Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Usborne, 2016. ISBN 9781409581970
(Age: 9+) Highly recommended. Scotland, Jacobite Uprising,
Adventure. When David Balfour leaves his home in 1751, after his
parents' deaths, he is told by the local minister to go to the House
of Shaws, there to claim his inheritance. David is baffled, he has
no idea of just how he and his family could be related to the laird
of this wealthy estate. But going there seals his fate when he meets
his avaricious uncle, Ebenezer, the younger, who plots his death.
After an unsuccessful attempt to cast David off the derelict tower,
he is taken to the port on business and his uncle leaves him to be
tied up and thrown into the bowels of the ship. But when the cabin
boy dies, David becomes his replacement and here he sees the rescue
of a boat containing several people off the Hebrides in Northern
Scotland. The survivor is Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite with money
to take to the Stuarts in their bid for the Scottish throne. David,
a Presbyterian Scot from the Lowlands and so supporting George 111,
and Jacobite Alan are on opposing sides of the political divide in
Scotland, and each is suspicious of the other but circumstances see
them cross paths several more times, developing a mutual respect and
understanding between them.
A wonderfully adventurous story, Kidnapped was written in
1886 by Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson. This large edition
has a brief outline of Stevenson and his work, a glossary which
details the words modern readers may not know and an outline of the
Jacobite Uprising of 1751. The whole is illustrated with pictures
which reflect the times. Although seen as a 'boy's book', I
thoroughly enjoyed reading it again. Some may find the language a
little old fashioned, but once engrossed, the style matters not a
jot. Story is all!
The
Guardian's list of 100 Best Books Written in English has Kidnapped
listed as number 24, after such worthies as Catch 22 and David
Copperfield.
Fran Knight