Plot twist: yes it's an insensitive term, and it appears to be gratuitously applied to Stevenson. But not without precedent. Phillip Callow wrote in an earlier

Plot twist: yes it's an insensitive term, and it appears to be gratuitously applied to Stevenson. But not without precedent. Phillip Callow wrote in an earlier book "Louis became in turn a bohemian dandy, a literary gypsy..." Notably not literally a gypsy. But an interesting convergence in choice of words.