Robert Louis Stevenson, famed author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, continues to provoke both hatred and idolatry, and there are now well over a hundred biographical books and essays on Stevenson and his work.

Today’s story, “A Lodging for the Night,” was Stevenson's first ever published fiction, appearing in his book New Arabian Nights, a collection of short stories whose title is an allusion to Arabian Nights, published during the Islamic Golden Age. In 1890 Arthur Conan Doyle characterized "The Pavilion on the Links," another story in the collection, as "the high-water mark of Stevenson's genius" and "the first short-story in the world.” We will attend to this story later here on Just Listen. Author and critic Barry Menikoff considers New Arabian Nights to be the starting point in the history of the English-language short story. Other authors by whom this honor has been received are Edgar Allen Poe, O. Henry, and the French writer Guy de Maupassant--all 19th century contemporaries of one another and all prolific contributors to the short story genre.

"A Lodging for the Night: A Story of Francis Villon" is about a downtrodden French poet who finds himself involved in the murder of a friend on a cold winter night in late November 1456. Stevenson weaves a tale of the events leading up to the murder and the events that take place after. After escaping the scene, Villon must find a warm place to hide himself from both the cold and law enforcement. To avoid the police on patrol, he finds shelter in the home of a wealthy former military man.

And now, “A Lodging for the Night” by Robert Louis Stevenson…we begin….