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Classic Literature.
Historical Fiction.
Young Adult Fiction.
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Originally written as a boys' adventure novel, Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped has received praise from a range of writers, including Henry James and Jorge Luis Borges. Set around events in eighteenth century Scotland, such as the "Appin Murder" that happened in the wake of the Jacobite Rising, it skillfully and sympathetically portrays the political situation of the time. A sequel, titled Catriona, was published in 1893.
thesmellofbooks: Young men in dire straits on the open seas, a background of oppression, and historical richness are a few of the elements these books share. They are both ripping good yarns.
themulhern: I have a theory that each book in the Felix Brooker series is an homage to some work of Robert Louis Stevenson's. This one is clearly an homage to "Kidnapped"; there's the kidnapping, of course, but also the shipwreck, the somewhat mysterious parentage, the nefarious relative, the stalwart and canny friend.… (more)
This one was a bit more memorable for me than Treasure Island, though they were both good and worth reading. The two books got me interested in Robert Louis Stevenson, so I read a biography of him by David Daiches, which was also very good! ( )
the older language and references to history and words/phrases/items I hadn't even heard of was frustrating. The story just seemed to continue with quite a few side tangents I thought the book could do without, but all in all it's an interesting tale of adventure. ( )
This is a re-read of this classic adventure novel, probably Robert Louis Stevenson's second best known full length novel after Treasure Island. I think I actually prefer this one. The pace is pretty consistent throughout the narrative set in 1751 a few years after the Jacobite rebellion, as we follow David Balfour from his sojourn with his miserly uncle Ebenezer, to his betrayal and capture onboard a ship taking captives to slavery in Carolina ("with the rebellion of the colonies and the formation of the United States, it has of course come to an end; but in those days of my youth, white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me"). On this voyage, he partners with Alan Breck Stuart and is involved in a shipwreck, facilitating his escape. However, he suffers near starvation and then wanders cold, desperate and lonely through the Highlands (..I could drag myself but little further; pretty soon, I must lie down and die on these wet mountains like a sheep or a fox, and my bones must whiten there like the bones of a beast."). He encounters various colourful and usually shifty characters, and is reunited with Alan Breck. He is finally restored to his inheritance with his uncle being confronted and his role in his nephew's kidnapping exposed. On the final page, in the unaccustomed bustle of the city of Edinburgh, David is bewildered by the "huge heights of the buildings, running up to ten and fifteen storeys, the narrow arched entries that continually vomited passengers, the wares of the merchants in their windows, the hubbub and endless stir, the foul smells and the fine clothes, and a hundred other particulars too small to mention, struck me into a kind of stupor of surprise." Great stuff. ( )
This book follows the adventures of David Balfour, a young Scottish boy who, after the death of his father, seeks his inheritance. He is betrayed by his uncle and kidnapped on a ship bound for the Americas. Escaping, David teams up with Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite fugitive. They travel the Scottish highlands with its dangers of the warring clans, the Stewarts and the MacGregors. It had been 50 years since I had read this and I had remembered nothing! 156 pages ( )
Listened to an audio book of this. On audible.com, there are several versions available, and for one the comments say don't listen if you don't know your Scottish accents really well. At any rate, this one has pretty heavy Scottish brogue, but it very much captures the flavor of the book (though the reader is much older than the character, so you get the flavor of him telling the story much later in life, which may be the case). It's an exciting book, and ranges literally across Scotland as David and Alan are winding their way across the country side, afraid of being captured. Lots of 18th century Scottish politics in this, which kind of lost me. But what carried me through was the prose and the characters. ( )
If you ever read this tale, you will likely ask yourself more questions than I should care to answer: as for instance how the Appin murder has come to fall in the year 1751, how the Torran rocks have crept so near to Earraid, or why the printed trial is silent as to all that touches David Balfour. These are nuts beyond my ability to crack. But if you tried me on the point of Alan's guilt or innocence, I think I could defend the reading of the text. To this day you will find the tradition of Appin clear in Alan's favour. If you inquire, you may even hear that the descendants of "the other man" who fired the shot are in the country to this day. But that other man's name, inquire as you please, you shall not hear; for the Highlander values a secret for itself and for the congenial exercise of keeping it I might go on for long to justify one point and own another indefensible; it is more honest to confess at once how little I am touched by the desire of accuracy. This is no furniture for the scholar's library, but a book for the winter evening school-room when the tasks are over and the hour for bed draws near; and honest Alan, who was a grim old fire-eater in his day has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his Ovid, carry him awhile into the Highlands and the last century, and pack him to bed with some engaging images to mingle with his dreams.
As for you, my dear Charles, I do not even ask you to like this tale. But perhaps when he is older, your son will; he may then be pleased to find his father's name on the fly-leaf; and in the meanwhile it pleases me to set it there, in memory of many days that were happy and some (now perhaps as pleasant to remember) that were sad. If it is strange for me to look back from a distance both in time and space on these bygone adventures of our youth, it must be stranger for you who tread the same streets--who may to-morrow open the door of the old Speculative, where we begin to rank with Scott and Robert Emmet and the beloved and inglorious Macbean--or may pass the corner of the close where that great society, the L. J. R., held its meetings and drank its beer, sitting in the seats of Burns and his companions. I think I see you, moving there by plain daylight, beholding with your natural eyes those places that have now become for your companion a part of the scenery of dreams. How, in the intervals of present business, the past must echo in your memory! Let it not echo often without some kind thoughts of your friend,
R.L.S. SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH.
First words
I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early in the month of June, the year of grace 1751, when I took the key for the last time out of the door of my father's house.
Quotations
I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.
Last words
The hand of Providence brought me in my drifting to the very doors of the British Linen Company's bank.
In the fear of which, and lest any one should complain of scurvy usage, he hastens to protest that all went well with both, in the limited and human sense of the word "well"' that whatever befell them, it was not dishonor, and whatever failed them, they were not found wanting to themselves.
Classic Literature.
Historical Fiction.
Young Adult Fiction.
HTML:
Originally written as a boys' adventure novel, Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped has received praise from a range of writers, including Henry James and Jorge Luis Borges. Set around events in eighteenth century Scotland, such as the "Appin Murder" that happened in the wake of the Jacobite Rising, it skillfully and sympathetically portrays the political situation of the time. A sequel, titled Catriona, was published in 1893.
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