Book 40 - Kidnapped

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson - first published in 1886

The main character and narrator of this novel is 17 year old David Balfour.  In 1751 after the death of his father he leaves his home in the Scottish borders and walks to the house of his uncle Ebenezer at Cramond on the shores of the Firth of Forth to claim his rightful inheritance. David's father was older than Ebenezer and should therefore have inherited the family estate but they fell out over a woman - David's mother.  Ebenezer, who is a paranoid miser first tries to kill him and when he fails to do this he arranges for him to be kidnapped and sold into slavery in America.

The Covenant, the ship David is travelling on, collides with another smaller ship, which sinks,  and the only survivor, a Jacobite named Alan Breck, is rescued and brought on board the Covenant.  He and David become friends.  The Covenant runs aground off the island of Mull and David is washed ashore on the island of Erraid.  He thinks he is stranded there until after several days he realises that Erraid is a tidal island and is joined to Mull at low tide.  He walks across Mull in search of Alan Breck and gets a boat to the mainland.

Alan's arch enemy is Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, who is known as the Red Fox.  He is a government supporter.  David encounters the Red Fox but while he is asking his servant for directions a sniper shoots the Red Fox dead.  David is suspected of being a conspirator and Alan Breck is suspected of being the murderer.  David and Alan meet up and flee together south across the Highlands heading for Edinburgh.  They are pursued by government soldiers and then David is very ill.  After several close shaves and adventures they finally reach Edinburgh.  With the help of Ebenezer's lawyer and Alan, David is at last able to claim his inheritance.

Many of the characters in the book were real people e.g Alan Breck Stewart and the Red Fox.  Lots of Scottish dialect words makes the story hard to understand in places.  A few of the more obscure words had the modern equivalents given in brackets but there were still lots I had never encountered before.  That said it is a good old-fashioned adventure story.  I chose it because I thought most of the action took place on Erraid and Mull but in actual fact only a couple of chapters are set on the islands. 

Stevenson wrote a sequel to Kidnapped - Catriona.  This was published in 1893 but was never as popular as Kidnapped.    6/10

Islands covered - Erraid and Mull

Lochbuie, Mull