Kidnapped (novel)

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. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.

The narrative is written in English with some dialogue in Lowland Scots.

The central character and narrator is 17-year-old David Balfour. Recently orphaned, he travels to the run-down estate of his paranoid and stingy uncle Ebenezer. There he learns more about his family, ultimately discovering that his father was the older son and that he is the rightful owner of the estate, not Ebenezer. He confronts his uncle about this, and in response Ebenezer arranges to have David knocked out and handed over to Captain Hoseason of the brig Covenant, and when David awakens, bound hand and foot, in its hold he discovers Hoseason plans to sell him into slavery in the Americas. Unfavorable winds drive the Covenant back to Scotland, near which they strike a small boat and kill all aboard it but one man -- Alan Breck Stewart, who is brought on board and offers Hoseason a large sum of money to drop him off on the mainland. David later overhears the crew plotting to kill Alan and take all his money. David and Alan barricade themselves in the round house, where Alan kills the murderous Shuan, and David wounds Hoseason. Five of the crew members are killed outright, and the rest refuse to continue fighting.

Hoseason has no choice but to give Alan and David passage back to the mainland. David tells his tale to Alan, who in turn states that his birthplace, Appin, is under the tyrannical administration of Colin Roy of Glenure, the King's factor and a Campbell. Alan, who is a Jacobite agent and wears a French uniform, vows that should he find the "Red Fox" he will kill him.

When the Covenant runs aground while negotiating a difficult channel, David and Alan are separated in the confusion. David makes his way back to Scotland and seeks to reunite with Alan; on his way he meets up with Colin Roy and his party just in time for Colin Roy to be assassinated by a hidden sniper. Accused of being an accomplice in the murder, David flees, eventually meeting back up with Alan for a series of adventures by turns both serious and humorous until the two finally meet with Mr. Rankeillor, Ebenezer's lawyer, who agrees to help David get his inheritance. When Alan dupes Ebenezer into admitting before hidden witnesses that he paid to have David kidnapped, Mr. Rankeillor and David are able to force him to yield two-thirds of the estate's income to David for the rest of Ebenezer's life.

The novel ends with Alan and David parting ways for the last (?) time, as Alan returns to France and David heads to a bank to settle his money.

Not to be confused with the 2006 series on NBC.


 * Blackmail: Mr. Rankeillor and David use Ebenezer's Engineered Public Confession to force him to give up the two-thirds of the estate's income to David.


 * Engineered Public Confession: At the end of the book, Alan masquerades as one of a band holding David captive in the Hebrides, and gets Ebenezer to admit in front of hidden witnesses that he paid Captain Hoseason to kidnap David.


 * He Knows Too Much: Ebenezer had David abducted because he discovered that he was the true owner of the estate, not Ebenezer.


 * Historical Fiction: Kidnapped is set around real 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin murder", which occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. The political situation of the time is portrayed from multiple viewpoints, and the Scottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically.


 * Long Title: The full title of the book is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.


 * Meaningful Name: Main character David Balfour bears Stevenson's mother's maiden name.