Travel Essays · Chapter
The Education of an Engineer explained
Stevenson reflects on his youthful engineering apprenticeship in Anstruther and Wick, describing his true passion for literature, his experiences with diving, and the strange encounter with Italian vagabonds in the far north of Scotland.
What happens
Stevenson reflects on his youthful engineering apprenticeship in Anstruther and Wick, describing his true passion for literature, his experiences with diving, and the strange encounter with Italian vagabonds in the far north of Scotland.
Themes in this chapter
Art and the Artistic Life
Stevenson contrasts his engineering duties with his true vocation as a writer, describing his feverish literary efforts at night.
Travel and Discovery
The journey to Wick and the surprising encounter with Italian vagabonds highlight the theme of unexpected discovery in travel.
Freedom vs. Confinement
Stevenson praises the open-air life of an engineer but laments the return to the office desk, balancing genuine life with drudgery.
Characters to notice
- Bob Bain
The diver who guides Stevenson underwater at Wick.
- The Italian Vagabonds
Two young Italian boys with a hurdy-gurdy and white mice, encountered near Castleton.
Key passages
“I loved the art of words and the appearances of life; and travellers, and headers, and rubble, and polished ashlar, and pierres perdues, and even the thrilling question of the string-course, interested me only (if they interested me at all) as properties for some possible romance or as words to add to my vocabulary.”
Stevenson cared about engineering terms only as material for his writing, not for their practical use.
Shows his early commitment to literature over engineering.
“It takes a man into the open air; it keeps him hanging about harbour-sides, which is the richest form of idling; it carries him to wild islands; it gives him a taste of the genial dangers of the sea; it supplies him with dexterities to exercise; it makes demands upon his ingenuity; it will go far to cure him of any taste (if ever he had one) for the miserable life of cities.”
Engineering offers outdoor adventure and skill-building, but ultimately returns one to a desk job.
Summarizes Stevenson's ambivalent praise for the engineering profession.