During these years, Stevenson's tuberculosis did not improve, but he remained active and, despite periods of being bedridden and very ill, kept to his usual disciplined writing schedule. Fanny's son remained with them, and her daughter, Belle, joined them frequently as well. In addition, Stevenson's mother, widowed in 1886, had traveled to the islands with the family and remained there for the rest of her son's life. Although Louis was often in grave danger of death, he always seemed able to throw off the worst of his illness and achieve at least partial recovery. But in early December of 1894, less than a month after his forty-fourth birthday, he was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage and died within a few hours.
Almost all of Stevenson's writings, including his novels, short stories and essays, and two books written in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, remained in publication for years after his death, and his excellence as a writer was undisputed for the next quarter-century or so. But he fell out of critical favor with the rise of realism and naturalism in the years after World War I, and although his reputation fluctuated during the rest of the twentieth century, many of his works remain out of print. Still, he continues to be read and admired by people who value his versatility and range, his gripping narrative ability, and his fluent and concise style.
