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Kidnapped (novel)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: Title Kidnapped

     Author    Robert Louis Stevenson
     Country   Scotland
    Language   English, Lowland Scots
    Genre(s)   Adventure novel
               Historical novel
    Publisher  Cassell and Company Ltd
    Released   1886
   Media type  Print ( Hardback)
      ISBN     NA
   Followed by Catriona

   Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish
   author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first
   published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel
   has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry
   James, Jorge Luis Borges and Seamus Heaney.

   As historical fiction, it is set around 18th century Scottish events,
   notably the " Appin Murder", which occurred near Ballachulish in 1752
   in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising. Many of the characters, and
   one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart, were real people. The
   political situation of the time is skilfully portrayed from different
   viewpoints, and the plight of the highlanders treated sympathetically.

Plot Summary

   The central character and narrator is a young man named David Balfour
   (Balfour being Stevenson's mother's maiden name), callow but
   resourceful, whose parents have recently died and who is out to make
   his way in the world. He is given a letter by the minister of
   Essendean, Mr. Campbell, to be delivered to the ominous House of Shaws
   in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives. On his
   journey, David enquires to many people where the House of Shaws is, and
   all of them speak of it darkly as a place of fear and evil.

   David arrives at the House of Shaws and attempts to gain entry. His
   uncle mistrusts him and seems mentally unstable. Ebenezer is also
   miserly, eating only "parritch" and ale despite his large amounts of
   money. He offers David a gift of forty guineas to increase the trust
   between them, and then asks David to get a chest from the top of a
   tower in the house. David is forced to scale the stairs in the dark,
   and realizes that not only are the stairs uneven, but that they simply
   end after several steps and fall into the abyss. David thus realizes
   that his Uncle was planning to kill him so as not to have to give over
   his inheritance.

   David confronts Ebenezer, who becomes silent and again mysterious. A
   boy arrives the next day, Ransome, who tells Ebenezer that Captain
   Hoseason of a brig, the Covenant, needs to meet him to discuss
   business. Ebenezer takes David to the Queen's Ferry, where Hoseason
   awaits, and David makes the mistake of leaving his Uncle alone with the
   captain while he visits the docks with Ransome. Hoseason later offers
   to take them on board the brig briefly, and David complies, only to see
   his uncle returning to shore in a skiff and to be struck over the head
   by a sailor.

   David awakens bound hand and foot in the hull of the ship. He becomes
   weak with sickness and one of the Covenant's officers, Mr. Riach,
   convinces Hoseason to move David up to the forecastle. Ransome, the
   cabin boy on the Covenant, is abused and mistreated by another officer,
   Mr. Shuan, who later kills him. David is repulsed at the crew's
   behaviour, and later learns that they have been ordered to sell him
   into slavery in the Carolinas.

   David takes over as cabin boy, and the ship strikes a small boat from
   France. All of its crew are killed except one man, Alan Breck Stewart,
   who is brought on board and offers Hoseason a large sum of money to
   land in France and drop him off. David later overhears the crew
   planning to kill Alan and take all his money, so he warns him, and the
   two barricade themselves in the round house where they fight off the
   crew. Alan kills Shuan, and David wounds Hoseason. Five of the crew are
   killed.

   Alan is a Jacobite Catholic who sides with the french over the battle
   of Scotland and France.

   Hoseason has no choice but to give Alan and David passage back to the
   mainland. David tells his story to Alan, and Alan explains that the
   country of Appin where he is from is under the tyrannical
   administration of the Red Fox, a British official who in fact is a
   Campbell, Colin Roy of Glenure. Alan vows that should he find the Red
   Fox, he will kill him.

   The Covenant soon becomes caught in a reef during a storm, as they
   attempt to load the skiff and escape, David is cast overboard by a wave
   and washes up on what he believes to be a solitary island, but after
   five days realizes that with the tide out he is able to walk from the
   island onto a second large island, Mull.

   Once there, he learns from a Scottish man that Alan has survived and
   has instructed David to go to Torosay. David has two encounters with
   beggarly guards, one who attempts to stab him with a knife, and another
   who is blind but an excellent shot with a pistol. David soon reaches
   Torosay where he is ferried across the river and receives further
   instructions from Alan's friend Neil Roy McRob, and later meets a
   Catechist named Mr. Henderland, who ferries him onto the mainland.

   As he continues his journey, David encounters none other than the Red
   Fox, who is accompanied by a lawyer, servant, and sheriff's officer.
   When David stops the Red Fox to ask him for directions, someone in the
   hills fires a gun and the Red Fox is killed. David is incriminated by
   the lawyer as a conspirator and flees up the hills for his life, where
   he meets Alan, who proclaims his innocence of the act. Alan and David
   flee from the redcoats until they reach a friend of Alan, James of the
   Glens, whose family is burying their hidden store of weapons and
   burning evidence that could incriminate them. James tells Alan and
   David that he will have no choice but to "paper" them, that is, send
   out wanted posters of them, but provides them with weapons and food.

   Alan and David then begin their flight through the heather, hiding from
   redcoats, dragoons, and navigating great rivers. They attempt to send a
   message to James through a bouman named John Breck, but they learn that
   James has been taken prisoner. As Alan and David continue their
   journey, they are set upon by rogue highlanders armed with dirks who
   serve a chief in hiding, Cluny Macpherson. Alan gets Cluny to give them
   shelter. While staying there, David and Cluny grow to dislike each
   other, David being a gentleman and Cluny being a gambler. Alan soon
   loses all his money playing cards and asks David for a loan.
   Subsequently all of David's money is lost too. Cluny's scouts report
   that the way is clear after a few days, and David and Alan leave his
   lair.

   As David and Alan continue their flight, David becomes progressively
   sicker and he and Alan fight over the gambling and Alan's attitude.
   David in fact challenges Alan to a duel, but Alan is ashamed to fight a
   friend and a teenager, so he drops his sword. David then stops arguing
   with him, and Alan helps him find shelter in Balquhidder to heal
   himself. They are taken into the house of Duncan Dhu, who is a
   brilliant piper.

   While recuperating, Alan meets a foe of his, Robin Oig, who is a
   murderer and renegade. Alan and Robin nearly fight a duel, but Duncan
   persuades them to leave the contest to bagpipes. Both play brilliantly,
   but Alan admits Robin is the better piper, so the quarrel is resolved
   and Alan and David prepare to pass the Forth and finally return to
   David's country.

   David and Alan pass the Forth with the aid of a lass from Limekilns,
   and meet a lawyer of David's uncle, Mr. Rankeillor, who agrees to help
   David receive his inheritance. David and Rankeillor hide in bushes
   outside the Ebenezer's house while Alan speaks to him, claiming to be a
   man who found David nearly dead and is holding him captive in a castle,
   and asks the uncle whether to kill him or keep him. The uncle flatly
   denies Alan's statement that David had been kidnapped, but eventually
   admits that he paid Hoseason "twenty pound" to take David to
   "Caroliny". David and Rankeillor then emerge from their hiding places
   and speak with Ebenezer in the kitchen, where David rightly receives
   two-thirds of the estate. The novel ends with David and Alan parting
   ways, Alan going to France, and David going to a bank to settle his
   money.

Characters

     * David Balfour
     * Ebenezer Balfour
     * Captain Elias Hoseason
     * Alan Breck Stewart
     * Colin Roy Campbell "Red Fox"
     * James Stewart
     * Cluny Macpherson
     * Duncan Dhu MacLaren
     * Robin Oig MacGregor
     * Mr. Rankeillor

Major themes

   The solid historical and environmental background, and the realism with
   which the physical hardship suffered by Alan and David is described,
   give the novel an immediacy which perhaps explains the hold it has on
   some readers, given the simple narrative line and spare plotting.
   Indeed, plot only takes a dominant role at the beginning and end of the
   novel, while the heart of it lies in what Henry James described as the
   "really excellent" chapters of the flight in the heather. Some of the
   Scottish dialogue may be hard going for modern readers, though
   Stevenson himself admitted that he had applied only a smattering so as
   not to tax the inner ear of non-Scots.

Literary significance and criticism

   Kidnapped was well received and sold well while Stevenson was alive,
   but after his death many viewed it with skepticism seeing it as simply
   a "boys novel". By the mid-20th century, however, it had regained
   critical approval and study.

   The sequel Catriona was written in 1893 while Stevenson was living on
   Samoa. It has in large part a romantic theme, and much less adventure,
   and has not achieved the popular appeal of Kidnapped.

Adaptations

     * 1938 - Kidnapped - with Warner Baxter and Freddie Bartholomew
     * 1960 - Kidnapped - with Peter Finch and James MacArthur
     * 1971 - Kidnapped - with Michael Caine and Trevor Howard
     * 1995 - Kidnapped - with Armand Assante and Des Braiden

Edinburgh: City of Literature

   As part of the events to celebrate Edinburgh being named the first
   UNESCO City of Literature, three versions of the book will be made
   freely available (including being left on buses and in other public
   places) throughout February 2007. These three versions are:
     * A new printing of the novel with notes by Professor Barry Menikoff.
     * A retelling of the tale for children.
     * Kidnapped, a graphic novel version, has been created by Alan Grant
       and Cam Kennedy.
     * A version in Lowland Scots

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapped_%28novel%29"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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