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 BIOGRAPHY OF THE NOVELIST:

Born:
Robert Lewis B alfour Stevenson, 13 November 1850, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Died:
3 December 1894 (aged 44), Vailima, Samoan Islands

Occupation:
Novelist, poet, travel writer

Nationality:
Scottish

Citizenship:
United Kingdom

Education:
1857: Mr. Henderson's School, Edinburgh
1857: Private tutors
1859: Return to Mr. Henderson's School
1861: Edinburgh Academy
1863: Boarding school in Isle worth, Middlesex
1864: Robert Thomson's School, Edinburgh
1867: University of Edinburgh

Period:
Victorian era

Notable works:
Treasure Island
A Child's Garden of Verses
Kidnapped
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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ABOUT THE 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 Genre of kidnapped is full of Action, Adventure, Drama, Family.
The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry
James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Seamus Heaney.
The novel 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 were real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. The
political situation of the time is portrayed from different viewpoints, and the Scottish
Highlanders are treated sympathetically.

 NOVELIST’S DEDICATION:
Reason Why Author Choose To Write This Novel!!!
Robert Louis Stevenson writes this dedication for Kidnapped in the form of a letter to his
childhood friend, Charles Baxter. He explains that after he reads this story, Baxter will
undoubtedly have many questions to ask Stevenson. The story is based on a true historical
incident, and Stevenson admits he takes great liberties with the original event in this story.
Stevenson does not ask his old friend to like this tale; but perhaps, when Baxter’s son is
older, he will enjoy it and be pleased to see his father’s name on the flyleaf. Whether or not
that happens, Stevenson is pleased to remember the friend of his youth.

 SYNOPSIS KIDNAPPED:

Kidnapped and cheated out of his inheritance, young David Balfour falls in with a Jacobite
adventurer, Alan Breck Stewart. Falsely accused of murder, they must flee across the
Highlands, evading the redcoats.

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 KIDNAPPED QUOTES:

Kidnapped Family Quotes

“ "Nay," said Mr. Campbell, "who can tell that for a surety? But the name of that family,
Davie, boy, is the name you bear–Balfours of Shaws: an ancient, honest, reputable house,
peradventure in these latter days decayed. ”

“ "Uncle Ebenezer," I said, "I can make nothing out of this. You use me like a thief; you hate
to have me in this house; you let me see it, every word and every minute: it's not possible that
you can like me; and as for me, I've spoken to you as I never thought to speak to any man.
Why do you seek to keep me, then? Let me gang back–let me gang back to the friends I have,
and that like me!" ”

Kidnapped Friendship Quotes

“ "I call it noble," I cried. "I'm a Whig, or little better; but I call it noble."
"Ay" said [Alan], "ye're a Whig, but ye're a gentleman; and that's what does it." ”

“ "James Stewart," said Alan, "I will ask ye to speak in Scotch, for here is a young gentleman
with me that has nane of the other. This is him," he added, putting his arm through mine, "a
young gentleman of the Lowlands, and a laird in his country too, but I am thinking it will be
the better for his health if we give his name the go-by." ”

Kidnapped Revenge Quotes

“ The woman's face lit up with a malignant anger. "That is the house of Shaws!" she cried.
"Blood built it; blood stopped the building of it; blood shall bring it down. See here!" she
cried again–"I spit upon the ground, and crack my thumb at it! Black be its fall! If ye see the
laird, tell him what ye hear; tell him this makes the twelve hunner and nineteen time that
Jennet Clouston has called down the curse on him and his house, byre and stable, man, guest,
and master, wife, miss, or bairn–black, black be their fall!" ”

“ "No they," said [Mr. Henderland]. "And that's the worst part of it. For if Colin Roy can get
his business done in Appin, he has it all to begin again in the next country, which they call
Mamore, and which is one of the countries of the Camerons. He's King's Factor upon both,
and from both he has to drive out the tenants; and indeed, Mr. Balfour (to be open with ye),
it's my belief that if he escapes the one lot, he'll get his death by the other." ”

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 SUMMARY:

The story starts with the narrator of the novel, David (Davie) Balfour becoming an orphan at
seventeen year of age, sometime at early June of 1751. His father has just died, so it is up to him
to seek his own fortune. The Protestant Minister of Essendean, hands David a letter from his
deceased father, Alexander Balfour, telling him to head to the house of Shaws in Cramond.
David doesn't know how his father is related to the house of Shaws, but he is excited at the idea
of meeting a relative. He thinks maybe he'll be able to get a job in the Shaws household. So he
walks to the seat of the house of Shaws, near Edinburgh, to ask for help.

When David arrives at the house, after the unfavourable interaction with Jennet Clouston, he is
much disappointed. The owner is actually David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour. Ebenezer is a miser
and kind of a selfish man. He even attempts to kill David on one occasion, by sending him to the
tower. Still, David is fairly sure that Ebenezer hates him because he is the rightful heir to the
house of Shaws. At any rate, David manages to get the upper hand over Ebenezer, who promises
to bring David to see his lawyer, Mr. Rankeillor, to get a full explanation of Ebenezer's
relationship to David's father.

On their way to see Mr. Rankeillor, Ebenezer insists on stopping by a ship that he's made some
investments in, which is anchored in the seaside town of Queensferry. The ship is called
the Covenant and is captained by a Mr. Hoseason. Once David is aboard, Hoseason distracts him
with a tour of the ship while Ebenezer hops in a rowboat and rows back to shore. David has been
kidnapped! It turns out that Ebenezer has told Hoseason to sell David to a plantation in the
Carolinas. David's in a real pickle.

The Covenant is still sailing around Scotland when David's luck changes. One foggy night,
the Covenant accidentally runs into a small boat. There is only one survivor from the boat, a man
named Alan Breck Stewart, who is on the run from the law. Alan is carrying a giant money belt,
which is too tempting for Captain Hoseason to resist. Hoseason starts to plot with his first mate,
Mr. Riach, to steal the gold and kill Alan. David overhears this plot and runs to Alan to warn
him. Alan and David fortify one of the deck rooms, the round-house, and band together against
the rest of the Covenantcrew. They manage to hold their own, and finally Hoseason agrees to let
Alan off in Appin, in the Scottish Highlands, which is Alan's home country. Alan is a Jacobite,
meaning that he was part of a Highland uprising against the English throne in 1745. He's a
wanted man, and he only feels safe at home in Appin.

Unfortunately, the western portion of the Scottish coast is extremely rocky. The Covenant runs
up against a hidden reef and sinks. David is thrown from the ship by a wave and winds up
washed ashore on the barren island of Earraid. David suffers from hunger and thirst and all-
around sickness for a while before discovering that the island he's on is only an island at high

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tide. When the tide goes out, you can walk to the next island over, the island of Mull, which
David does.

As David starts exploring Mull, he finds out that Alan has been leaving coded messages for him,
instructing him on how to find him. David heads toward Alan's home of Appin and reaches the
forest of Lettermore, where a group of men is making its way down the road. One of the men is
Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure (whom Alan calls Red Fox). This man is one of the major
enemies of both Alan's clan chief Ardshiel and of the Stewart clan more generally. And just
when David meets him, Colin Roy is gunned down. David sees the murderer and tries to pursue
him, only to find that his quick departure has made David a suspect in the murder.

In these dire straits, David bumps into Alan again. As a known rebel and deserter from the
English army (he changed sides during the Battle of Prestonpans in 1754), Alan is also on the run
– so they decide to try their luck together. They go on a tough trek through the dry, barren, often
cold Scottish Highlands, avoiding capture by both English soldiers and by the Campbell clan.
David fights off illness, fear, and frustration with Alan on a regular basis.

Finally, after much hardship, the two men reach the start of all of David's adventures,
Queensferry. Alan wants to go from there to France (where he'll be safe from English soldiers),
while David is eager to meet Mr. Rankeillor and establish his rights to the estate of the house of
Shaws.

Rankeillor, the lawyer, does reassure David that he is the rightful heir to the Shaws estate. The
trouble is that, in a fight over a woman, brothers Ebenezer and Alexander Balfour (David's
father) signed an agreement that Ebenezer would get the estate and David would get a wife. This
contract is not legally binding, says Rankeillor, but there would still need to be a lawsuit against
Ebenezer for David to reclaim all of his rights. To avoid such a scandal, Rankeillor suggests
blackmailing Ebenezer into giving David his money while allowing Ebenezer to continue living
in the Shaws house.

The blackmail is achieved in this manner: Alan arrives at the Shaws house and poses as a man
working with Captain Hoseason. He says that he has David in his care, and he's willing to kill
David or to keep him a prisoner at Ebenezer's pleasure, as long as Alan gets some money out of
it. By using this pose, Alan manages to extort a confession from Ebenezer that he sent David
with Captain Hoseason to be sold to a plantation in the Carolinas. Once Ebenezer is tricked into
admitting this, Mr. Rankeillor appears from a hiding place nearby and tells Ebenezer that, if
Ebenezer doesn't want to wind up in jail for kidnapping, he'd better agree to David's demands for
money. So Ebenezer unfolds, and David ends the book a rich man.

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David’s life gets set but he is still anxious for Alan to make it to France. Also about James
Stewart of the Glens, who is innocent and imprison for the murder of Red Fox.

The novel ends here with a looming question if Alan makes it to France, if James gets free, what
happens to David. But as far as ‘Kidnapped’ is concerned, it gives off the message of courage
and ones loyalty to friendship and you can overcome any difficulty, slowly but surely, you will.

“There are two things that men should

never weary of, goodness and humility;
we get none too much of them in this
rough world among cold, proud people.”

(Robert Louis Stevenson)

“I have seen wicked men and

fools, a great many of both; and
I believe they both get paid
in the end; but the fools first.”
(Robert Louis Stevenson)

“But besides that I was of an unforgiving

disposition from my birth, slow to take
offense, slower to forget it, and now incensed
both against my companion and myself.”
(Robert Louis Stevenson)

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