MARKHEIM MARKHEIM, written by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) in 1884, was first published in the Christmas number of Unwin's Annual, 1885, under the title Markheim: The Broken Shaft. It was republished in 1887, in the collection entitled The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables. The most important of Stevenson's Short Stories are: A Lodging for the Night (1877), Will o' the Mill (1878), The Sire de Malétroit's Door (1878), The Pavilion on the Links (1880), Thrawn Janet (1881), Markheim (1885), Olalla (1885), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), The Beach of Falesá (1892), The Tale of Tod Lapraik (in David Balfour: 1893). For an illustration of the Short Story in process of construction, the reader is referred to the eighth chapter of Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae (1888-89). Most critics of Stevenson's writings have not failed to remark both the resemblance and the difference between Markheim and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Graham Balfour says, in The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson: "A subject much in his thoughts at this time [1885] was the duality of man's nature and the alternation of good and evil; and he was for a long time casting about for a story to embody this central idea. Out of this frame of mind had come the sombre imagination of Markheim, but that was not what he required. The true story still delayed, till suddenly one night he had a dream. He awoke, and found himself in possession of two, or rather three, of the scenes in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Though Markheim must perhaps yield in point of greatness to Dr. Jekyll (that most vertiginous of the works of fiction of the nineteenth century), it is surely its superior as an embodiment of the art of the Short Story, in its economy of means and its precision of effect. The words of Balzac may well be applied to it: "A narrative sharp and incisive as a blow with an axe." And in "Markheim, that singular and vivid study," as L. Cope Cornford calls it, the wonderful conversation between Markheim and his visitant surely holds first place. It is one of the most brilliant of all its author's achievements, and has a wisdom that goes to the heart of things. AUTHORITIES: Robert Louis Stevenson, by L. Cope Cornford. The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Graham Balfour. Robert Louis Stevenson, by Walter Raleigh. The Short Story in English, by Henry Seidel Canby (Chapter XVII). MARKHEIM "Yes," said the dealer, our windfalls are of various kinds. Some customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior knowledge. Some are dishonest," and here he held up the candle, so that the light fell strongly on his visitor, “and in that case," he continued, "I profit by my virtue." Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes had not yet grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness in the shop. At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, he blinked painfully and looked aside. The dealer chuckled. "You come to me on Christmas day," he resumed, "when you know that I am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make a point of refusing business. Well, you will have to pay for that; you will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark in you to-day very strongly. I am the essence of discretion, and ask no awkward questions; but when a customer cannot look me in the eye, he has to pay for it." The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to his usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, "You can give, as usual, a clear account of how you came into the possession of the object?" he continued. Still your uncle's cabinet? A remarkable collector, sir!" 66 And the little pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tiptoe, looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite pity, and a touch of horror. This time," said he, "you are in error. I have not come to sell, but to buy. I have no curios to dispose of; my |