“Stour or dour or clour”: An Overview of Scots Usage in Stevenson’s Works and Correspondence

This chapter outlines the main ways in which Robert Louis Stevenson appears to have used Scots for special stylistic effects in his prose writings and personal correspondence. Attention is given to metalinguistic and metatextual comments, and to vernacular modes of expression that contribute to the definition of a situational context, of an exchange, or of a character.