The Pavilion on the Links • Robert Louis Stevenson

I’ve been an enthusiastic reader and collector of the mare classics for several years now—one of the most beautiful lines of books on the German-language market today, in my view. It feels as if handsome, high-quality new editions of classics are becoming rarer and rarer. If you set the right filters in a book search, you’ll notice it takes barely ten minutes to scan the entire list of forthcoming hardbound classics. mare is one of the few publishers that truly does outstanding work here and keeps releasing wonderful books.

The mare classics series has been around for a while. I was particularly curious about The Pavilion on the Links, because this book launches a new line with a smaller format than the existing mare classics. Ever since Manesse redesigned its Library of World Literature, I’ve wondered whether mare might fill the resulting gap—there aren’t exactly many small clothbound volumes with bibliophile flourishes out there.

The protagonist of this novella-like short story is Frank Cassilis, a reclusive loner who wanders through Scotland, leading a fairly simple and free life after dropping out of university. By chance he is drawn to the estate of a former fellow student, which the two had visited years earlier to spend a holiday there. When he arrives at the small pavilion on Scotland’s North Sea coast, he observes some strange goings-on and lies in wait to find out more. He quickly finds himself entangled in a life-and-death adventure and the struggle for a great love.

Robert Louis Stevenson needs no introduction and is especially known for his adventure novel Treasure Island and for Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I’ve read a thing or two by him and like his books a lot, even if they’ve never moved me as deeply as some other authors’ works occasionally do. His storytelling, though, is always very entertaining, and before you know it his tales swallow you whole and you’re in the thick of an adventure. And that’s what his books invariably were: adventures—and that goes for The Pavilion on the Links as well. Events move rapidly and the pace is pleasantly brisk.

The opening of The Pavilion on the Links is swift, with the first-person narrator recounting, in retrospect, the events on the lonely Scottish coast. Especially in the early chapters he creates a truly dense, very maritime atmosphere that’s so typical of every book in the mare classics line. I loved that once again; you genuinely feel as if you’re roaming the dunes and beach with Cassilis, standing with him before the pavilion, or gazing out over the sea from the deserted shore, where the surf breaks—calm and stormy at once.

“On summer days the view was bright and even uplifting, but in September, with the sun going down, a stiff breeze blowing, and the surf foaming high against the dunes, the place spoke only of dead sailors and disasters at sea. A ship tacking laboriously against the wind on the horizon and the massive hull of a wreck, half-buried in the sand at my feet, completed the scene.” (pp. 10–11)

The story itself is suspenseful—you want to know what happens next and how the situation will resolve. The outcome is clear (the narrator makes no secret of that at the start), but the circumstances are unusual, and the characters’ decisions aren’t predictable. I found the character work very successful overall: none of them are stereotypes, which makes them unpredictable, yet they’re only sketched in broad strokes in terms of temperament and traits. I’d classify the book as a novella; even if the narrative mode feels more novelistic, the ending is both surprising and unspectacular in a way that invites reflection on its deeper meaning. I wouldn’t call the story a masterpiece—it’s simply too short for that—but together with the setting it forms a well-rounded whole.

Stevenson has a firm place in mare’s programme. A truly gorgeous classic they’ve published is The Master of Ballantrae, a highly recommended book that is both a design masterpiece and offers a thoroughly enjoyable adventure tale. From Stevenson’s wife Fanny there’s also her diary, issued in a very handsome edition under the title The Cruise of the “Janet Nichol”: Among the South Sea Islands. I found it visually very appealing but less gripping in content, as it presents life and everyday routines on Samoa in diary form, with a very flat dramatic curve.

As for the design, I was eager to see how the smaller format would work and what would carry over from the larger mare classics. At first glance it looks like the tried-and-true slipcase–clothbinding combo, and so it is. The binding is once again smart cloth, printed—fitting the story’s pavilion—with a painting by Edward Hopper. It strongly reminded me of Garden by the Sea from the mare classics series and works similarly well and high-quality. It’s definitely excellent once again and sets the mood beautifully for the story. There’s also a ribbon marker in a matching golden hue, which harmonises nicely with the rest. A major downer is the binding: unlike the larger line, this one uses perfect binding. The slipcase also disappoints; it’s much thinner and open on both sides. All told, the book doesn’t sit in the hand as well as the larger mare classics and doesn’t reach their level of build quality, but it’s still a bibliophile little volume that more than does justice to the novella in terms of presence and overall impression. Lovers of fine books will be pleased nonetheless.

The translation is by Lucien Deprijck, one of my absolute favourite translators. I already have quite a few books by him on my shelf—including ones where he isn’t the translator but the author—and none has disappointed me so far. Once again there’s nothing to criticise linguistically: the book reads smoothly, in the accustomed high quality. An afterword sheds a little light on Stevenson’s life and his situation when he wrote this short story in 1879, as he himself was struggling for his great love, Fanny. Those few pages are a very successful addition.

Conclusion: With The Pavilion on the Links, mare launches a new, slightly smaller-format classics line that I can heartily recommend once again. Stevenson’s short tale is very entertaining, with a wonderful setting that brings the harsh, lonely atmosphere of Scotland’s North Sea coast vividly to life and offers readers high-quality, if brief, entertainment. The design is once again successful, and even if the book doesn’t quite match the larger mare classics, its printed cloth binding, well-matched ribbon marker, and carefully chosen typography make it a very fine volume that meets high bibliophile standards. A wonderful book for cold winter days—perfect to enjoy in one relaxed evening. Or as a gift for anyone who appreciates good books but has little time. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I suspect it’s the start of another collection I won’t be able to skip a single volume of.

Book information: The Pavilion on the Links • Robert Louis Stevenson • mare Verlag • 160 pages • ISBN 9783866482951