Kidnapped

I first read Kidnapped while at school and since then have read it several times. It is better read with a map of Scotland to hand. It is set in 1751 and, on the surface, is a tale of the adventures of the young David Balfour, who is kidnapped while seeking to claim his inheritance and taken aboard a ship bound for the Carolinas. The ship founders off the west coast of Scotland and David has to make his way back to Edinburgh. This is during the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

The author describes the hardships of the Highlanders at the time and the reader becomes aware that Lowlanders and Highlanders had very different personalities. This is brought out in the contrast between David Balfour, a Lowlander and Alan Breck Stuart, a fugitive whom David meets, who is a ‘Highland Gentleman'. They are given shelter by other highland fugitives while they are being pursued by the Royalist troops of George I. As well as a tale of adventure and treachery, this story also provides us with a history lesson, involving the Young Pretender to the throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and the conflict of politics and religion throughout Britain at the time.

I enjoyed reading this classic as it gives much more than a story but an insight into a time in history that has been romanticised but was extremely harsh. There is a lot of information in the Penguin Classics edition I read regarding Robert Louis Stevenson himself and the events and people mentioned in his tale.