9 h 17 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 17 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 228 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 228 pagesAbout this book
David Balfour seeks a home with his uncle—and finds himself carried out to sea as a captive.
In Scotland in 1751, seventeen-year-old David Balfour loses his father and heads to the House of Shaws. He hopes his uncle Ebenezer will help him find his place in the world. Instead, a visit to the ship Covenant becomes a forced voyage, with the threat of servitude in America ahead.
Aboard ship, David meets Alan Breck Stewart, a proud Highland supporter of the exiled Stuart cause. Their journey leads into the rugged Highlands, where hunger, exhaustion, and government pursuit test their strength. David wants safety and his rightful inheritance. But beside Alan, he must also decide what friendship and loyalty demand.
What you’ll discover
- A family’s dangerous welcome Follow David into the House of Shaws, where hopes of belonging meet his uncle’s suspicious ways.
- Peril aboard the Covenant Face a voyage where David’s freedom is at stake and safety lies beyond his reach.
- An unlikely Highland friendship Watch cautious David and fiercely loyal Alan face danger despite their clashing loyalties.
- A landscape that tests Cross difficult Highland ground where hunger and exhaustion make every step toward safety matter.
- Courage beyond mere survival Explore how David learns to judge danger, honor friendship, and weigh his own responsibilities.
Who will love it
Readers who love sea voyages, outlaws on the run, and friendships tested on the road will find plenty here. It also suits anyone curious about Scottish history and the Highlands after 1745.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Boy Leaves Home with a Letter
- The House of Shaws Is No Palace
- A Staircase in the Dark
- Taken Aboard the Covenant
- Alan Breck and the Round-House
- Shipwreck and the Islet
- Through Mull and Morven to Appin
- Murder in the Wood and the Flight Begins
- Hunted Over Rock and Moor
- The Quarrel and the Road to the Forth
Who’s who
- David BalfourA seventeen-year-old schoolmaster's son who sets out to claim his family's house and is tricked aboard a ship, then must cross the Highlands to reach home.
- Alan Breck StewartA proud, vain, brave Highland soldier of the exiled cause, who swears loyalty to David and guides him through the heather.
- Ebenezer BalfourDavid's miserly uncle, who lives in a half-built house and will do almost anything to keep his brother's son from what is his.
- Captain Elias HoseasonThe calm, cold master of the brig Covenant, a respectable man ashore and a hard one at sea, who loves his ship above all.
- Mr. RiachThe drinking second mate of the brig, who shows David small kindnesses and has a spark of conscience.
- Mr. RankeillorA shrewd, witty lawyer at Queensferry who knew David's father and helps David claim his rights without trouble.
- James Stewart of the GlensAlan's anxious kinsman in Appin, who manages the tenants and fears he will be blamed for the murder.
- Cluny MacphersonA hunted clan chief who hides in a woven house on Ben Alder and still rules his people from it.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 17 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 228 pages: 9,95 USD when you start free, 16,95 USD on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 228 pages: 16,95 USD when you start free, 23,95 USD on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Kidnapped in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Kidnapped
by Robert Louis Stevenson · 1886
A boy sent to claim his family house is tricked aboard a ship and left to find his way home across the Highlands.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Kidnapped is an adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, set in Scotland in 1751. It tells the story of David Balfour, a seventeen-year-old schoolmaster's son, who leaves his village to claim a place at the house of Shaws.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Boy Leaves Home with a Letter
The story opens on a morning in June 1751. David Balfour, seventeen years old, takes the key from the door of his dead father's house for the last time. His parents are both gone, and the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, walks with him as far as the ford.
Mr. Campbell has kept a letter for David since the schoolmaster's death. It is addressed to Ebenezer Balfour of the house of Shaws, near Cramond, which was the home of David's father long ago. The minister tells David that the Balfours of Shaws are an old family, now perhaps fallen on hard times. He urges David to go, and says that if all goes badly he can walk back and knock at the manse door.
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What is Kidnapped about?
It follows David Balfour, a Scottish teenager in 1751, who is tricked aboard a ship by his greedy uncle. After a wreck, he teams up with the Highlander Alan Breck and flees across Scotland.
Is Kidnapped a true story?
It is fiction set against real history. The Appin murder of 1752 and the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rising are real. David Balfour and his adventures were invented by Stevenson.
Who is Alan Breck Stewart?
Alan is a Highland Jacobite soldier in French service, brave and vain about his clothes and his king's name. He is partly based on a real Appin man of that name.
The author
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850–1894 · Scottish novelist and poet
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist and poet, born in Edinburgh in 1850. He wrote Treasure Island (1883), A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), and Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). He settled in Samoa in 1890 and died there in 1894.
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