Word: randomly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...STEVENSON was more than a writer of wonderful stories for 12-year-old boys is a question settled beyond doubt by this readable and authoritative biography: he was also, at the very least, the jaunty and flamboyant hero of an extraordinary life story. Frank McLynn's Robert Louis Stevenson (Random House; 567 pages; $30) describes a hardworking idler, a Scottish Calvinist who remade himself as a romantic and (four days out of any seven) a convincing bohemian, a smothered son who remained boyish all his short life, and an invalid who lived a life of arduous travel and physical adventure...
...second step is more fundamental and also more problematic. It involves allocating the power to make the final decision. Ideally, we would like to see this power rest at least partially in the hands of our fellow students. The aforementioned committee of random undergraduates, if allowed to make the final decision on this vital matter, would more than likely reach a conclusion which would be to the benefit of generations of incoming first-years...
Some idler is sure to begin a critique of Stephen Fry's funny, sharp-tongued novel The Hippopotamus (Random House; 290 pages; $21) by referring loftily to the title character as "the eponymous hippopotamus." Shun this pedant, who should consider another line of work. Read the novel, however. Its virtues are cynicism and ill will, directed energetically at all that is trendy and modern, and embodied in the blubbery, whiskified carcass of an out-of-date poet named Ted Wallace...
...spectacle would be complete without a gimmick, and this one is no exception. The text of the exhibit is broken up in entirely random places, frequently in the middle of words. In this case, form mirrors content: both are equally...
Frank McLynn's authoritative biography (Random House; 567 pages; $30) portrays the Scottish author of "Treasure Island" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as the frail, yet flamboyant hero of an extraordinary short life. An invalid born into a wealthy Victorian family ruled by a strict father, Stevenson grew into a romantic wanderer, searching for a climate his bleeding lungs could tolerate. "McLynn tells his story with grace and skill," says TIME critic John Skow. "Only a dull reader will finish this biography without heading for the library to search out a complete edition of Stevenson's marvelous...