The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 19
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 19
This volume gathers two of Stevenson's darker, more psychologically complex works, each grappling with the question of what remains when civilization's veneer cracks. The Ebb-Tide presents three destitute outcasts on the beaches of Papeete, Tahiti, who discover a wrecked ship carrying valuable cargo. What follows is a devastating study of moral compromise, as the men, each bearing the weight of past failures, face a choice that will expose the depths of their corruption and the fragility of their claimed redemption. It is Stevenson at his most unflinching, a tropical morality play where the paradise setting only heightens the desperation and squalor. Weir of Hermiston, left unfinished at Stevenson's death, offers a different kind of darkness: the clash between the brutal judge Adam Weir and his rebellious son Francis. Set in Scotland rather than the South Pacific, it isautobiographical and fierce, exploring the violence of paternal authority and the cost of breaking free. Together, these works reveal a writer far beyond the adventure novels that made him famous, plumbing human weakness with clinical precision and unflinching honesty.
