Kidnapped

Title: Kidnapped

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Number of pages: 270

Started: 16 January 2012

Finished: 22 January 2012

Opening words:

I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early in the month of June, the year of grace 1751, when I took the key for the last time out of the door of my father's house. The sun began to shine upon the summit of the hills as I went down the road; and by the time I had come as far as the manse, the blackbirds were whistling in the garden lilacs, and the mist that hung around the valley in the time of the dawn was beginning to arise and die away.

Plot summary:

When young David Balfour is orphaned he discovers some surprising truths about his family. His meeting with his uncle Ebenezer turns out to have disastrous consequences leading to kidnap and imprisonment on board a ship bound for the Carolinas. However, the voyage is full of incident and after violent conflict and a shipwreck, David finds himself in a daredevil chase across the Scottish Highlands in the company of the irrepressible warrior Alan Breck Stewart...

What I thought:

Having got over my school text phobia during my last read, this book put me right back there. I have read other books by Stevenson and enjoyed them, but I thought Kidnapped was very hard work. This did nothing to recommend classic literature to me.