Kidnapped (new recording)
Written by Robert Louis Stevenson
Narrated by Kieron Elliot
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson was an atheist and free spirit. In Samoa – where he died – he fought in a civil war for independence. In 1886, the blockbuster novel Kidnapped was published – a dramatic adventure of abduction and life on the run in the wilds of Scotland. Stevenson died in 1894, just 44 years old. The Samoan natives, who were devoted to Stevenson, cut a track through the jungle to create a resting place for him on top of the mountain above his beloved Vailima estate.
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Reviews for Kidnapped (new recording)
55 ratings27 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.Young David Balfour discovers after his father’s death that his family has unexpected wealth and power. David ventures off to meet up with his father’s only brother and finds a man who deceives him and sells him off into slavery, sending David off on a ship bound for America. On the ship, David meets lots more bad guys and there is a lot of shooting and fighting. He falls overboard, survives to live for a while on an isolated island, and then gets thrown into a Scottish struggle for power, with more shooting and scavenging. I loved the action in this book. With books like these available, you can see why so many boys read books a hundred years ago. I also loved all the new-to-me words in this book. I could write a whole post on all the new words I discovered while reading this book. Ay, faith, I ken Scotland be a braw place, no sae bad as ye would think, in this bonny tale of a man and a halfling boy, who werenae feared of being laid by the heels, hoot-toot, hoot-toot.
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51751 - Bonnie Prince Charlie and The Jacobite Rebellion still fresh in peoples minds. Sixteen year old, honest and naive David Balfour inextricably linked to fiery, swashbuckling Jacobite Allan Breck. Redcoats chasing them around a Scotland where danger lurks and betrayal is feared for a murder they did not commit. What's not to like?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great to hear in Scots. The story comes alive and makes me kick myself for not reading when I was young and before I went to Scotland to study Scots Lit and History.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I tried, but it just didn't radiate enough interest for me.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5It took 2 weeks of struggle and 3 formats to get through this book. I found it a slog, whereas I enjoyed "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." I liked the e-reader format because of the built-in dictionary (though quite a few of the words are not in a modern e-dictionary), but ultimately I had to finish it on audiobook. I am interested in the author's use of the name Ebanezer for a Scrooge-like character.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rarely thrilling, Kidnapped is an adventure story only secondarily. It is best described as an evocation of Scotland in the 1700s, a place and time in which honor retained its power to motivate, without having fallen into stiffness - a balance best witnessed in Alan Breck, a man as quick to laugh as he is quick to take offense at a slight.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is perhaps my favorite adventure novel. The characters are just great and the plot is very quick. In my opinion its much better then Treasure Island. If you want to read a classic that is actually fun, this is the way to go.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Previously I have ranked Robert Louis Stevenson among my favorite authors simply on the basis of Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses. Now I’m pleased to add Kidnapped to that list.In my review of Treasure Island, I called Stevenson a master of atmosphere, and that’s true here as well. He has a most miraculous ability to make me feel like I’ve stepped into a new world and am experiencing it for the first time, side by side with our hero, David Balfour: On the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I saw all the country fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midst of this descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln. There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored in the firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, I could distinguish clearly; and both brought my country heart into my mouth.But while every page of Treasure Island seems to be bathed in salty air, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in grimy fog, in Kidnapped the atmosphere varies from setting to setting, from scene to scene. There’s a Gothic air pervading the encounters with Uncle Ebenezer (truly one of the lowest and most despicable of Stevenson’s characters, and not at all similar to his usual Devil-as-Gentleman villain), followed by a nautical section that invokes all of the danger and little of the lightness of Treasure Island. The majority of the tale, however, centers on the romance and mystique of the highlands.The character who best embodies Stevenson’s idea of highland honor is Alan Breck Stewart; all the complexity that Stevenson spared in creating Uncle Ebenezer he seems to have kept in reserve for the portrait of this adventurous outlaw, who was a real historical personage. Stevenson’s Alan is alternately heroic and petty, friendly and shortsighted. At times he almost seems younger than his juvenile companion, although he’s never less than sympathetic.By my calculations, David himself ought to be roughly the same age as Jim in Treasure Island, but David is the more complicated character, and thus Kidnapped reads as an “older” story. Unfortunately, it’s also more episodic than Treasure Island, with a weaker plot and an open ending. Still, I enjoyed it, and look forward to reading more Stevenson—including the sequel, Catriona!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At first sight, this work seems disquietingly similar to Stevenson's better known Treasure Island: around the middle of the 18th Century (not Stevenson's own 19th Century), an impoverished, inexperienced, but self-respecting teenage hero is set to sea by circumstance. Here he faces a crew of thugs whom, supported by strong role-models, he valiantly defeats. Then follows a long voyage of wandering & discovery until at last he comes to spiritual & material independence under the wise & watchful eye of his mentors, portrayed as very pillars of a romanticized British Empire.But there the similarity does stop. Kidnapped is exclusively about 18th Century Scotland & its entirely unforgettable inhabitants. Its sea voyage is a circumnavigation of Scotland, no more, no less. The perilous return to the home town takes place across hills & heather. Finally & most important, every character in the novel is as Scottish as its teenage hero - or as Stevenson was himself.You might say that Kidnapped offers all the assets of Treasure Island, plus one: the tense but warm atmosphere of an independence-loving nation during the waning years of its armed rebellion against the English. Stevenson, in loving mastery of his subject yet never as uncritical as he seems, ignores neither politics, intrigues, & clan quarrels, nor the (predictable) homage to bagpipe & tartans. The book is therefore flavoursome in a manner that even Treasure Island, for all its power, never attains. The historical & cultural depth here is simply greater - & the book perhaps as entertaining.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plenty of action, strange characters and great descriptions of the landscape of Scotland. A fun read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When 16-year-old David Balfour meets his estranged uncle for the first time, he is shocked by the man's cruelty. Soon, Balfour has been kidnapped and he must rescue himself and travel back to the town of his uncle to claim his inheritance. This is an exciting little book...not quite up to scratch with Treasure Island, but still has quite an adventure. It would probably be a fun book for teenagers to read, if they like classics (or if you want to thrust classics upon them).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5“In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped began serialization in Young Folks magazine. It was this book, along with the earlier Treasure Island (1883) and A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) which first drew me to Stevenson more than fifty years ago. Along with a handful of other authors these books became the foundation of my early reading and love of books. I still have that feeling for Stevenson as I have gradually explored some of his other novels and essays. While he is considered one of England's most popular writers of "Children's Literature", these novels and his others, especially The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, are worth exploring and enjoying as an adult. Jekyll and Hyde in particular, provoked by a dream and written in a ten-week burst during the writing of Kidnapped, is one of the outstanding examples of the use of the theme of 'the double' in literature, and a classic late Victorian text. Though Stevenson wrote prolifically and in almost every genre, these four books from the mid-1880s are all he would need to be remembered more than a century later. This reader continues to look back a the beginning of his reading as a boy and remember when he first encountered the adventures depicted in Kidnapped and Treasure Island. like”
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Kidnapped" is the third-most famous of Robert Louis Stevenson's novels, overshadowed by "Treasure Island" and "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde," but it's the first of his that I've read. If it's anything to go by, I should definitely check out his other works.The novel begins in 1751 with David Balfour, our young and resourceful Scottish protagonist, setting out to the house of the Shaws upon the death of his parents. Here he meets his uncle Ebeneezer, a wheedling little man who, rather than welcoming him with open arms, attempts to murder him to seize the family fortune. When this fails he sells David into slavery aboard a ship bound for the Carolinas.What follows is a swashbuckling adventure of the highest order, containing shipwrecks, gunfights, sword duels, murder, pursuit by the British Army, outlaw hideouts and all manner of boy's adventure tropes. Yet it's a far more serious and polished novel than I make it sound, set against a well-developed political and historical backdrop and featuring several real-life figures - most notably David's friend and mentor Alan Breck, a Scottish Jacobite. I don't quite know what that is! Nonetheless, it grants "Kidnapped" a solid sense of time and place, which drags a little during David's endless flight across the heather but which, on the whole, contributes into making it a more refined novel than the sort of typical adventure tale that any halfway decent writer can churn out (and which, indeed, I have been churning out for many years).It's also, despite being written in the nineteenth century, a remarkably easy book to read. Writers back then often had higher standards of vocabulary and style, which means contemporary readers often have trouble reading them, but "Kidnapped" could easily have been penned in the mid-twentieth century. This is probably the oldest book I've read that I found both enjoyable and worth my time. ("Moby-Dick," written in 1851, was certainly worth my time, but "enjoyable" is not the first word it brings to mind.)Overall "Kidnapped" is a pretty fun read, and I'll check out "Treasure Island" when I get the chance.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Second only to Treasure Island at the pinnacle of adventure fiction. The early chapters with wicked Uncle Ebeneezer are my favorites. Is anyone aware of a character in fiction named Ebeneezer who is actually a good guy?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This adventurous story follows a seventeen year old boy who is told to find his long lost uncle after his parents die. His travels take a dangerous turn and he ends up being in way more than he had bargained for. If you are looking for an adventure that is steeped in Scottish history and culture, this book is for you. Appropriate for ages 5th grade and up.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read this book as a child. It has always been my favorite. I would recommend it for readers of all ages.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I was a kid, my father had given me his copy that he had as a boy and told me I must read it. No way, too much like Treasure Island, or so I thought. A thoroughly enjoyable tale full of adventure and action and more than a little sprinkling of historical fact from the land of the Scots and English.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This story was a friendship story rather than a kidnapped story. For sure, hero was kidnapped by his uncle but it was just only beginning of the story. after that he met young man who saw him precious person. They ran away and hid from their enemy. The end was a little sentimental happy end.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a great story with often unpredictable events. As I am very lucky to have a version that is of original published dates it made it so much more enjoyable. Highly recommended!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is appropriate for the upper elementary school grade levels. It is an exciting book of a boy who is kidnapped onto a pirate ship. It is a classic that children will enjoy reading for years to come.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Adventure, murder and friendship. Young boys will find adventure along with David Balfour in the Scottish Highlands during this historical novel of trials through war and the relief of homecoming.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully narrated in a Scottish accent. I enjoyed this adventure classic.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The best adventure fiction I have ever read, and one of the most satisfying books on many levels. If I hadn't run out of fiction to read on holiday and found this in the thrift shop, I might never have read it. Talk about close shaves! Definite reread material. Setting, pacing, fascinating historical information, the characters of both the land and the people, and the relationship between the protagonists--a Whig and a Jacobite--absolutely brilliant and utterly thirst-quenching.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is on a par with Treasure Island although it lacks the excitement of a treasure hunt, there is plenty of excitement anyway and the plot is better.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If you looking for a glimpse into Scottish Highlander hijinks - and don't mind wading through text that's heavy with brogue - then you'll enjoy this classic by Stevenson.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you enjoy an historical novel that is true to the 'historical' part of the label, this is an enjoyable read. The contemporary language is not too difficult, but you may need access to a Scot's glossary once in awhile. I highly recommend reading a copy with a map, as Kidnapped gets high praise for it's geographic accuracy as well. Oh, and if you enjoy "Kidnapped", you will want to read Stevenson's sequel, "Catriona", written many years later while living in the South Pacific. "Catriona" has a different 'feel' to it from "Kidnapped", but is an enjoyable read, and ties up a lot of loose ends from "Kidnapped". Os.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51047 Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson (read 5 Apr 1970) This is a book for boys, I guess, but not bad reading. It is laid in 1751, and involves David Balfour's adventure in seeking his inheritance, and his implication with Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite who probably murdered a Campbell. Really not a substantial or overpowering work, its addition to my list of books read is not of tremendous significance.