Publisher's Synopsis
Contains Illustarations by N.C.Wyeth.About Author Robert Louis Stevenso ANNOTATIONSSummaryCharacter ListCharacter Analysis1.Alan Breck Stewart2.David Balfour3.Ebenezer BalfourThemesSymbolsMotifsImportant Quotations Explained.Kidnapped was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886. It was an almost instant hit among young boys, and why not? This novel embodies the very things that many such audience members would find most interesting: shipwrecks, crime, suspense, danger, adventure...even murder.Kidnapped is the story of Davie's struggle to claim his inheritance and find his place in the world. Alan Breck Stewart who is a loyal Scotsman who helps Davie claim his rightful place in the world. A wanted man, Alan is on the run when he ends up on the boat with Davie, a move that changes both their destinies.The novel opens with Davie Balfour getting a letter. The letter, from his recently-deceased father, tells Davie to head to the house of Shaws. Davie is excited that he'll get to meet a lord and he hopes to find his fortune, or at least get a job, in the Shaw's household. So Davie heads to Edinburgh.But when Davie arrives at the house of Shaws, all he finds is his uncle Ebenezer Balfour, who is a very unpleasant man. He attempts to kill Davie, though Davie doesn't understand why. However, Davie convinces his uncle to take him to see Mr. Rankeillor, the family lawyer. Davie hopes he will finally understand how he is connected to the house of Shaws.On the way to the lawyer's office, Ebenezer makes Davie stop and visit the ship Covenant, which Ebenezer has financed, and the ship's captain, Mr. Hoseason. Mr. Hoseason seems happy to meet young Davie, and takes him on a tour of the boat. As he does, Ebenezer gets into the rowboat and goes back ashore, leaving Davie on board the Covenant. It turns out that Ebenezer is planning to have Hoseason sell Davie as a slave to a plantation in America. But by the time Davie understand this, it's too late. The boat has set sail with the addition of one seventeen-year-old future slave.Kidnapped is set in Scotland just after the Jacobite rebellions and is narrated by the teenager David Balfour.The recently orphaned David leaves rural Essendean to seek his fortune with his relatives, the Balfours of the House of Shaws. He meets his uncle Ebenezer and immediately suspects the shifty and miserly man of trying to avoid giving David his due inheritance. His suspicions are confirmed when his uncle sends him up a ruined stair-tower in the dark, intending David to plunge to his death.Before David can confront his uncle, Ransome, the cabin-boy for the brig Covenant arrives with a message for Ebenezer from Captain Hoseason concerning their joint venture. Ebenezer decides to go to the Hawe's Inn at Queen's Ferry to resolve the matter. David follows in the hope of speaking to a lawyer, Mr. Rankeillor.There, David learns rumours that Ebenezer murdered David's father Alexander, for the Shaw estate. While David knows the allegations are false, he cannot fathom how Ebenezer came to hold the estate.Despite some misgivings, David is delighted when he is invited to tour the Covenant. Suddenly sensing foul play, he shouts for help and is knocked unconscious - he has been kidnapped!Realizing Ebenezer means to cheat him of his rightful inheritance, David learns from the ship's crew that he is to be sold into slavery in the Carolina plantations. David is not mistreated on board the Covenant, but he is horrified by the first mate, Mr Shuan, who in a drunken rage beats Ransome to death.At Cape Wrath, the ship runs a boat under. The sole survivor, Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite, "a condemned rebel, and a deserter, and a man of the French Kings" (p. 157) comes aboard. Concerned that having a Jacobite on board could be considered treasonous, Hoseason and the men plot against him. David, however, admires Alan and chooses to take his side.
