It took an Argentinian-Canadian (Alberto Manguel) and a Swiss (Alex Capus) to persuade me. I have decided to fill a huge gap in my reading and finally acquaint myself with some classics from the pen of Robert Louis Stevenson.
While I located Stevenson’s childhood home, in a lovely part of town I might add, I never did pinpoint the Balfour/Breck statue. Instead I decided to track them down on the pages of Kidnapped.
There’s no need for plot details. I’m probably the last 50-something, 20+-years Alba inhabiting “reader” to have discovered them. But just in case I’m not, let the full title suffice:
Kidnapped: 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
It was originally published in the American magazine OurYoung Folks, targeted at 10-18 year olds. Well, I can pretend, can’t I?
As a young adult book, it’s an exciting adventure of kidnapping and escape and Jacobite rebellion and murder. Sandwiched between the plot-driven beginning and ending, however, is a description of Balfour’s flight for his life across Scotland, from the Isle of Mull in the West to Edinburgh in the East. It’s this section which makes Kidnapped rather special, describing the Scottish landscape in all its glory. As I was reading, I was imagining a whole series of literary pics. Then I found Tim Wright’s Kidmapper, in which he documents his own journey following in David Balfour’s footsteps, reading the novel in situ, taking pictures and recording his thoughts as he goes. Which is all rather glorious.
I digress though from the novel which is realistic in its depiction of Scotland and its weather (even down to the midgies!) and sympathetic to the Jacobite cause. Real historical events such as the Appin Murder are incorporated as a backdrop. Actually this pivotal event in the history of the Highland clearances occurs almost in the passing. The portrait of the Jacobite resistance fighter Allan Breck is romantic and flattering to one who was described by his uncle, as “a desperate foolish fellow”.
Stevenson’s style has dated but the Scots carries it. Balfour’s voice irritates at times, dropping far too many hints about the difficulties to come, thereby spoiling the surprise. Though if I were 10 years old, I think the hints might soften the shocking events that follow. Fortunately Balfour matures as the novel progresses – though the bickering between him and Breck never stops and that is mighty entertaining.
Actually Kidnapped is much more than an adventure story. Historical fiction, bildungsroman, a retelling of the Odyssey even … no wonder it’s a classic.
Next on Stevenson in September: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Lizzy's Literary Life (Volume One) 
I just linked to this post. I wrote about Kidnapped indirectly, so it’s good to point readers to a more direct write-up. Wonderful photos.
“Kidnapped” was a huge childhood favourite of mine, so I may be biased. When I read it as a child, I read it merely as an adventure story. But when I re-read it a few years ago, what struck me most forcefully was the depiction of Alan Breck Stewart. He is, on the surface, a dashing, romantic hero, and on the whole, David sees him as such. However, what he is doing is surely reprehensible: he was coming into Scotland to collect taxes for “the King across the water” from Highlanders who were already oppressed and impoverished and, indeed, almst starving (James of the Glens makes this quite clear). And what exactly is his cause? To bring Charles Edward Stuart back to Britain, and have him crowned king? Romantic though the notion may appear, it is not the most politically advanced of positions to take.
Through all the boys’ own adventures, and through the loving depiction of the Scottish landscape, it was this tension that I found of particular interest – this tension between a romantic view of Scotland and its history, and a more realistic, level-headed perspective from which Alan Breck emerges as a frankly undsirable and reprehensible figure.
there was a film version from the 70s (starring – would you believe! – Michael Caine as a sort of Cockney Alan Breck). The film itself isn’t particularly distinguished (it incorporates episodes from “Catriona”, Stevenson’s sequel to “Kidnapped”) but the scriptwriter, the late, lamented Jack Pulman (he also did the script for BBC’s “I, Claudius”) made explicit some of the tensions that seem to me to run through “Kidnapped”.
I’m very pleased to find this page. I wanted to thank you for your time for this wonderful
read!! I definitely liked every part of it and I have you book-marked to look at new
stuff in your blog.