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Kidnapped (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), Alistair Gray (Introduction)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Customers buy this book with Treasure Island (Wordsworth's Children's Classics) by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed. / edition (27 Sep 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141441798
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141441795
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 210,412 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #58 in  Books > Fiction > The Classics > Stevenson, Robert Louis

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Product Description

Product Description

This is the story of sixteen-year-old David Balfour, an orphan, who after being kidnapped by his villainous uncle manages to escape and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule


About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish essayist, poet and author of fiction and travel books, was known especially for his novels of adventure. Stevenson became famous with the romantic adventure story Treasure Island, which appeared in 1883. Among his other popular works are Kidnapped (1886), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and The Master Of Ballantrae (1889).
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Kidnapped (Penguin Classics)
80% buy the item featured on this page:
Kidnapped (Penguin Classics) 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£4.51
Treasure Island (Wordsworth's Children's Classics)
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Treasure Island (Wordsworth's Children's Classics) 4.4 out of 5 stars (13)
£1.99
Kidnapped (Penguin Popular Classics)
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Kidnapped (Penguin Popular Classics) 3.5 out of 5 stars (4)
£2.00
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Junior Classics)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Scottish Treasure, 25 Sep 2008
By Niels Peter Q. Marstrand (Copenhagen Area, Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I'm as great a fan of the present item, Stevenson's *Kidnapped*, as of his better known *Treasure Island*. Yet if really forced to recommend one over the other, I might well choose *Kidnapped*.

At first sight, the two works are disquietingly similar: around the middle of the 18th Century (not Stevenson's own 19th Century), an impoverished, inexperienced, but self-respecting teenage hero is set to sea by circumstance. Here he comes across a crew of thugs whom, supported by strong role-models, he valiantly defeats. Then follows a long voyage of wandering & discovery until he at last comes to spiritual & material independence under the wise & watchful eye of his mentors, portrayed throughout as very pillars of a romanticized British Empire.

But there the similarity does stop. *Kidnapped* is exclusively about Scotland & its entirely unforgettable inhabitants. Its sea voyage is a circumnavigation of Scotland, no more, no less. The perilous return to the home town takes place across hills & heather. Finally & most important, every character in the novel is as Scottish as its teenage hero - or indeed as RL Stevenson was himself.

You might say that *Kidnapped* offers all the assets of *Treasure Island*, plus one: the tense but warm atmosphere of an independence-loving nation during the waning years of its armed rebellion against the English. Stevenson, in loving mastery of his subject yet never as uncritical as he seems, ignores neither politics, intrigues, & clan quarrels, nor the (somewhat predictable) homage to bagpipe & tartans. The book is therefore flavoursome in a manner that even *Treasure Island*, for all its power, never attains. The historical & cultural depth in *Kidnapped* is simply greater - & the book exactly as entertaining, if not more.

I believe this now classic work will go just as well with teens as it did 100 years ago. But it certainly is a book for adults too.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars People to Remember, 5 Aug 2006
By Silver Button "alan breck" (near Williamsburg VA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Kidnapped: The Original Text: or the Lad with the Silver Button (Hardcover)
When I was younger, my family had a collection of illustrated Classic books with a cartoon on every page. Kidnapped was the only book I never read of the collection because of the horrible pictures. (By the way, that problem has been repeated in practically every edition I have seen.) Several years ago I blundered into the book and it has become, by far, one of my favorites.

The beauty of the book is the development of the two characters David Balfour and Alan Breck. I agree with Henry James that the beginning of the books drags, as we are introduced to young David and his unappealing uncle Ebenezer. Alan Breck splashes into the story and provides the contrast to David's personality. The excitement of the book comes when David and Alan are stuck together traveling through the wilderness alone with their own personal grievances against each other. The beautifully realized characters create the tension that propels this compelling story.

Of course, there is the history of the real events this story is based on, and readers may find they want to look further into that, as I have. It's David and Alan, though, that make the story worth anyone's while.
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14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Original-text edition reveals original intent, adult work., 25 Sep 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Kidnapped: The Original Text: or the Lad with the Silver Button (Hardcover)
Robert Louis Stevenson, one of the most undervalued authors (by adult readers, at least) in English literature, created in _Kidnapped_ a fast-paced adventure tale; a subtle examination of Scottish history and culture; and a pair of unforgettable characters -- the sensible young Lowland protagonist, David Balfour, and his "wild Hielandman" mentor, Alan Breck Stewart. Stevensonian scholar Barry Menikoff offers a challenging new approach to the old favourite in this handsome edition transcribed from the original manuscript in the Huntington Library (and, for the final chapters, from the 1886 serialised version). The result is a text that is closer to the author's original intent than any edition yet published. In his illuminating introduction, itself a model of critical clarity and stylistic grace, Menikoff emphasizes both the mythic appeal of Stevenson's narrative of David Balfour's odyssey and what he terms the "starkness of its realism." The editor's analysis of the author's economical employment of description as the agent of atmosphere and emotion places RLS in the vanguard of a revolution in prose technique that would culminate in the experiments of Hemingway. Menikoff makes a strong case for reexamining the so-called "children's classic" in the light in which it was received by early readers and critics (including Stevenson's friend and literary champion Henry James) -- as a mature work of serious fiction.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars You can almost smell the soggy peat
As a writer, Stevenson knows his stuff. The charcterisation of David and Alan, the two main characters, is excellent and the plot is driven forward by being in the form of a... Read more
Published 20 months ago by ossian

4.0 out of 5 stars thrilling and enjoyable
'Kidnapped' details Davey Balfour's adventures, beginning with his journey to find his uncle as an orphan, subsequent kidnapping aboard the the brig 'Covenant' and latter events... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2005 by sorbet64

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