KIDNAPPED Complete illustrated Edition: with original classic illustrations

KIDNAPPED
Complete illustrated Edition with original classic illustrations

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by 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 Hilary Mantel.

content

I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS

I COME TO MY JOURNEY'S END

I MAKE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY UNCLE

I RUN A GREAT DANGER IN THE HOUSE OF SHAWS

I GO TO THE QUEEN'S FERRY

WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN'S FERRY

I GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG "COVENANT" OF DYSART

THE ROUND-HOUSE

THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD

THE SIEGE OF THE ROUND-HOUSE

THE CAPTAIN KNUCKLES UNDER

I HEAR OF THE "RED FOX"

THE LOSS OF THE BRIG

THE ISLET

THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: THROUGH THE ISLE OF MULL

THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: ACROSS MORVEN

THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX

TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF LETTERMORE

THE HOUSE OF FEAR

THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE ROCKS

THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE HEUGH OF CORRYNAKIEGH

THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE MOOR

CLUNY'S CAGE

THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER

THE QUARREL IN BALQUHIDDER

END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH

I COME TO MR. RANKEILLOR

I GO IN QUEST OF MY INHERITANCE

I COME INTO MY KINGDOM

GOOD-BYE

Plot

The main character and narrator is 17-year-old David Balfour. (Balfour is Stevenson's mother's maiden name.) His parents have recently died, and he 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 House of Shaws in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives.

David arrives at the ominous House of Shaws and is confronted by his paranoid Uncle Ebenezer, who is armed with a blunderbuss. His uncle is also miserly, living on "parritch" and small ale, and the House of Shaws itself is partially unfinished and somewhat ruinous. David is allowed to stay and soon discovers evidence that his father may have been older than his uncle, thus making David the rightful heir to the estate. Ebenezer asks David to get a chest from the top of a tower in the house but refuses to provide a lamp or candle. David is forced to scale the stairs in the dark and realises that not only is the tower unfinished in some places, but the steps simply end abruptly and fall into an abyss. David concludes that his uncle intended for him to have an "accident" so as not to have to give over his nephew's inheritance.