Concetti Chiave
- Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850 and rejected his family's presbyterian values during his university years.
- He suffered from a respiratory illness that influenced his travels, resulting in works like "An Inland Voyage" and "Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes".
- Stevenson married Fanny Osbourne, causing family tensions, and continued to travel for his health, influencing his writing.
- In Bournemouth, he befriended Henry James and wrote significant works including "Kidnapped" and "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".
- Stevenson's later years in the South Seas were productive, but he died in 1894, leaving the promising "Weir of Hermiston" unfinished.
Childhood and Studies of Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850, to a prosperous and respectable presbyterian family. He soon became impatient with his parents’ religion and bourgeois respectability, and in his years at university, where he studied law, adopted a Bohemien lifestyle. This led to painful clashes with his father.
He soon began to suffer from a respiratory illness, which was to trouble him for the rest of his life, and for his health’s sake travelled to the south of France. He returned on other occasions, and these journeys produced An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), written in the tradition of travel books.
Meetings and Marriage
It was also in France that Stevenson met Fanny Osbourne, an American lady separated from her husband, and fell in love with her. Much to his parents’ horror (she was ten years his senior) he married her, and the couple returned to Scotland to achieve reconciliation with his parents.
His health conditions compelled him to travel from one health resort to another, accompanied by his wife and his stepson.
The Stevensons lived in Bournemouth from 1886 to 1887; here the writer made friends with Henry James, wrote Kidnapped, another romance set in the Scotland of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which estabilished his reputation.
Last Years and Unfinished Works
Bournemouth was not mild enough for his health, so in 1887, the Stevensons returned to America where he began The Master of Ballantrae (published in 1889). Stevenson was to spend the rest of his life in the South and soon developed great interest in Samoan affairs and history, which inspired writings like In the South Seas, a memorabile book of impressions.
These years were happy and productive; most important of all is the unfinished Weir of Hermiston, a romantic historical novel on the theme of the conflict between father and son that he himself had experienced. This book, set in the writer’s native Scotland, promised to be his masterpiece but it was never completed because Stevenson died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage (1894). The people of Samoa honoured him and buried his body on a mountain-top like one of their chiefs.
Domande da interrogazione
- What influenced Robert Louis Stevenson's early lifestyle and career choices?
- How did Stevenson's health impact his life and work?
- What were some significant achievements and events in Stevenson's later years?
Stevenson's upbringing in a prosperous Presbyterian family in Edinburgh led to his rebellion against his parents' religion and bourgeois respectability. His Bohemian lifestyle during his university years, where he studied law, often clashed with his father's expectations.
Stevenson's respiratory illness necessitated frequent travel to health resorts, influencing his writing. His travels to the south of France inspired works like "An Inland Voyage" and "Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes," and his health challenges continued to shape his life and literary output.
In his later years, Stevenson lived in Bournemouth, where he befriended Henry James and wrote notable works like "Kidnapped" and "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." His move to America and interest in Samoan affairs inspired further writings, and he began "The Master of Ballantrae." His unfinished novel, "Weir of Hermiston," was set to be his masterpiece before his sudden death in 1894.
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