Kidnapped

Written by Robert Louis Stevenson

Narrated by Ralph Cosham

Published in 1886, the same year as Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped is one of Stevenson's most enduringly popular novels. At its center is a historical event: the murder of Colin Campbell, the 'Red Fox' of Glenure in Scotland. David Balfour, whose father dies leaving him with nothing to live on, goes to live with a cruel and miserly uncle. The uncle attempts to have the boy killed and then has him kidnapped and taken to sea. The ship is wrecked and the novel follows David and and his friend Alan as they journey across the Highlands through numerous dangers including witnessing and becoming suspects in the murder of the Red Fox.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 13, 1850. Although he was expected to pursue his father's career as an engineer, he became a lawyer. He attended Edinburgh University where he also declared himself agnostic. Robert suffered from tuberculosis and during his trip to France he wrote An Inland Voyage (1879). Luis met Fanny Osbourne, an American, and married her in 1880 in California. During his extensive travels to find favorable climate, he wrote numerous essays, poems and romances. He overcame his illness in the Marquesas Islands in 1888. He died on the island of Samoa on Dec 3, 1894, where he had settled in 1890.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spotify Audiobooks
• Release date: Jan 1, 2001
• ISBN: 9781467610827

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.

Reviews for Kidnapped

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I must say that, for once, I found a book a bit difficult to follow. He has written the book very well. No doubt about this. There is lots of local flavour when it comes to the language. However, I did not follow the plot as well as I usually do, and was a bit happy when the book finally ended!

[ncgraham_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Previously I have ranked Robert Louis Stevenson among my favorite authors simply on the basis of Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses. Now I’m pleased to add Kidnapped to that list.In my review of Treasure Island, I called Stevenson a master of atmosphere, and that’s true here as well. He has a most miraculous ability to make me feel like I’ve stepped into a new world and am experiencing it for the first time, side by side with our hero, David Balfour: On the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I saw all the country fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midst of this descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln. There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored in the firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, I could distinguish clearly; and both brought my country heart into my mouth.But while every page of Treasure Island seems to be bathed in salty air, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in grimy fog, in Kidnapped the atmosphere varies from setting to setting, from scene to scene. There’s a Gothic air pervading the encounters with Uncle Ebenezer (truly one of the lowest and most despicable of Stevenson’s characters, and not at all similar to his usual Devil-as-Gentleman villain), followed by a nautical section that invokes all of the danger and little of the lightness of Treasure Island. The majority of the tale, however, centers on the romance and mystique of the highlands.The character who best embodies Stevenson’s idea of highland honor is Alan Breck Stewart; all the complexity that Stevenson spared in creating Uncle Ebenezer he seems to have kept in reserve for the portrait of this adventurous outlaw, who was a real historical personage. Stevenson’s Alan is alternately heroic and petty, friendly and shortsighted. At times he almost seems younger than his juvenile companion, although he’s never less than sympathetic.By my calculations, David himself ought to be roughly the same age as Jim in Treasure Island, but David is the more complicated character, and thus Kidnapped reads as an “older” story. Unfortunately, it’s also more episodic than Treasure Island, with a weaker plot and an open ending. Still, I enjoyed it, and look forward to reading more Stevenson—including the sequel, Catriona!

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The overall story for this book was good, but the strong Scottish dialect made it difficult to follow. Once I gave up on trying to figure out exactly what was going on, the book was more enjoyable.

[Zulaika Elhadi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this reader, he was very entertaining to listen to

[nielspeterqm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At first sight, this work seems disquietingly similar to Stevenson's better known Treasure Island: around the middle of the 18th Century (not Stevenson's own 19th Century), an impoverished, inexperienced, but self-respecting teenage hero is set to sea by circumstance. Here he faces a crew of thugs whom, supported by strong role-models, he valiantly defeats. Then follows a long voyage of wandering & discovery until at last he comes to spiritual & material independence under the wise & watchful eye of his mentors, portrayed as very pillars of a romanticized British Empire.But there the similarity does stop. Kidnapped is exclusively about 18th Century Scotland & its entirely unforgettable inhabitants. Its sea voyage is a circumnavigation of Scotland, no more, no less. The perilous return to the home town takes place across hills & heather. Finally & most important, every character in the novel is as Scottish as its teenage hero - or as Stevenson was himself.You might say that Kidnapped offers all the assets of Treasure Island, plus one: the tense but warm atmosphere of an independence-loving nation during the waning years of its armed rebellion against the English. Stevenson, in loving mastery of his subject yet never as uncritical as he seems, ignores neither politics, intrigues, & clan quarrels, nor the (predictable) homage to bagpipe & tartans. The book is therefore flavoursome in a manner that even Treasure Island, for all its power, never attains. The historical & cultural depth here is simply greater - & the book perhaps as entertaining.

[krista23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Adventure, murder and friendship. Young boys will find adventure along with David Balfour in the Scottish Highlands during this historical novel of trials through war and the relief of homecoming.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great story with a good narrative drive involving the betrayal and kidnapping of the central character, David Balfour, his flight across the Scottish landscape and his eventual rescue and restoration to his fortune. There are a number of other colourful and intriguing characters especially David's uncle Ebenezer (similar to his Dickensian namesake) and Alan Breck Stewart. Good stuff, though there are an awful lot of Scots words not recognised in the OED and only a few of which are explained in footnotes in the Delphi Collected Works edition.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found it simplistic and believe it's description as a boy's adventure novel fitting. It gives some good lessons for "coming of age" young people. I liked the Scottish dialogue, learning a bit of history and the description of the countryside to be an enjoyable part of the book.

[evertrap · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Plenty of action, strange characters and great descriptions of the landscape of Scotland. A fun read.

[the_hibernator · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When 16-year-old David Balfour meets his estranged uncle for the first time, he is shocked by the man's cruelty. Soon, Balfour has been kidnapped and he must rescue himself and travel back to the town of his uncle to claim his inheritance. This is an exciting little book...not quite up to scratch with Treasure Island, but still has quite an adventure. It would probably be a fun book for teenagers to read, if they like classics (or if you want to thrust classics upon them).

[themulhern · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An awesome adventure and nothing trivial or cliche about it. It is really the first part of a two volume story; it ends abruptly in Edinburgh with only some things resolved and its sequel, Catriona, picks up the story of David Balfour about an hour later. It inspired some thrilling illustrations by N.C. Wyeth and has some very funny bits. David's internal musings are moving and amusing and Allan Breck is a right handful. There is no extreme of weather that poor David does not endure.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped began serialization in Young Folks magazine. It was this book, along with the earlier Treasure Island (1883) and A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) which first drew me to Stevenson more than fifty years ago. Along with a handful of other authors these books became the foundation of my early reading and love of books. I still have that feeling for Stevenson as I have gradually explored some of his other novels and essays. While he is considered one of England's most popular writers of "Children's Literature", these novels and his others, especially The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, are worth exploring and enjoying as an adult. Jekyll and Hyde in particular, provoked by a dream and written in a ten-week burst during the writing of Kidnapped, is one of the outstanding examples of the use of the theme of 'the double' in literature, and a classic late Victorian text. Though Stevenson wrote prolifically and in almost every genre, these four books from the mid-1880s are all he would need to be remembered more than a century later. This reader continues to look back a the beginning of his reading as a boy and remember when he first encountered the adventures depicted in Kidnapped and Treasure Island. like”

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best adventure fiction I have ever read, and one of the most satisfying books on many levels. If I hadn't run out of fiction to read on holiday and found this in the thrift shop, I might never have read it. Talk about close shaves! Definite reread material. Setting, pacing, fascinating historical information, the characters of both the land and the people, and the relationship between the protagonists--a Whig and a Jacobite--absolutely brilliant and utterly thirst-quenching.

[edgeworth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Kidnapped" is the third-most famous of Robert Louis Stevenson's novels, overshadowed by "Treasure Island" and "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde," but it's the first of his that I've read. If it's anything to go by, I should definitely check out his other works.The novel begins in 1751 with David Balfour, our young and resourceful Scottish protagonist, setting out to the house of the Shaws upon the death of his parents. Here he meets his uncle Ebeneezer, a wheedling little man who, rather than welcoming him with open arms, attempts to murder him to seize the family fortune. When this fails he sells David into slavery aboard a ship bound for the Carolinas.What follows is a swashbuckling adventure of the highest order, containing shipwrecks, gunfights, sword duels, murder, pursuit by the British Army, outlaw hideouts and all manner of boy's adventure tropes. Yet it's a far more serious and polished novel than I make it sound, set against a well-developed political and historical backdrop and featuring several real-life figures - most notably David's friend and mentor Alan Breck, a Scottish Jacobite. I don't quite know what that is! Nonetheless, it grants "Kidnapped" a solid sense of time and place, which drags a little during David's endless flight across the heather but which, on the whole, contributes into making it a more refined novel than the sort of typical adventure tale that any halfway decent writer can churn out (and which, indeed, I have been churning out for many years).It's also, despite being written in the nineteenth century, a remarkably easy book to read. Writers back then often had higher standards of vocabulary and style, which means contemporary readers often have trouble reading them, but "Kidnapped" could easily have been penned in the mid-twentieth century. This is probably the oldest book I've read that I found both enjoyable and worth my time. ("Moby-Dick," written in 1851, was certainly worth my time, but "enjoyable" is not the first word it brings to mind.)Overall "Kidnapped" is a pretty fun read, and I'll check out "Treasure Island" when I get the chance.

[glenline · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is on a par with Treasure Island although it lacks the excitement of a treasure hunt, there is plenty of excitement anyway and the plot is better.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Swashbuckling adventure set in Scotland, the author of Treasure Island revels in this wild story. It didn't really come alive for me until the shipwreck. Even then, it's not one that sucked me in with every page. An entertaining adventure story. I can see loving this one if I read it when I was young, but as an adult it didn't hold my attention as much.It fell into the same category as The Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, all excellent stories. But I think I would've loved them more if I had read them when I was younger."To be feared of a thing and yet do it is what makes the prettiest kind of a man."

[jlcarroll · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you looking for a glimpse into Scottish Highlander hijinks - and don't mind wading through text that's heavy with brogue - then you'll enjoy this classic by Stevenson.

[jburlinson_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Second only to Treasure Island at the pinnacle of adventure fiction. The early chapters with wicked Uncle Ebeneezer are my favorites. Is anyone aware of a character in fiction named Ebeneezer who is actually a good guy?

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Forty plus years after reading "Treasure Island", I have finally completed my second book by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Kidnapped".Protagonist David Balfour is the heir to his uncle's estate, but his uncle doesn't want to share, so he arranges for his nephew to be taken to the Carolinas as a slave. Sometimes plans just don't follow through as we'd like, and David finds himself on the run, trying to survive long enough to get home and enact revenge.Good story, should be interesting and/or readable for youth and up.Note: I gave this book three stars: the story moved along nicely, although the Scottish words used throughout the text had me skipping to the glossary in the back of the book, a lot.

[melorak-374565 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved it

[leslie398 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed Michael Page's narration very much & his Scottish burr seemed spot on to these American ears. Betrayal, friendship and adventure in 1751 Scotland with some Jacobite politics in the background... What fun!

[tanya8dogearedcopy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

KidnappedBy Robert Louis StevensonNarrated by Kieron ElliottⓅ 2015, Recorded Books9 hrs and 7 minsCLASSIC / ADVENTURESet in the seventeenth century, newly orphaned seventeen-year old David Balfour, discovers that he is of the wealthy House of Shaws and heads to Edinburgh to meet his relatives. Once in the city, however, he finds that his only extant relative is a squirrelly uncle who is clearly a threat to David’s own life. After a particularly close brush with death, David is tricked onboard a ship and whisked away on to a life of hardship and adventure including ship battles, ship wreck, mutiny, and running with outlaws. The story is everything you would want and expect for a tale of swashbuckling heroism, clever ruses, and breath taking scenes of danger! The only thing missing is a damsel in distress; but as a “boy’s tale” the lack of a romance isn’t surprising.Kieron Elliot is a “Scottish actor, host, voice over artist and comedian” who narrated this classic tale, slowly and carefully; and with a full-on Scottish brogue. There is the temptation to speed up the recording; but the special (nautical), archaic, and idiomatic language of the novel demands a more considered approach, especially to American listeners’ ears. However, as much of a sucker for a Scottish accent that you may be [Ahem, me], his deliberate pace and lack of narrative flow mark him as a novice audiobook narrator. Indeed, it appears that he has only narrated one other audiobook, a romance for Harper Audio under the name Kieran Elliott, 'To Marry A Scottish Laird' (by Lyndsey Sands). Still, I would have liked to have heard more from this narrator. There is the sense that once he “gets” narration as an admixture of voice over and performance, he would be a top tier narrator.OTHER: I received a CD Library edition of Kidnapped (by Robert Louis Stevenson; narrated by Kieron Elliott) from Recorded Books in exchange for review. I receive no monies, goods (beyond the audiobook) or services in exchange for reviewing the product and/or mentioning any of the persons or companies that are or may be implied in this post.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young man is dispossessed by his 'evil' uncle and has many challenges on his way back to reclaiming his inheritance. Despite the unrealistic story line the hardships of young David Balfour are portrayed realistically.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.Young David Balfour discovers after his father’s death that his family has unexpected wealth and power. David ventures off to meet up with his father’s only brother and finds a man who deceives him and sells him off into slavery, sending David off on a ship bound for America. On the ship, David meets lots more bad guys and there is a lot of shooting and fighting. He falls overboard, survives to live for a while on an isolated island, and then gets thrown into a Scottish struggle for power, with more shooting and scavenging. I loved the action in this book. With books like these available, you can see why so many boys read books a hundred years ago. I also loved all the new-to-me words in this book. I could write a whole post on all the new words I discovered while reading this book. Ay, faith, I ken Scotland be a braw place, no sae bad as ye would think, in this bonny tale of a man and a halfling boy, who werenae feared of being laid by the heels, hoot-toot, hoot-toot.

[stuart10er_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two hundred page buildup for a four page payoff. Reminds me of a much shorter "Count of Monte Cristo". All setup for revenge. But with both writers, what a sweet payoff as we see Balfour's uncle get his due. Fantastic. I can read it fairly easily, but the dialect is beyond children now.

[lisa.johnson.james · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, even though this is supposed to be a kids' book, it was pretty engaging even for this Mom. I loved the fact that in my 1948 edition anyway, that even though the author sometimes writes in dialect, he takes the time to do footnotes of unfamiliar Scottish words that he uses in his writing. Most of it is fairly easy to figure out, but I appreciated it.The story itself is of a young man of 17 who's father passes away & leaves him an orphan, since the mother passed years before. David gets instructions from Mr. Campbell, his father's laird, to go seek his uncle Ebenezer, since he is the last of the Balfour family. Uncle Ebenezer, like the other famous character by that name, is not a nice guy. He arranges to have his nephew shanghai'd by a boat crew, to be sold as a white slave in the Carolinas. Well, all manner of mishaps occur, & the boat never makes it because it's wrecked off the coast. David makes his way across Scotland with Alan, who's a bit of a bad guy himself, but, he takes care of David, & that's how that odd friendship develops. Eventually, David makes his way back...I won't give away the ending, you'll just have to read it for yourself

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

1047 Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson (read 5 Apr 1970) This is a book for boys, I guess, but not bad reading. It is laid in 1751, and involves David Balfour's adventure in seeking his inheritance, and his implication with Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite who probably murdered a Campbell. Really not a substantial or overpowering work, its addition to my list of books read is not of tremendous significance.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked it but not as much as I thought I would. Honestly, the main problem for me was how long Alan and David were on the run. Chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter of running through bogs and over mountains and through rocky terrain in extreme weather. Instead of being suspenseful, I just found it tedious. I really enjoyed the rest of it, particularly the character of Alan.

[celtic_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

1751 - Bonnie Prince Charlie and The Jacobite Rebellion still fresh in peoples minds. Sixteen year old, honest and naive David Balfour inextricably linked to fiery, swashbuckling Jacobite Allan Breck. Redcoats chasing them around a Scotland where danger lurks and betrayal is feared for a murder they did not commit. What's not to like?

[jeffome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

St. Barts 2017 #7 - Famous Stevenson tale that i have heard about my entire life, and is usually the case, i cannot believe i have not ever read. So off on my vacation it came, and i read it at the same time as a friend. I certainly enjoyed the adventure, but the Scottish dialect language, even with the Stevenson-installed footnotes, and the very confusing political climate at the time of this story left me spinning more than i wanted. Scottish clan battles and English Kings obviously dominated daily lives at the time of this story, and having absolutely zero knowledge of the players and the motives, it was just a lot of distracting clutter to me. Our hero David Balfour does struggle mightily with many things not going his way, and tells this story with a certain charm and self-deprecating style that saves this for me. Lots of swashbuckling sea-faring excitement, some time spent on an island, & a healthy dose of eclectic characters challenge David as he struggles to survive his ordeal. I always thought of this as a children's book, but i think i was either wrong, or I am just way in over my head. Very glad that it is now on the pile of books i have read!