Season 2, Episode 9 - The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective

Back of the Bookshelf

The city of Paris has captured the imagination of many writers over the years, so it was perhaps inevitable that we would end up journeying back there for another of our adaptations. This one is The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective by Robert Louis Stevenson, originally published in London Magazine in October 1878.

The story is part of The Rajah's Diamond cycle and is about a mysterious diamond which was stolen from an Indian ruler and is thought to bring misfortune to people who come in contact with it. The eponymous Prince Florizel of Bohemia was given the diamond in another story in the cycle, but its previous owner wants it back and sends a detective to challenge him about it. Join us for the episode to found out how he reacts. The incarnation of London Magazine which the story appeared in had a small circulation, but it reached a wider audience in 1882 when it was republished in Stevenson's New Arabian Nights collection, along with the other three stories in The Rajah's Diamond cycle, a second cycle called The Suicide Club (which also features Prince Florizel), and four standalone stories. Stevenson named his book after the folktale collection The Arabian Nights (aka The One Thousand and One Nights), which he was greatly enamoured of, as there are common themes and it has a similar nested structure.

The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective was written relatively early in Stevenson's career, but it was an important milestone. He is mostly remembered now for his novel Treasure Island and his novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but works like this one show that it's well worth seeking out the rest of his canon. Our version of the story is narrated by C.J. Carter-Stephenson as usual with music by Kevin MacLeod (music licenced under Creative Commons: by attribution 3.0 licence). Stay tuned for more classic literature.