to Mrs. Thomas Stevenson

Hotel du Val de Grâce, Rue St. Jacques,
Paris, Sunday [June 1878].

MY DEAR MOTHER,—About criticisms, I was more surprised at the tone of the critics than I suppose any one else.  And the effect it has produced in me is one of shame.  If they liked that so much, I ought to have given them something better, that’s all.  And I shall try to do so.  Still, it strikes me as odd; and I don’t understand the vogue.  It should sell the thing.—Ever your affectionate son,

Robert Louis Stevenson.