Kidnapped & Catriona

By Robert Louis Stevenson

In "Kidnapped" (1886) and later fiction such as "The Master of Ballantrae" (1888), Stevenson examined some of the extreme and contrary currents of Scotland's past, often projecting a dualism of both personality and belief. This dualism is most famous in "Kidnapped", whose two central characters are David Balfour, a Lowland Whig, and Alan Breck Stewart, a Highland Jacobite. The novel revolves around their friendship and their differences, suggesting a metaphor for Scotland itself. Stevenson wrote the sequel "Catriona" with the title David Balfour, but during serialisation in England the public became confused, thinking it might be a reprint of "Kidnapped". At publisher Cassell's request, the title was changed to "Catriona", after Balfour's daughter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Polygon
• Release date: Jun 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9780857907080

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 & Catriona

[ritaer_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kidnapped is the better known of the two books, probably because it has been considered and marketed as a boys' adventure novel with, notably, no major female characters. Young David Balfour is betrayed and sold by his miserly uncle and escapes by a series of mishaps and adventures which involve him in the convoluted Jacobite politics of Scotland. In Catriona his attempts to clear an innocent man of murder charges are at cross purposes with important men in the government and a plot in which James Moore is involved. Catriona is the daughter of Moore aka Drummond, and David has fallen hopelessly in love with her. However their courtship seems all at cross purposes and further complicated by politics. Both books are interesting even if the politics are somewhat hard to follow.

[sloopjonb · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2 stars awarded on the basis of three for Kidnapped and none at all for Catriona, which sucks.