All the best books of adventure have a hero who is in some way a superman; someone with exceptional gifts who is immune from the fears and hurts which effect ordinary mortals. Robert Louis Stevenson has woven these fantastic and astonishing stories round the figure of Prince Florizel of Bohemia, whose manners are as impeccable as his fortune is inexhaustible and his curiosity insatiable. The debonair Prince himself is said to have been inspired by King Edward VII who, before his accession, was fond of sallying forth incognito to explore the murky by-ways of London's night life (although there is no record that he ever encountered any organisation quite as startling as the Suicide Club). This collection was first published under the title New Arabian Nights. For reasons of length the publishers have been obliged to leave one story out of this Peacock edition, so they have re-named it after the first and best known of them. The short stories included are The Suicide Club, The Rajah's Diamond, The Pavilion on the Links, A Lodging for the Night and The Sire de Malétroit's Door.