Showing that Robert Louis Stevenson's illustrated novels represent his vision of a serious artistic literary form, Richard J. Hill argues that Stevenson developed theories of the relationship of literature and the visual arts. For Stevenson, the illustrations were important not simply for their contribution to his novels' commercial success, but were also a legitimate art form in their own right. Hill introduces hitherto neglected materials in support of his argument that Stevenson saw the illustrations and the text as interdependent. Because Stevenson sought out and proofed the illustrations himself whenever possible, the contemporary illustrations of his novels are the closest visual realizations of the author's intention. Hill situates his study within current research on Victorian illustration and the various theories of illustration and the illustrated book that permeated the late nineteenth-century literary market. This provides a context for defining Stevenson's own theories of illustration and how they differentiate from and build on existing practices and experiments with the form. 0Because Stevenson's works have been heavily illustrated since his death in 1894, these illustrations and subsequent film adaptations have sunk into popular public consciousness. Hill's book reinstates Stevenson's approved vision for his characters as they were presented during his lifetime.