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    The Amateur Emigrant
    The Amateur Emigrant
    The Amateur Emigrant
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Amateur Emigrant

    Written by Robert Louis Stevenson

    Narrated by Donal Donnelly

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    About this audiobook

    This is the sparkling record of the haphazard six-thousand-mile odyssey that twenty-five-year-old Stevenson made in pursuit of his future wife, Fanny. The two had met and fallen in love during a trip to France, but when Fanny's first husband called her home to California, Stevenson soon followed from Scotland. The sickly Stevenson first made a turbulent Atlantic crossing, like so many nineteenth-century immigrants, as a steerage passenger in a steamer of dubious seaworthiness. After a frenetic stopover in New York City, he embarked on a two-week, three-thousand-mile trip across the continent-the fastest and cheapest way then possible-by emigrant train. Finally arriving in the frontier town of San Francisco to win Fanny over, he was quickly captivated by California. Stevenson's often hilarious impressions of the young country, its rambunctious and colorful inhabitants, and the still-untamed continent are among his most vivid writings
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJan 14, 2008
    ISBN9781449802172
    Author

    Robert Louis Stevenson

    Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.

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    • 4/5
      Paul Therox called this "One of the ten essential travel books.". It details the first leg of Stevensons journey from Scotland to meet and marry Fanny in CA, it recounts his time on board a ship in the steerage compartment (lower-class). Stevenson described the crowded weeks in steerage with the poor and sick, as well as stowaways, and his initial reactions to New York City where he spent a few days. Filled with sharp-eyed observations, it brilliantly conveys Stevenson's perceptions of America and Americans. It also provides a very detailed and enjoyable account of what it was like to travel to America as an emigrant in the 19th century, during a time of mass migrations to the New World. Details such as the bedding arrangements, daily food rations, relationships with the crew, with other grade ticket holders, passengers of other nationalities, entertainment, children - all provide a rich and colorful tapestry of life on-board the ship.