180. Kidnapped

Kidnapped
Robert Louis Stevenson
1886
Around 350 pages

Stevenson presents us with another fun adventure novel. While I am not entirely convinced that it was necessary for the Listmakers to include both Treasure Island and Kidnapped (I would have nixed Treasure Island), this was still an entertaining read.

David Balfour, a 17-year-old orphan, travels to the House of Shaws in Cramond to see his Uncle Ebenezer. His uncle is a miserly and paranoid. After staying with him a few days, David begins to suspect that his father was actually older than Ebenezer, making him the true heir of the family fortune. After narrowly escaping a booby trap set up by Ebenezer, David agrees to accompany Ebenezer alone to a pier and, predictably, is kidnapped by the captain of a ship. Oh, David. I think his uncle's name should have been a tip off.

Given the title of the novel and the extraordinary stupidity of the protagonist, you spend the beginning of this novel wondering when the adventure will actually begin. Once David is onboard the Covenant (another cursed name), things really start to pick up. I loved his relationship with Alan Stewart, and historical information very interesting (my previous knowledge of Scottish nationalism is entirely Mel Gibson-based).

So yet another fun, breezy novel. Our lightheartedness is reaching an end, however, as Hardy looms before us.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Inspired by the real life Appin murder and the James Annesley case.

UP NEXT: The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. I think we are just bouncing between Thomas Hardy, H. Rider Haggard, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Which is kind of all right with me.