My heart's in the Highlands...When young Davie Balfour is left orphaned on the death of his father, he is given a letter that his father left for him and told to take it to one Ebenezer Balfour, Esquire, of Shaws. Dutifully he obeys, only to find that miserly old Ebenezer is his uncle, who is not best pleased at having his nephew foisted upon him, for fear he may discover the family secret. So Ebenezer tricks David into going aboard the brig Covenanter, where he is promptly knocked senseless and carried off to be sold into slavery in the Carolinas. But with the help of a new-found friend, Alan Breck Stewart, David escapes and finds himself wandering the Highlands of Scotland – a dangerous place just a few years after the failed Jacobite rebellion, where clan is set against clan, and supporters of the Pretender are being hunted or victimised by those who support the King. And when David is accidentally caught up in a murder, he finds he too is being hunted. His only hope is to make it safely back to the Lowlands, while Alan Breck must try to escape back to France, where his chief is in exile.Written in 1886, the story is set over a century earlier, in 1752. In reality, it's mainly an adventure story, but I always find old historical novels interesting because of the double hit – seeing how people of an earlier generation interpreted an even earlier historical period. Stevenson gives us a very unromanticised version of the clans as uncouth hard-drinking, hard fighting men scratching out a subsistence living from the barren wastelands of the Highlands - a good deal more accurate, I'd imagine, than some of the later more idealised versions of the Jacobite story. However, without over-emphasising it, he does show some sympathy for the hardships the Highlanders were forced to suffer at the hands of a government determined to destroy the clan system to prevent further rebellion. He talks of the banning of the kilt and points up the difficulties this caused to those too poor to acquire other kinds of clothing; he describes the hiding of arms to get round the ban on Highlanders carrying weapons; he shows the severe privations caused to the poor by being expected to support their own chieftains in exile while also paying taxes to the government; and he hints at the depopulation of the landscape through forced mass emigration to the New World – the beginnings of the euphemistically named Highland Clearances. But his hero is a loyal supporter of King George and a true son of the Covenanters, complete with priggish antipathy towards anything that might be considered fun.All of this is entertaining to anyone with an interest in Scottish history, but I feel Stevenson assumes a certain degree of familiarity with the aftermath of the Rebellion that most non-Scottish readers and probably even many modern Scottish readers may not have. And I suspect the result of that may mean that the story feels slow in places as he digresses a little from the action to set the book in its historical and social context. I felt the pacing was uneven overall. There are some great action scenes – the battle aboard the ship, the shipwreck, the flight from the murder scene – but there are also quite lengthy lulls, usually when poor David is taken ill, which happens with great regularity. Again, probably realistic given the circumstances, but not the stuff of which great heroic adventures are normally made. And I found his personality grating – the older David who is narrating the story frequently remarks himself on how self-obsessed and immature his younger self's behaviour was, and I could only agree. There is some Scots dialect in the dialogue but not enough and not broad enough, I think, to cause problems for non-Scottish readers.The beginning of the book was the best part for me, when David was at sea, and it picked up again towards the end, when they had made it back to civilisation and set out to prove David's identity. But I found the central section dragged, when David and Alan are wandering interminably around the Highlands, and half the time is spent on David bemoaning the physical hardship he is undergoing or describing his ill-health. And the ending is so abrupt that I actually wondered if a final chapter might be missing from my Kindle edition, but apparently not. Definitely worth reading, but personally I enjoyed Treasure Island more.www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Robert Lewis Stevenson can spin a yarn, no doubt. His writing is grand! He is now on my list of favorite authors. Treasure Island to read . . . . .NEXT!What a history lesson I learned reading Kidnapped. I didn’t know about “The Forty-Five”, the Second Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. I don’t remember any history lesson in school regarding the Jacobites and their struggle, and the Appin murder in Scotland. In this edition I have, there is a good section of historical background regarding the rebellion that helped me tremendously as I was reading.Kidnapped is the memoirs of David Balfour’s adventures in the year 1751. As the story beings, David Balfour tells the reader how he recently became an orphan at a young age of 17. David’s family was not well off, so he starts out from his family’s home in Essendean with very little money. On his way down the road he is met by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, a good friend of the family, who hands David a letter. The letter was not to be opened by David until his father had died. The letter stated that David had inherited the house of Shaws, in the town of Cramond, Scotland. David exclaims, “What had my poor father to do with the house of Shaws?”David’s first part of his journey away from home was to the house of Shaws to claim his inheritance. He meets his uncle, Ebenezer, who is living in this run-down manse. The condition of the house of Shaws was not what he pictured. It was a sad looking place, dilapidated, unkept – a depressing sight. You feel every stingy, unpleasant side of Ebenezer. He is rude to David when they first meet. After David explains why he is there, Ebenezer puts on a little act of kindness, but underneath something is brewing. And this is where David’s nightmare of a journey begins.The landscape, the sea scape, the torture, the sea-sickness – oh, you feel it all as you read. It is all so well described you can’t put the book down. You feel every piece of agony David goes through. David has to forge for himself on an island at one point and the food he finds is scary. Will he die eating that?During part of David’s adventure, he meets a very colorful fellow named Alan Breck Stewart. And this friendship develops into a bond that is unbreakable. The hiding in the heather and cold swamps, keeping a low profile from the red-coats. David’s watch, in the sun, trying to nap, switching watches – “I had the taste of sleep in my throat; my joints slept even when my mind was waking; the hot smell of the heather, and the drone of wild bees, were like possets to me; and, every now and again I would give a jump and find I had been dozing.” The suspense throughout the wanderings of David and Alan have you holding your breath, feeling the heat of the day on their bodies, feeling the fatigue of the traveling – oh, yes, they keep you right in the mix of all their adventures. Alan Stewart is quite a character, and as you read, you realize how loyal of a man he is. He has stamina beyond normal. You grow to love this character because he is so loyal to David.There were tears that flowed from my eyes at the end, and this does not give anything away. The ending is not definitive; my tears flowed none the less.My first novel of Stevenson’s was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and I absolutely loved it. But, I assumed all of his writings would be similar: bizarre and twisted. I was excited to pick up Kidnapped because of this association. Wrong! This is far from twisted and bizarre. It is a great adventure that you won’t forget. You become very attached to David and his companion Alan.There is quite a bit of subtle humor with David Balfour’s side thoughts. “East be it!” says I, quite cheerily; but, I was thinking to myself: “Oh, man, if you would only take one point of the compass and let me take any other, it would be the best for both of us.”Great, great story! I recommend this to EVERYONE!
What do You think about Kidnapped (2002)?
A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.Young David Balfour discovers after his father’s death that his family has unexpected wealth and power. David ventures off to meet up with his father’s only brother and finds a man who deceives him and sells him off into slavery, sending David off on a ship bound for America. On the ship, David meets lots more bad guys and there is a lot of shooting and fighting. He falls overboard, survives to live for a while on an isolated island, and then gets thrown into a Scottish struggle for power, with more shooting and scavenging. I loved the action in this book. With books like these available, you can see why so many boys read books a hundred years ago. I also loved all the new-to-me words in this book. I could write a whole post on all the new words I discovered while reading this book. Ay, faith, I ken Scotland be a braw place, no sae bad as ye would think, in this bonny tale of a man and a halfling boy, who werenae feared of being laid by the heels, hoot-toot, hoot-toot.
—Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance
This is Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson’s 5th novel, which was published in 1886, 3 years after Treasure Island. It was considered a “boy’s novel” as it was apparently aimed at a younger audience but it is also a “historical novel” because the accuracy of the geography and political events that occurred in the highlands in the 1700’s. Some characters are based on real life characters, others are not, and the story in itself certainly is not. After reading this and thinking of the audience it was intended for, I think this is a good example of where “teen literature” has gone wrong in modern times.If you go into a bookstore and look in the teen section now days you will likely not find too many books of this calibre. I’m a man, A MAN DAMNIT! and I really liked this book. I don’t think it is as well known these days compared to Treasure Island and that is likely because it is extremely Scottish and chalked full of slang that, in my edition, had little * next to some words to define what it was. Truly though, half of the time I had Google next to me to know just what the hell things like collops, gossamer, baird or brogues were. I also had to take a time out to look at maps to figure out where all these isles and sounds where geographically in Scotland. In other words it’s not a book I could have likely attempted as a 13 year old American C student.I actually liked this book a lot more than Treasure Island which surprised me because I for some reason thought this was a B list Stevenson book. Once you realised that you should be reading in a heavy Scottish accent (Though I be honest I was talking like a pirate for Alan) throughout the whole read and settle into that, the book is really quite gripping and has nonstop action. David Balfour, who is the main character of the book is a coming of age young lad (similar to Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island) who is thrown into one bad situation after another and runs into some of the worst scoundrels and swindlers one after another.Often times the reader doesn’t know who to trust or what’s going to happen next which is precisely why Robert Louis Stevenson is such a great classic writer. This book was fun and kept me up until 3am on a couple nights. I sort of compared it to a Scottish Young Guns 2 taking place in 1752 but only with Billy the Kid and Balthazar Getty’s youthful character Tom O'Folliard. So Young Guns 2 meets Braveheart in a nut shell. I dare you to challenge me on that. Anyone! Nobody ever will.
—Nickolas
David Balfour, a Lowland boy, is sixteen when his father dies. What he left behind is only a letter that tells David to go to the Shaws; there he'll find his inheritance. David follows his father's instructions and meets his uncle Ebenezer - an awkward person that conceals more than he tells David about his family. Things are getting nastier, and finally, Ebenezer tries to kill David. When this doesn't work, he pretends to give up and wants to see an advocate. David feels safe - and suddenly he's sold to a ship bringing convicts to America. But when he meets the Highlander Alan Breck, they escape, but things don't go the way they should. David finds himself alone on a lonely island, where his travel through Scotland just begins. Now he has just one aim: Coming back home and make things clear.Who expects a thrilling adventure story won't be satisfied. But who's interested in Scotland, its people, its manners, its landscape might enjoy "Kidnapped".Actually the plot has enough potential for a really good adventure story, but Stevenson uses too much space for his descriptions of the surroundings or the manners - therefore some of the tension simply gets lost. At some time he focuses on a pipe bag competition between Alan and another Highlander, which is quite interesting, but is not important at all for the action. Furthermore, it might be interesting, but it's not entertaining. So he takes the story its speed that could be quite high if you consider the few pages. Actually, it already starts this way. Before the journey of David starts he has to go to see his uncle, be sold and the trip with the ship literally takes ages. You might say that this is because it really takes them a long time to travel; however, later one month is summarized within a few pages. There is just too much focus on rather unimportant events that don't have a great impact on what's going on later.The travel itself is difficult to follow. I had sometimes no orientation where we are right now - and even Google couldn't help! And again I got the expression that the focus is too much on description than on facts that might be use- or helpful. Furthermore, the characters are everything - despite likable. David is okay, all in all, but Alan is quite strange. He may be brave and he may live up to his ideals, but sometimes he tends to be narcissistic and egoistic. I never felt attached to one of them or any other character. But still I have to admit that they really are characters, not just flat ones, mere names on the paper. They have their strong and their weak moments; they win and they lose; they undergo a development, and they don't always pay attention. It may not make them nicer, but the fact itself is ... yeah, great.And even if this book has many aspects to criticize, it still is enjoyable. The language isn't that creative, but the Scottish variety of English is reason enough to read and love it.It's also interesting that Stevenson doesn't settle for stereotypes - at least not only. Of course there are bagpipes, but the Scottish aren't wild, kilt-wearing barbarians. (This wouldn't even work - think of the Dress Act!) Alan for example has kind of fallen in love with his French clothes and he will wear them even this could mean death, because he's easy to recognize with them. In addition, the Lowlanders aren't mollycoddled copies of the English. They absolutely aren't!Furthermore, the book has some great scenes where I couldn't stop laughing. There Alan and David just show what sly old dogs they are, and the fact that the others also fall for their line made it even better. Of course this is a question of taste - but who can ignore the great irony, when someone is caught on an island, nearly dies and then finally recognizes he could have gone to the mainland when it's low tide?What I liked most about his book is the open end, just because it fits the historical events that are known. We don't know about the whole life of Alan Breck and so Mr. Stevenson couldn't write about that, either. Still, the end is not too abrupt - as I said, it just fits.All in all, I can only say: You can read it, but you don't have to. It might be worth it when you're interested in Scotland, otherwise it would be better to be lucky with other books.
—Shiku
