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. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893. Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 - 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr ...
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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. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893. Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 - 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life, but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. Stevenson spent several years in search of a location suited to his health, before finally settling in Samoa, where he died. Stevenson's literary reputation has fluctuated. The reaction against him set in soon after his death: he was considered a mannered and imitative essayist or only a writer of children's books. But eventually the pendulum began to swing the other way, and by the 1950s his reputation was established among the more discerning as a writer of originality and power whose essays at their best are cogent and perceptive renderings of aspects of the human condition; whose novels are either brilliant adventure stories with subtle moral overtones or original and impressive presentations of human action in terms of history and topography as well as psychology; whose short stories produce some new and effective permutations in the relation between romance and irony or manage to combine horror and suspense with moral diagnosis; whose poems, though not showing the highest poetic genius, are often skillful, occasionally (in his use of Scots, for example) interesting and original, and sometimes (in A Child's Garden) valuable for their exhibition of a special kind of sensibility. (wikipedia.org)
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Add this copy of Kidnapped to cart. $23.04, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2020 by Bibliotech Press.
good classic book, my six year old grandson really enjoyed it.
Ed
Mar 3, 2011
beware..
This edition of the classic is abbreviated, the original language is modified; the book is much like those old stripped-down Reader's Digest versions.
If reading in haste, as for a school assignment, it would be barely adequate; if you wish to read the full tale as Stevenson wrote it, choose another version!
Tarissa
Apr 17, 2010
Great Scottish Tale
When the story begins, it finds a young man in Scotland, who is named David Balfour. He is seventeen years old, and he has lost both his parents. David is told to journey to the House of Shaws---this was his late father's wish. The House of Shaws in famous for its wealth. David, who comes from a somewhat poor family, cannot fathom the reason of why he must visit this mansion.
Once he sets foot on his way, he is met by shady strangers, and he never knows which ones to trust. David gets a ride that he didn't expect, and it ends in devastating tragedy. He is caught in a trap of secrets that he doesn't even understand himself, but he must (at all costs) keep quiet about what he knows. Otherwise, his life and his friend Alan Breck's life are at stake. These two new comrades, even when not in agreeable moods, must stick together if they are going to survive their trek through the lowlands and highlands of Scotland.
I'd recommend "Kidnapped" to all ages over 13. During certain parts of the the story, it seemed to be harder to read because of the old English language being used. My copy of the book handily had a word glossary in the back. (and I used it frequently!!)
From the very first page, the story had me locked into it. Set sail with David Balfour, and be prepared for adventure, intrigue, and a surprise or two along the way.
