Kidnapped

by Robert Louis Stevenson, John Seelye (Introduction), Claire Harman (Afterword)

Overview

Robert Louis Stevenson's glorious passport to romance and high adventure.

Here is the story of young David Balfour, whose miserly uncle cheats him out of his inheritance and schemes to have him kidnapped, shanghaied, and sold into slavery. But justice triumphs—after a spirited odyssey that includes a shipwreck, a hazardous journey across Scotland with a daredevil companion, intrigues, narrow escapes, and desperate fighting. Rich in action and characterization, this exhilarating novel was considered by Stevenson to be his finest work of fiction. 

With an Introduction by John Seelye and an Afterword by Claire Harman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451531438
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/03/2009
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,077,731
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh. In the brief span of forty-four years, dogged by poor health, he made an enormous contribution to English literature with his novels, poetry, and essays. The son of upper-middle-class parents, he was the victim of lung trouble from birth, and spent a sheltered childhood surrounded by constant care. In 1880, he married Mrs. Fanny Osbourne, a woman ten years his senior. The balance of his life was taken up with his unremitting devotion to work, and a search for a cure to his illness that took him all over the world. His travel essays were published widely, and his short fiction was gathered in many volumes. His first full-length work of fiction, Treasure Island, was published in 1883 and brought him great fame, which only increased with the publication of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). He followed with the Scottish romances Kidnapped (1886) and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). In 1888, he set out with his family for the South Seas, traveling to the leper colony at Molokai, and finally settling in Samoa, where he died.
 
John Seelye is a leading American Studies scholar and professor of English at the University of Florida at Gainesville. He is the author of The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Prophetic Waters: The River in Early American Life and Literature.
 
Claire Harman is a distinguished critic and author of biographies of Sylvia Townsend Warner (winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Fanny Burney and Robert Louis Stevenson. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006, she has taught English at the Universities of Manchester and Oxford and creative writing at Columbia University.

Date of Birth:

November 13, 1850

Date of Death:

December 3, 1894

Place of Birth:

Edinburgh, Scotland

Place of Death:

Vailima, Samoa

Education:

Edinburgh University, 1875

Read an Excerpt

Introduction by Margot Livesey

I.

When I was growing up in Scotland, Robert Louis Stevenson was the first author whom I knew by name, and he remains the only one whom I can truthfully claim to have been reading all my life. From an early age, my parents read to me from A Child's Garden of Verses, and I soon learned some of the poems by heart.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

Perhaps I recognized, even then, Stevenson's unique gift for keeping a foot in two camps. While the poems vividly captured my childish concerns, somewhere in the margins shimmered the mystery of adult life. A few years later Kidnapped was the first chapter book I read, and I can still picture the maroon binding and the black-and-white drawings that illustrated David Balfour's adventures. At the age of seven, a book without pictures would have been out of the question, but, in fact, they turned out to be superfluous. I could imagine everything that happened just from the words on the page, although I must admit to the small advantage that the view from my bedroom window--bare hills, rocks, heather--was very much like the landscape of Kidnapped.

At first glance such early acquaintance might seem like a good omen for an author's reputation. In actuality, that Stevenson is so widely read by children has tended to make him seem like an author from who, as adults, we have little to learn. It is worth noting that his contemporaries would not have shared this prejudice. Nineteenth-century readers did not regard children's books as separate species. Stevenson's own father often reread The Parent's Assistant, a volume of children's stories, and Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, writes of staying up late to finish Treasure Island.

Like the shadow of his poem, Stevenson's reputation has waxed and waned at an alarming rate. He died in a blaze of hagiography, which perhaps in part explains the fury of later critics. F.R. Leavis in The Great Tradition dismisses Stevenson (in a footnote, no less) as a romantic writer, guilty of fine writing, and in general Stevenson has not fared as well as his friend Henry James. People comment with amazement that Borges and Nabokov praised his novels. Still, his best work has remained in print for over a hundred years, and his is among that small group of authors to have given a phrase to the language: Jekyll and Hyde.

Besides our perception of Stevenson as a children's author, two other factors may have contributed to his ambiguous reputation. Although his list of publications is much longer than most people realize--he wrote journalism and travel pieces for money--he failed to produce a recognizable oeuvre, a group of works that stand together, each resonating with the others. In addition, the pendulum of literary taste has swung in a direction that Stevenson disliked and was determined to avoid: namely, pessimism. After reading The Portrait of a Lady he wrote to James begging him to write no more such books, and while he admired the early work of Thomas Hardy, he hated the darker Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The English writer John Galsworthy commented memorably on this aspect of Stevenson when he said that the superiority of Stevenson over Hardy was that Stevenson was all life, while Hardy was all death.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Kidnapped"
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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Crossley reads this tale as its author might have. Adept at the language of the region and times, Crossley deftly brings one of literature's best-known stories to the ears of contemporary listeners." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

"Stevenson's best book."—Henry James

From the Publisher

Gr 7 Up
This retelling of Stevenson's classic hits the high points of what was originally a densely written story, making it more palatable for reluctant readers or those who want to revisit the original. The text and dialogue retain the spirit of the novel, but the hard-to-read Scottish accents are softened and the passages in which characters speak to each other in Latin have been removed. On the whole this is an engaging adaptation, aided by Kennedy's vibrant illustrations in a palette dominated by blues, greens, and sepia tones. The action scenes are exciting, and readers will get a good feel for the dangers of the sea and the beauty of the Scottish Highlands. However, adapting some parts of the book and using other parts verbatim can be confusing. For example, the last sentence, about David Balfour finding the doors of the British Linen Company's bank, is quoted verbatim. Earlier mention of this bank is not included, which might leave readers wondering why it is significant. Quibbles aside, this book would make a good bridge to the novel for readers who want to delve deeper into the story, and will also prove to those readers who think they hate classics that some of them are actually kind of cool.
—Andrea LipinskiCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

The workmanship was admired and the horrors were related with such charm and freshness, joined to refinement, that readers of fine taste found the work a source of genuine pleasure.”

1894 New York Times

A masterpiece.”

Henry James

This tale of high adventure, told simply but colorfully, is woven around a true incident; Stevenson’s characters, from all classes, noble and ignoble, are skillfully drawn and develop convincingly as they pass through kidnappings, battles at sea, murders, and other adventures…David and Alan have contradictory points of view and antithetical sociopolitical commitments; yet they work together and form a lasting bond on the basis of friendship and loyalty that transcend their differences. Here is Stevenson the novelist at his best—forsaking dogma and eschewing ideology in favor of humanistic values. Stevenson was a master storyteller.”

Masterpieces of World Literature

One of the best-loved adventure books of all time.”

Guardian (London)

In an attempt to collect his inheritance from his father's estate, young David Balfour finds himself pressed aboard the ship of an evil captain and crew. His eventual escape during a shipwreck leads to even more exciting travails and danger. Since much of the Stevenson's writing centers on Scotland and the Scots character, narrator Steven Crossley reads this tale as its author might have. Adept at the language of the region and times, Crossley deftly brings one of literature's best-known stories to the ears of contemporary listeners. His renditions of the sea chanteys and poetry mixed into the prose showcase his breadth of talent. Those who enjoy the classics will find both story and performance delightful. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2010 - AudioFile