000 grant from Scottish Screen to finance the writing of a screenplay. Gabriel already has an international partner in the Canadian company Alberta Filmworks, which was one of the companies behind the children's television series Shoebox Zoo and the new Western Brokeback Mountain, which is being touted for Oscars.

Producer Ros Borland anticipated the Stevenson film would cause controversy. "There's a murder that takes place. At one point the audience may think Robert Louis Stevenson did that murder," she said. "As film-makers we are obviously creating a story here, we are creating entertainment. But we are aware that we're dealing with a literary giant as well."

Not everyone shares the concerns over the film, however. Roderick Watson, professor of English at Stirling University, is an expert on Stevenson and a fan of Manguel's book. "I thought it was a rather clever evocation of Stevenson's last days in the light of Stevenson's own fiction," he said.

"Manguel is a keen fan of Stevenson and a critic of some note on Stevenson's work. The only reactions I have had are that it's been an act of homage."

Alan Marchbank, honorary secretary of the RLS Club, which was formed in 1920 by friends of Stevenson "to care for his memory", had no problems with the film. "If it's presented as fiction, it's fair enough," he said.

Celia Stevenson, of Scottish Screen, was confident audiences would see the film for what it was. "It's simply a piece of fiction that has Robert Louis Stevenson woven into it," she said.

Gabriel may apply to Scottish Screen for further money in due course. The film is currently budgeted at $2m and would be shot in Samoa.

The use of real-life writers as characters in fiction has become fashionable. David Lodge and Colm Toibin have both written "novelised" accounts of Henry James's life. In Louise Welsh's Tamburlaine Must Die Christopher Marlowe pursues the blood-thirsty title-character through 16th-century London after he escapes from the confines of Marlowe's plays.