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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON started using the pseudonym Tusitala -a Samoan word meaning, approximately, "the Story-Teller"-in the spring of 1892. A few months earlier, his short story "The Bottle Imp," first issued in the Sunday New York Herald from 8 February to 1 March 1891, had been translated into Samoan and published in the missionary magazine O le sulu Samoa (The Samoan Torch). This was the first instance of a published text in the Samoan language. Stevenson had worked on the translation with A. E. Claxton, a local missionary.
In December of 1892, in a letter addressed to Sidney Colvin, his long-time friend and publisher, Stevenson wrote that "The Bottle Imp" should be seen as "the centre piece" of his forthcoming collection Island Nights' Entertainments. One year later, in another letter to Colvin, Stevenson insisted: "You always had an idea that I depreciated the 'B[ottle]. I[mp]'; I can't think wherefore; I always particularly liked it-one of my best works, and ill to equal."
In order to clarify some of the possible reasons for Stevenson's high evaluation of "The Bottle Imp," it will be useful to reinsert this short piece into a larger context.
Although "The Bottle Imp" is deservedly well-known, it will be useful to start with a resume of its plot. A young sailor from Hawaii, named Keawe, is taking a walk along the streets of San Francisco. He sees a beautiful house and conceives a longing to own one like it. A sadlooking man, who turns out to be the owner of the house, enters into conversation with Keawe and soon informs him that his wishes will be fulfilled if only he buys from him a marvelous bottle. Inside the bottle, he is told, is an imp capable of granting the owner of the bottle his every request-except the wish for a longer life. The bottle "cannot be sold at all, unless sold at a loss," otherwise it will unfailingly be returned to the hands of he who violates this rule. "If a man dies before he sells it, he must burn in hell for ever. " Long ago the price of the bottle had been extremely high; it is now being sold quite cheaply.
After some uncertainty Keawe pays all the money he...