G. K. Chesterton said of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins." This collection of Stevenson's essays includes:
On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant PlacesAn Apology for IdlersAes TriplexTalk and TalkersA Gossip on RomanceThe Character of DogsA College MagazineBooks Which Have Influenced MePulvis et Umbra