Robert Louis Stevenson

Weir of Hermiston Robert Louis Stevenson

Hermiston, the Weir of Hermiston is an unfinished novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, whose story takes place in Scotland at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His writing was interrupted by the sudden death of Stevenson in 1894. summary The novel tells the story of Archie Weir, a sensitive and lonely young man whose mother dies while still a child. His father, Adam Weir, a judge of the criminal court, is considered but fears for his ruthless verdicts and brutality. Archie experiences feelings mixed with fear and repulsion, and when he witnesses the judgment of Duncan Jopp, a wretch whom Judge Weir seems to take pleasure in humiliating before condemning him, he publicly takes the floor against the death penalty At a student meeting. As a result of this scandal, he left, in agreement with his father, for the family estate of Hermiston, where he was served by Kirstie, a woman of about fifty, still beautiful, and an old Scottish family . During the evenings they spent together, she told him anecdotes relating to her family, and especially to her nephews, the four Elliott brothers, nicknamed "the four black brothers"; They have a young sister, Christina, also known as Kirstie, of whom Archie falls in love.