''The Story of a Recluse'' has been the title of at least three works of fiction.
The first, an
unfinished tale by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
, tells the story of Jamie Kirkwood, an
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
minister's son who finds himself waking up in a room identical to his own in the house of a mysterious man called Manton Jamieson.
This formed the basis of a second work, a
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
play by
Alasdair Gray
Alasdair James Gray (28 December 1934 – 29 December 2019) was a Scottish writer and artist. His first novel, ''Lanark'' (1981), is seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translations, and ...
. Written in 1985, the TV
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...
completes the original story by means of flashbacks from the 1930s. Gray then adapted this into yet another form, a short story in
Lean Tales
''Lean Tales'' is an anthology of short stories, first published in 1985, written by Scottish authors Alasdair Gray, Agnes Owens and James Kelman,Dorothy McMillan. Owens, Agnes, n. McLearie, m1 Crosbie, m2 Owens. ''The New Biographical Dictionar ...
—the third incarnation of the title. It involved some alterations to the television play's plot, concentrating for the most part on a metafictional discussion of the reasoning by which Gray deduces how Stevenson's story should end.
Novels by Robert Louis Stevenson
19th-century British novels
Unfinished novels
British novels adapted into plays
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