Kidnapped (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), Donald McFarlan (Contributor) "I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early in the month of June, the year of grace 1951, when I..." (more)
Key Phrases: heather bush, nae doubt, Alan Breck, Red Fox, King George (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up-Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson remains one of the classic coming-of-age stories for children and young adults today. After the death of his father, David Balfour sets out to meet his uncle and claim his inheritance. This adventure takes him through the highlands of Scotland where he embarks upon a long journey back from treachery and deceit. The reading by David Rintoul, whose voice is easily recognizable from his roles in several PBS productions such as Pride and Prejudice, translates the written word into an auditory landscape of Scotland. He interprets each character using several voices. As the story progresses, listeners can hear David changing from an uncertain and hesitant youth, to the assured and forthright young man he becomes at the conclusion. Without any special effects, the fight among the crew of the Coventry in the RoundhouseAchairs pushed over, the sounds of the sea hitting against the great shipAbecomes easily visualized. the reader's skill setting the stage and showing the growth of the character is phenomenal. While this is an abridgement, the story flows easily and gives a full picture from beginning to end. This audiobook is a wonderful way to introduce this style of literature to young readers who may feel inhibited by reading the language of Stevenson. Whether read for enjoyment or to enrich the learning experience, this is a must for every serious library collection of the classics.
Tina Hudak, Takoma Park Maryland Library, MD
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Library Journal
Editor Menikoff insists that Stevenson's novel has been unfairly relegated to young adult fiction. To remedy that, he restored the text to its original form, reinstating deleted passages and Stevenson's original punctuation. The text is buttressed with 19th-century drawings from the book's serializations and an introduction that explains the book's nexus and puts it into its Scottish cultural context. (Classic Returns, LJ 5/15/99)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140434011
• ISBN-13: 978-0140434019
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #730,977 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the kids have all the fun, March 5, 2000

By	G. B. Talovich (Wulai, Taiwan, ROC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Kidnapped (Signet classics) (Paperback)

I was surprised to see some reviewers didn't like this wonderful book. If you have trouble with the Scottish accent, read it out loud, use your imagination, and if you still can't figure it out, skip a bit. (Do you insist on understanding every single word spoken in a movie?)

This is the story of a young man overcoming adversity to gain maturity and his birthright. It moves right along, in Stevenson's beautiful prose. Read, for example, this sentence from Chapter 12: "In those days, so close on the back of the great rebellion, it was needful a man should know what he was doing when he went upon the heather." Read it out loud; it rolls along, carrying the reader back to Scotland, even a reader like me, who doesn't know all that much about Scottish history. Kidnapped is by no means inferior, and in many ways superior to the more famous Treasure Island.

Only two points I would like to bring up: I bought the Penguin Popular Classics issue, and have sort of mixed feelings. Maybe some day I'll get the version illustrated by Wyeth. I'm not sure whether this book needs illustrations, though. Stevenson's vivid writing is full of pictures.

In Chapter 4, David makes a point of saying that he found a book given by his father to his uncle on Ebenezer's fifth birthday. So? Is this supposed to show how much Ebenezer aged due to his wickedness? If anybody could explain this to me, please do.
This was originally posted in 2000. I am updating it in June 2006: many thanks to alert reader Beth Smith, who very kindly informed me that the significance is that David's father was older than the uncle. Therefore the father, and now David, was the rightful owner of the estate of Shaws.
Ok, gotcha, clear now, and I'll reread it. Thanks to Ms Smith, and to Amazon for this forum.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, February 23, 2000

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Kidnapped (Signet classics) (Paperback)

I missed this one as a kid, which is too bad, because I think I would have appreciated it then as well. Set following the failed Scottish rebellion, 'Kidnapped' tells the story of young David Balfour, whose greedy uncle tries to cheat him out of his inheritance by having him kidnapped and sold in the American colonies as a slave. On the way, however, he befriends a Jacobite rebel and is instead caught up in the Scottish troubles and has to fight his way back to his home and claim his inheritance. The adventure is all the more exciting because it feels like such a real world with all the careful place-related detail Stevenson employs. While the language can be difficult in places, that quickly fades once you get into the rhythm of the book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kidnapped, March 8, 2005

By	Adam Rafkin (Bak Middle School of the Arts) - See all my reviews

Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is the tale of a young man named David Balfour, and of all the misfortunes that fall upon him. When David's parents die, he is sent to live with his treacherous and evil uncle, and before he knows it he finds that his uncle has tricked him and he is kidnapped and thrown on a ship and heading to America, where he will be sold into slavery. David meets another "captive" aboard the ship, Alan Breck, and they make a plan to escape. But will they succeed? And even if they do, where will they go, and how will they stay alive?

Overall, this is an excellent book. Stevenson delivers, as in his other books, an exciting and gripping story line with few slow points. The characters in the story are believable and personal, each with their strengths and flaws. This makes it very easy to put yourself in one of the character's shoes, which tends to help when reading a novel. Also Stevenson describes the many different landscapes that are in the novel extremely well; enough that it is easy to play a movie of Kidnapped in your head, but not details that are so unnecessary and useless that they actually confuse you and slow you down. The same goes for the story line itself; Stevenson gives you a vivid understanding of what is going on, but he gets the point across and moves on, which keeps the book from being a great adventure slowed down by being overly descriptive, such as Moby Dick, in which a whole chapter is used to describe a priest's pulpit.

However, very few novels are perfect, and this is no exception. The book is written in old-fashioned English, which can eventually be adjusted to, but it does take some getting used to. Also, one must be very literate in Scottish geography if they want to truly get every aspect this book, for it mentions many certain places in Scotland; however, it is easy to imagine what you think Scotland looks like in your mind and still understand what is going on, for that is what I did and I never lost track of what was happening. Furthermore, in the end of the book, which would be roughly the last three chapters, it seems that Stevenson overdoes his habit of getting the point across and moving on. In fact, these chapters seem quite rushed; they should be four chapters instead of three, or atleast longer chapters. Indeed, Stevenson doesn't even actually finish the book; it ends very suddenly, leaving certain things unexplained.

Despite the old fashioned English, Scottish geography, and abrupt ending, I still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure novels (you probably will not like this novel if you are not into the adventure genre), or anyone who likes other Stevenson novels, for this one is of similar style. Overall, I give Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson, a seven out of ten, for I found it to be a very enjoyable and gripping read.