The Amateur Emigrant

by Robert Louis Stevenson

In 1874, Stevenson left Edinburgh for San Francisco to join his fiancee. A shrewd and sympathetic observer, he produced the best account ever written of the passage to the New World.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

138 pages, Paperback

Published December 27, 1987

About the author

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.

Reviews

[Jim]

Robert Louis Stevenson's The Amateur Emigrant consists of two classic travel adventures: From the Clyde to Sandy Hook details RLS's voyage from Scotland to the United States (he was to get married in San Francisco to an American woman), and Across the Plains tells of his journey by rail across the United States.

Throughout, RLS shows his sympathy for his fellow emigrants, who were not always treated well.

[Matthew Leigh]

I read this in the Lothian edition along with 'Across the Plains' and 'The Silverado Squatters' and it was a marvel. I just kept reading sections out to my wife, particularly from the first two volumes, and then copying them out in my commonplace book: the Senecan reflections on the emigrants who resolve to quit drinking once they reach America but for whom travel will be no benefit if they take their mind with them as it is; the reflections on the Cornish travelling on the train across America, who are as strange to Stevenson as anyone he meets, and on the Chinese, who must be looking out of the window and seeing something quite different from him; and finally the scenes of the Napa Valley wine industry in its infancy. This is a wonderful piece of writing.

[Dorothy Caimano]

Fascinating look at immigration through the eyes of a wonderful writer. I'm sure Stevenson didn't have to travel in the ship's steerage as he made his way from England to America. He was a gentleman and didn't need to associate with those beneath his station. And yet he did. His stories of the people who traveled with him are kind and respectful. His trip in 1879 made me curious about my grandparents' experience in steerage 30 years later. Had things improved when my grandparents came?

His book continues after he disembarks and makes his way across the United States. It is always a fascinating account, sparking my curiosity.

[Miss K]

A note in English: this combines Finnish translations of two of Stevenson's travel writing pieces, Amateur Emigrant and the first part of Across the Plains. I enjoyed both of them, finding Stevenson's writing style very engaging and interesting. While some late-19th-century ways of approaching/describing things obviously haven't aged well, he did have quite progressive ideas for his time period. (The rest of the review is in Finnish.)

Stevensonin kahden matkakirjoituksen suomenkieliset käännökset: ensimmäisessä hän matkaa Atlantin yli höyrylaivalla ja tutustuu kolmannessa luokassa matkustaviin siirtolaisiin, toisessa hän matkustaa junalla Yhdysvaltojen halki Kalifornian Montereyhin. Molempia tekstejä on miellyttävä lukea, Stevensonilla on eloisa ja mielenkiintoinen tyyli. Harrastelijasiirtolaisessa hän kuvaa enemmän matkatovereitaan kuin itse matkaa, Tasankojen halki kertoo enemmän myös itse matkasta ja matkanteon tavasta. Molemmat avaavat mielenkiintoisia näkymiä 1800-luvun lopun yhteiskuntaan ja kulttuuriin, Britannian yhteiskuntaluokkiin, Yhdysvaltain asuttamiseen ja aikakauden asenteisiin. Stevensonilla itsellään oli hyvinkin edistykselliset asenteet (ei ollut kovinkaan tavallista pitää kaikkien yhteiskuntaluokkien edustajia yhtä arvokkaina), mutta aikakausi näkyy toki esimerkiksi joissain tavoissa kuvata etnisiä vähemmistöjä - kuitenkin Stevenson on aikalaisekseen erittäin avomielinen myös muita etnisiä ryhmiä kohtaan.

Käännös on enimmäkseen oikein sujuvaa ja nautinnollista luettavaa, vaikka en alkutekstiin voikaan verrata, koska en ole sitä lukenut.

[Kelli]

I loved this description of Robert Louis Stevenson's journey from Scotland to San Francisco in the late 1800s. It reminded me a lot of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in the way that Stevenson captures the people he encounters with great detail. The passages about class and how people treat each other stand true today as well. Great read!

[Sonia]

This is a travel memoir written by RLS describing his voyage from Scotland to San Francisco, most of it concerning the sea voyage across the Atlantic. I found it interesting and amusing in a kind of Mark Twain style.

[marcia]

The book is descriptive of fellow travelers and of the landscape without being too wordy.
wordiness becomes tedious to me. Shocked how he thought Wyoming was the worst part of the overland journey...........Nothing but grey, black and sagebrush. Living here I disagree.

[AlegnaB †]

3.5