Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 - 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton. This is a classic adventure novel about a teenage boy called David Balfour set in 18th century Scotland. At the start of the book David leaves his home in the countryside, following his father's death, to take a letter of introduction from his father to his uncle. He walks for 2 days before arriving at his uncle's huge but neglected house near Edinburgh. His uncle is a miserly, unpopular old man who does not make David feel at all welcome. He acts very suspiciously and David deduces that his uncle may be keeping his inheritance from him. When his uncle takes him down to the port to arrange a business deal, David gets bashed on the head and wakes up to find that his uncle has sold him to a ship's captain to be sold as a slave in America. David's life takes a turn for the better when the ship crashes into another boat and sinks it and they have to rescue the only survivor, Alan Breck. Includes vintage illustration!