Kidnapped is ahistorical fictionadventure novel byScottish authorRobert Louis Stevenson, written as a boys' novel and first published in the magazineYoung Folks from May to July 1886. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse asHenry James,Jorge Luis Borges, andHilary Mantel.^[1] A sequel,Catriona, was published in 1893.

Kidnapped

First American edition, New York: Scribner's Sons, 1886
Author	Robert Louis Stevenson
Language	Victorian eraScottish English,Lowland Scots,Highland English
Genre	Adventure novel Historical novel
Publisher	Cassell and Company Ltd
Publication date	1886
Publication place	Scotland
Pages	136
OCLC	43167976
Dewey Decimal	823/.8 21
LC Class	PR5484 .K5 2000
Followed by	Catriona (1893)

The narrative is written in English with some dialogue inLowland Scots, a Germanic language that evolved from an earlier incarnation of English.

Kidnapped is set around real 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin Murder" and theHighland Clearances, which occurred in the aftermath of theJacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals,Alan Breck Stewart. The political situation of the time is portrayed from multiple viewpoints, and theScottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically.

The full title of the book isKidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; His Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The novel opens in the (fictional) village of Essendean in theEttrick Forest area of theScottish Lowlands in 1751. The main character and narrator is 17-year-old^[a] David Balfour whose sole remaining parent, his father, has recently died. The minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, hands David a sealed letter left by his father with instructions that it be delivered to his father’s brother, Ebenezer, at his family's ancestral estate, the House of Shaws inCramond. Mr. Campbell tells David that he believes the letter may well prove to be advantageous to him.

After two day's walk cross country, David arrives at the ominous House of Shaws. There he is confronted by the paranoid Ebenezer with a loadedblunderbuss. His uncle is miserly, living on "parritch" andsmall ale, and the House of Shaws itself is partially unfinished and somewhat ruinous. David is allowed to stay and soon discovers evidence that his father may have been older than his uncle, thus making David the rightful heir to the estate. Ebenezer asks David to get a chest from the top of a tower in the house but refuses to provide a lamp or candle. David is forced to scale the stairs in the dark and realises that not only is the tower unfinished in some places, but the steps simply end abruptly and fall into an abyss. David concludes that his uncle intended for him to have an "accident", perhaps so as not to have to give over his nephew's inheritance.

David confronts his uncle, who promises to address the matter the next morning. A ship'scabin boy, Ransome, arrives the next morning and tells Ebenezer that Captain Hoseason of thebrigCovenant needs to meet him to discuss business. Ebenezer takes David to a pier on theFirth of Forth, where Hoseason awaits, and David makes the mistake of leaving his uncle alone with the captain while he visits the shore with Ransome. Hoseason later offers to take them on board the brig for a drink and a brief tour, and David complies, only to see his uncle returning to shore alone in askiff. David is then immediately struck senseless.

David awakens, bound hand and foot, in the hold of the ship, and learns that per arrangement with David's uncle, the captain plans to sell him intoindentured servitude inthe Carolinas. But the ship encounters contrary winds, which drive her back toward Scotland. Fog-bound near theHebrides, they strike a small boat. All of the small boat's crew are killed except one man,Alan Breck Stewart, who is brought on board and offers Hoseason a large sum of money to drop him off on the mainland. David later overhears the crew plotting to kill Alan instead. David and Alan barricade themselves in the roundhouse, where Alan kills the murderous helmsman and David wounds Hoseason. Alan then demonstrates his superior fighting skills as he easily kills five more men and intimidates the remaining crew into backing down.

Hoseason has no choice but to give Alan and David passage back to the mainland. David tells his tale to Alan, who in turn states that his birthplace, Appin, is under the tyrannical administration ofColin Roy of Glenure, the King'sfactor and a Campbell. Alan, who is a Jacobite agent and wears a French uniform, vows that should he find the "Red Fox" he will kill him.

TheCovenant tries to negotiate a difficult channel without a proper chart or pilot and is soon driven aground on the notoriousTorran Rocks. David and Alan are separated in the confusion, with David being washed ashore on the isle ofErraid, nearMull, while Alan and the surviving crew row to safety on that same island. David spends a few days alone in the wild before getting his bearings.

David learns that his new friend has survived, and David has two encounters with beggarly guides: one who attempts to stab him with a knife, and another who is blind but an excellent shot with a pistol. David soon reachesTorosay, where he is ferried across the river, receives further instructions from Alan's friend Neil Roy McRob, and later meets acatechist who takes the lad to the mainland.

As he continues his journey, David encounters none other than the Red Fox, Colin Roy Campbell himself, who is accompanied by a lawyer, a servant, and a sheriff's officer. When David stops the Campbell man to ask him for directions, a hidden sniperkills the King's hated agent.

David is denounced as a conspirator and flees for his life, but by chance reunites with Alan. The youth believes Alan is the assassin, but Alan denies responsibility. Alan and David then begin their flight through theheather, hiding from government soldiers by day. As the trek drains David's strength, his health rapidly deteriorates; by the time they are set upon by wild Highlanders who are sentries forCluny Macpherson, an outlawed chief in hiding, the lad is barely conscious. Alan convinces Cluny to give them shelter, and David is tended by a Highland doctor. He soon recovers, though in the meantime Alan loses all of their money at cards with Cluny, only for Cluny to give it back when David practically begs for it.

When David and Alan resume their flight in cold and rainy weather, David becomes ill again, and Alan carries him on his back down theburn to reach the nearest house, fortuitously that of aMaclaren, Duncan Dhu, who is both an ally of the Stewarts and a skilledpiper. David is bedridden and given a doctor's care, while Alan hides nearby, visiting after dark.

In one of the most humorous passages in the book, Alan convinces an innkeeper's daughter fromLimekilns (unnamed inKidnapped but called "Alison Hastie" in its sequel) that David is a dying young Jacobite nobleman, despite David's objections, and she ferries them across the Firth of Forth. There, they meet a lawyer of David's uncle's, Mr. Rankeillor, who agrees to help David properly claim his inheritance. Rankeillor explains that David's father and uncle had once quarrelled over a woman, David's mother, and the older Balfour had married her, informally giving the estate to his brother to settle their dispute while living as an impoverished schoolteacher with his wife. This agreement had lapsed with his death.

David and the lawyer hide in bushes outside Ebenezer's house while Alan speaks to him, claiming to be a man who found David nearly dead after the wreck of theCovenant and says he is representing folk holding him captive in the Hebrides. He asks David's uncle whether Alan should kill David or keep him. The uncle flatly denies Alan's statement that David had been kidnapped but eventually admits that he paid Hoseason "twenty pound" to take David to "Caroliny". David and Rankeillor then emerge from their hiding places, and speak with Ebenezer in the kitchen, eventually agreeing that David will be provided two-thirds of the estate's income for as long as his uncle lives.

The novel ends with David and Alan parting ways onCorstorphine Hill; Alan returns to France, and David goes to a local bank to receive his money.

• David Balfour is 17 and his parents have died. He seeks his inheritance from his father's brother. The last name of this character is taken from the maiden name of the author's mother.
• Ebenezer Balfour is his uncle, living in the entailed estate.
• Alexander Balfour, father of David and older brother of Ebenezer.
• Alan Breck Stewart is his companion, and is a character drawn from life.^[2]
• Colin Roy Campbell, also known as the Red Fox. He meets David at Appin on his walk across Scotland, just before a sniper shoots him dead. TheAppin murder mentioned in the story was a historical event followed by a controversial trial.^[2]

The characterJames Stewart was real, and the man hanged for killing Colin Roy Campbell, though James was not the killer.^[2]

Cluny MacPherson andRob Roy MacGregor and his son, Robìn Òig or Young Rob, mentioned or met along the way, were real people.

Kidnapped is ahistorical romance, but by the time it was written, attitudes towards the genre had evolved from the earlier insistence on historical accuracy to one of faithfulness to the spirit of a bygone age. In the words of a critic writing inBentley's Miscellany, the historical novelist "must follow rather the poetry of history than its chronology: his business is not to be the slave of dates; he ought to be faithful to the character of the epoch".^[3] Indeed, in the preface toKidnapped Stevenson warns the reader that historical accuracy was not primarily his aim, remarking "how little I am touched by the desire of accuracy".^[4]

Stevenson presents the Jacobite version of theAppin murder in the novel,^[2] but sets the events in 1751, whereas the murder occurred in 1752.^[5]

Kidnapped was first published in the magazineYoung Folks from May to July 1886, and as a novel in the same year.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) planned to write this story as early as 1880. He immersed himself in books on Scotland in the early and middle 18th century in preparation for writing. He was born and raised in Edinburgh, then travelled in England, France and the US. After his father died, he took his wife, children and his own mother as he traveled in search of a place more salutary to his health, finally building a house inSamoa, where he later died at age 44. He wroteKidnapped on his stay in England.

Stevenson remains one of the most popular and revered writers in the history of the English language, and was extremely prolific. His other works includeTreasure Island andStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

A central theme of the novel is the concept of justice, the imperfections of the justice system and the lack of a universal definition of justice. To David justice means the restoration of his inheritance, whereas for Alan it means the death of his enemy Colin Roy of Glenure.

Literary critic Leslie Fiedler has suggested that a unifying "mythic concept" in several of Stevenson's books, includingKidnapped, is what might be called the "Beloved Scoundrel", or the "Devil as Angel", "the beauty of evil".^[6] The Rogue in this instance is of course Alan, "a rebel, a deserter, perhaps a murderer ... without a shred of Christian morality".^[7] Good nevertheless triumphs over evil, as in David Balfour's situation.

Kidnapped was well received and sold well while Stevenson was alive. After his death many viewed it with scepticism, seeing it as simply a boys' novel. By the mid-20th century it had regained critical approval and study. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse asHenry James,Jorge Luis Borges, andHilary Mantel.^[1]

While it is basically an adventure novel, it raises various moral issues, such as the nature of justice and the fact that friends may have different political viewpoints.

A sequel,Catriona, was published in 1893.^[8]

The novel has been adapted a number of times, and in multiple media.

Film and television versions were made in1917,1938,1948,1960, 1968,1971,1978,1986,1995 and2005.

An adaptation for the stage byKeith Dewhurst was produced by theRoyal Lyceum Theatre Company, Edinburgh in August 1972, withPaul Young as David Balfour, James Grant asAlan Breck Stewart, and music bySteeleye Span.^[9]

A four-part adaptation written byCatherine Czerkawska and starringDavid Rintoul as David Balfour andPaul Young as Alan Breck Stewart was broadcast onBBC Radio 4 in 1985. A more recent two-part adaptation written byChris Dolan and starring Owen Whitelaw as David Balfour andMichael Nardone as Alan Breck was broadcast also on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.^[10]

Marvel Illustrated published acomic book version in 2007–2008, byRoy Thomas andMario Gully, who had previously adaptedTreasure Island.^[11]

In 2023 theNational Theatre of Scotland performeda new stage adaptation, which featuredFrances Stevenson as narrator and reimagined the relationship between David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart as a romance.^[12][13]

It has been speculated that the novel was inspired in part by the true story from earlier in the 18th century ofJames Annesley, heir to five aristocratic titles who was kidnapped at the age of 12 by his uncleRichard and shipped fromDublin to America in 1728.^[14] He managed to escape after 13 years and return to reclaim his birthright from his uncle in one of the longest courtroom dramas of its time.^[15]Kidnapped does not end in the way Annesley's life story did, as the ship on which the main character was kidnapped never got beyond Scotland, allowing for a rich story of Scotland, highlands and lowlands. Further, a key event in the plot happens when David is present when Colin Roy Campbell falls dead from the unseen murderer's bullet.

Annesley biographer Ekirch felt in his response to a remark in the review of his book that "It is inconceivable that Stevenson, a voracious reader of legal history, was unfamiliar with the saga of James Annesley, which by the time ofKidnapped's publication in 1886 had already influenced four other 19th-century novels, most famouslySir Walter Scott'sGuy Mannering (1815) andCharles Reade'sThe Wandering Heir (1873)."^[14][15] The Scottish authorAndro Linklater, who reviewed the book forThe Spectator, disagreed with this contention.^[16] The author, Robert Louis Stevenson, did not mention the earlier historic event in the novel, nor in his correspondence; instead he namesThe Trial of James Stewart for themurder of Colin Roy Campbell at Appin as an inspiration, according to his wife.^[16]

As part of the events to celebrateEdinburgh becoming the firstUNESCOCity of Literature,^[18] three versions ofKidnapped were made freely available by being left in public places around the city.^[19] Throughout February 2007, 25,000 copies of the novel were distributed in that way.^[20]

A statue honouring Stevenson through a depiction of the two main characters fromKidnapped, Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour, was unveiled bySean Connery in 2004 in Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh. The location for the work, which is by Scottish sculptorAlexander Stoddart, is where, in the novel, the two friends part ways.^[21]

• A new printing of Barry Menikoff's edition of the novel.^[20]
• A retelling of the tale for children.^[19]
• A2007 graphic novel version created byAlan Grant andCam Kennedy. Translations of thegraphic novel were also published inLowland Scots andScots Gaelic.^[19]

• Kidnapped atStandard Ebooks
• Kidnapped atProject Gutenberg
•  Kidnapped public domain audiobook atLibriVox
• Freely availableScottish Gaelic translation by Torcuil Crichton;ebookaudiobook
• Film adaptions ofKidnappedArchived 16 February 2006 at theWayback Machine. There have been about 21 movie and TV versions of the book made.
• Trail map, map of the trail.
• MacLachlan, Christopher (2006)."Further Thoughts on Robert Louis Stevenson'sKidnapped".
• Kidnapped study guide, themes, quotes, literary devices, teaching guide
• The Stevenson Way A long distance wilderness walk from Mull to Edinburgh, based on the route inKidnapped.