Kidnapped (novel)

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges and Seamus Heaney.

As historical fiction, it is set around 18th century Scottish events, notably the " Appin Murder", which occurred near Ballachulish in 1752 in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising. Many of the characters, and one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart, were real people. The political situation of the time is skilfully portrayed from different viewpoints, and the plight of the highlanders treated sympathetically.

Plot Summary

The central character and narrator is a young man named David Balfour (Balfour being Stevenson's mother's maiden name), callow but resourceful, whose parents have recently died and who is out to make his way in the world. He is given a letter by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, to be delivered to the ominous House of Shaws in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives. On his journey, David enquires to many people where the House of Shaws is, and all of them speak of it darkly as a place of fear and evil.

David arrives at the House of Shaws and attempts to gain entry. His uncle mistrusts him and seems mentally unstable. Ebenezer is also miserly, eating only "parritch" and ale despite his large amounts of money. He offers David a gift of forty guineas to increase the trust between them, and then asks David to get a chest from the top of a tower in the house. David is forced to scale the stairs in the dark, and realizes that not only are the stairs uneven, but that they simply end after several steps and fall into the abyss. David thus realizes that his Uncle was planning to kill him so as not to have to give over his inheritance.

David confronts Ebenezer, who becomes silent and again mysterious. A boy arrives the next day, Ransome, who tells Ebenezer that Captain Hoseason of a brig, the Covenant, needs to meet him to discuss business. Ebenezer takes David to the Queen's Ferry, where Hoseason awaits, and David makes the mistake of leaving his Uncle alone with the captain while he visits the docks with Ransome. Hoseason later offers to take them on board the brig briefly, and David complies, only to see his uncle returning to shore in a skiff and to be struck over the head by a sailor.

David awakens bound hand and foot in the hull of the ship. He becomes weak with sickness and one of the Covenant's officers, Mr. Riach, convinces Hoseason to move David up to the forecastle. Ransome, the cabin boy on the Covenant, is abused and mistreated by another officer, Mr. Shuan, who later kills him. David is repulsed at the crew's behaviour, and later learns that they have been ordered to sell him into slavery in the Carolinas.

David takes over as cabin boy, and the ship strikes a small boat from France. All of its crew are killed except one man, Alan Breck Stewart, who is brought on board and offers Hoseason a large sum of money to land in France and drop him off. David later overhears the crew planning to kill Alan and take all his money, so he warns him, and the two barricade themselves in the round house where they fight off the crew. Alan kills Shuan, and David wounds Hoseason. Five of the crew are killed.

Alan is a Jacobite Catholic who sides with the french over the battle of Scotland and France.

Hoseason has no choice but to give Alan and David passage back to the mainland. David tells his story to Alan, and Alan explains that the country of Appin where he is from is under the tyrannical administration of the Red Fox, a British official who in fact is a Campbell, Colin Roy of Glenure. Alan vows that should he find the Red Fox, he will kill him.

The Covenant soon becomes caught in a reef during a storm, as they attempt to load the skiff and escape, David is cast overboard by a wave and washes up on what he believes to be a solitary island, but after five days realizes that with the tide out he is able to walk from the island onto a second large island, Mull.

Once there, he learns from a Scottish man that Alan has survived and has instructed David to go to Torosay. David has two encounters with beggarly guards, one who attempts to stab him with a knife, and another who is blind but an excellent shot with a pistol. David soon reaches Torosay where he is ferried across the river and receives further instructions from Alan's friend Neil Roy McRob, and later meets a Catechist named Mr. Henderland, who ferries him onto the mainland.

As he continues his journey, David encounters none other than the Red Fox, who is accompanied by a lawyer, servant, and sheriff's officer. When David stops the Red Fox to ask him for directions, someone in the hills fires a gun and the Red Fox is killed. David is incriminated by the lawyer as a conspirator and flees up the hills for his life, where he meets Alan, who proclaims his innocence of the act. Alan and David flee from the redcoats until they reach a friend of Alan, James of the Glens, whose family is burying their hidden store of weapons and burning evidence that could incriminate them. James tells Alan and David that he will have no choice but to "paper" them, that is, send out wanted posters of them, but provides them with weapons and food.

Alan and David then begin their flight through the heather, hiding from redcoats, dragoons, and navigating great rivers. They attempt to send a message to James through a bouman named John Breck, but they learn that James has been taken prisoner. As Alan and David continue their journey, they are set upon by rogue highlanders armed with dirks who serve a chief in hiding, Cluny Macpherson. Alan gets Cluny to give them shelter. While staying there, David and Cluny grow to dislike each other, David being a gentleman and Cluny being a gambler. Alan soon loses all his money playing cards and asks David for a loan. Subsequently all of David's money is lost too. Cluny's scouts report that the way is clear after a few days, and David and Alan leave his lair.

As David and Alan continue their flight, David becomes progressively sicker and he and Alan fight over the gambling and Alan's attitude. David in fact challenges Alan to a duel, but Alan is ashamed to fight a friend and a teenager, so he drops his sword. David then stops arguing with him, and Alan helps him find shelter in Balquhidder to heal himself. They are taken into the house of Duncan Dhu, who is a brilliant piper.

While recuperating, Alan meets a foe of his, Robin Oig, who is a murderer and renegade. Alan and Robin nearly fight a duel, but Duncan persuades them to leave the contest to bagpipes. Both play brilliantly, but Alan admits Robin is the better piper, so the quarrel is resolved and Alan and David prepare to pass the Forth and finally return to David's country.

David and Alan pass the Forth with the aid of a lass from Limekilns, and meet a lawyer of David's uncle, Mr. Rankeillor, who agrees to help David receive his inheritance. David and Rankeillor hide in bushes outside the Ebenezer's house while Alan speaks to him, claiming to be a man who found David nearly dead and is holding him captive in a castle, and asks the uncle whether to kill him or keep him. The uncle flatly denies Alan's statement that David had been kidnapped, but eventually admits that he paid Hoseason "twenty pound" to take David to "Caroliny". David and Rankeillor then emerge from their hiding places and speak with Ebenezer in the kitchen, where David rightly receives two-thirds of the estate. The novel ends with David and Alan parting ways, Alan going to France, and David going to a bank to settle his money.

Characters

• David Balfour
• Ebenezer Balfour
• Captain Elias Hoseason
• Alan Breck Stewart
• Colin Roy Campbell "Red Fox"
• James Stewart
• Cluny Macpherson
• Duncan Dhu MacLaren
• Robin Oig MacGregor
• Mr. Rankeillor

Major themes

The solid historical and environmental background, and the realism with which the physical hardship suffered by Alan and David is described, give the novel an immediacy which perhaps explains the hold it has on some readers, given the simple narrative line and spare plotting. Indeed, plot only takes a dominant role at the beginning and end of the novel, while the heart of it lies in what Henry James described as the "really excellent" chapters of the flight in the heather. Some of the Scottish dialogue may be hard going for modern readers, though Stevenson himself admitted that he had applied only a smattering so as not to tax the inner ear of non-Scots.

Literary significance and criticism

Kidnapped was well received and sold well while Stevenson was alive, but after his death many viewed it with skepticism seeing it as simply a "boys novel". By the mid-20th century, however, it had regained critical approval and study.

The sequel Catriona was written in 1893 while Stevenson was living on Samoa. It has in large part a romantic theme, and much less adventure, and has not achieved the popular appeal of Kidnapped.

Adaptations

• 1938 - Kidnapped - with Warner Baxter and Freddie Bartholomew
• 1960 - Kidnapped - with Peter Finch and James MacArthur
• 1971 - Kidnapped - with Michael Caine and Trevor Howard
• 1995 - Kidnapped - with Armand Assante and Des Braiden

Edinburgh: City of Literature

As part of the events to celebrate Edinburgh being named the first UNESCO City of Literature, three versions of the book will be made freely available (including being left on buses and in other public places) throughout February 2007. These three versions are:

• A new printing of the novel with notes by Professor Barry Menikoff.
• A retelling of the tale for children.
• Kidnapped, a graphic novel version, has been created by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy.
• A version in Lowland Scots