Publisher Description
"Kidnapped" was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886. It was an almost instant hit among young boys, and why not? This novel embodies the very things that many such audience members would find most interesting: shipwrecks, crime, suspense, danger, adventure…even murder.
"Kidnapped" is a classic adventure novel about a teenage boy called David Balfour set in 18th century Scotland.
At the start of the book David leaves his home in the countryside, following his father's death, to take a letter of introduction from his father to his uncle. He walks for 2 days before arriving at his uncle's huge but neglected house near Edinburgh. His uncle is a miserly, unpopular old man who does not make David feel at all welcome. He acts very suspiciously and David deduces that his uncle may be keeping his inheritance from him.
When his uncle takes him down to the port to arrange a business deal, David gets bashed on the head and wakes up to find that his uncle has sold him to a ship's captain...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1751, after the untimely deaths of his parents, Scotsman David Balfour, the 17-year-old protagonist and narrator of Stevenson's classic adventure yarn, travels to his father's childhood home to meet with his uncle, Ebenezer. Instead of a warm welcome, Ebenezer pays the captain of a pirate ship to kidnap his nephew and transport him to America. On board, David meets dashing Highlander Alan Breck Stewart, and together they manage to take over the ship, beginning a friendship that continues through several land-based adventures. One of these involves witness (and escaping blame for) a murder. Scottish actor Rintoul does an amazing job of delivering a bouquet of brogues including David's mild-mannered narration, his uncle's croaky, angry snarl, and Alan Stewart's almost musical, supremely confident pronouncements.
