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A sixteen-year-old orphan is kidnapped by his villainous uncle, but later escapes and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule.
thesmellofbooks: Young men in dire straits on the open seas, a background of oppression, and historical richness are a few of the elements these books share. They are both ripping good yarns.
themulhern: I have a theory that each book in the Felix Brooker series is an homage to some work of Robert Louis Stevenson's. This one is clearly an homage to "Kidnapped"; there's the kidnapping, of course, but also the shipwreck, the somewhat mysterious parentage, the nefarious relative, the stalwart and canny friend.… (meer)
A letter which surfaced only after his father's death sends David Balfour off to Edinburgh, where he meets his elderly uncle Ebenezer. Though rather unpleasant, Ebenezer appears to welcome David, only to turn around and arrange for his kidnapping aboard a ship bound for America. When the vessel founders during a storm, David lies stranded on a small, rocky island in the Hebrides, alone and unsure how he'll ever make his way back home.
I'm confident that at the time of its publication, this would have been an exciting book to get one's hands on. Today, though? It's just OK, but perhaps a bit too dull to compete with contemporary adventure novels. The most interesting aspect to me was following David's journey on a map as I read, curious about the terrain traversed and towns passed through. It might be helpful to have some basic familiarity with the '45 to understand the political factions and motivations for some characters' behavior. Worth a read if you're working your way through a list of "classics." ( )
I really enjoyed becoming acquainted with the Scottish dialect in this book, lots of fun with an unfamiliar branch of English. I was helped by the glosses in the Project Gutenberg version, and the dictionary built into my e-reader had definitions of a surprising percentage of the words. The story itself was not too intriguing, a fairly pedestrian (well, they WERE on foot the whole way) adventure tale but it kept my interest throughout. ( )
I read the 1958 Pocket Library edition of this book and was very disappointed. I did like how Stevenson portrayed David Balfour, even though his altruism was unrealistic. I did not like all the fighting, killing, and gruesome scenes, and do not feel children need to be exposed to all of that at young ages. I also did not understand most of the book because of the Scottish language and slang, but I was able to get the basics of the story. ( )
I read this for the first time in 2017, as a retired old lady. I had a pretty good time with it, but it was clearly not written with me in mind. The copy of the book I read from was a very nice edition, with color plates of illustrations by N. C. Wyeth. I should have been very familiar with the story, as my daughter loved it when she was a kid and watched the movie multiple times. But all I could have told you before picking this up was that David Balfour was done wrong by some relative to keep him from inheriting an estate in Scotland. The details were all new to me. It was fun to see him triumph over treachery, greed, shipwreck, hunger and a bit of temptation. Some of the scenes are just priceless, but there are many holes in the story that I'm sure young readers of even a century ago would not have minded or noticed. Suspension of disbelief came a little hard for me, and I wasn't quite enamored enough of the characters to set that aside and revel in the story. Still, I wasn't tempted to quit, and I'm glad to have this one in my mental database now. ( )
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
MY DEAR CHARLES BAXTER:
If you ever read this tale, you will likely ask yourself more questions than I should care to answer: as for instance how the Appin murder has come to fall in the year 1751, how the Torran rocks have crept so near to Earraid, or why the printed trial is silent as to all that touches David Balfour. These are nuts beyond my ability to crack. But if you tried me on the point of Alan's guilt or innocence, I think I could defend the reading of the text. To this day you will find the tradition of Appin clear in Alan's favour. If you inquire, you may even hear that the descendants of "the other man" who fired the shot are in the country to this day. But that other man's name, inquire as you please, you shall not hear; for the Highlander values a secret for itself and for the congenial exercise of keeping it I might go on for long to justify one point and own another indefensible; it is more honest to confess at once how little I am touched by the desire of accuracy. This is no furniture for the scholar's library, but a book for the winter evening school-room when the tasks are over and the hour for bed draws near; and honest Alan, who was a grim old fire-eater in his day has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his Ovid, carry him awhile into the Highlands and the last century, and pack him to bed with some engaging images to mingle with his dreams.
As for you, my dear Charles, I do not even ask you to like this tale. But perhaps when he is older, your son will; he may then be pleased to find his father's name on the fly-leaf; and in the meanwhile it pleases me to set it there, in memory of many days that were happy and some (now perhaps as pleasant to remember) that were sad. If it is strange for me to look back from a distance both in time and space on these bygone adventures of our youth, it must be stranger for you who tread the same streets--who may to-morrow open the door of the old Speculative, where we begin to rank with Scott and Robert Emmet and the beloved and inglorious Macbean--or may pass the corner of the close where that great society, the L. J. R., held its meetings and drank its beer, sitting in the seats of Burns and his companions. I think I see you, moving there by plain daylight, beholding with your natural eyes those places that have now become for your companion a part of the scenery of dreams. How, in the intervals of present business, the past must echo in your memory! Let it not echo often without some kind thoughts of your friend,
R.L.S. SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH.
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
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.
Citaten
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
The hand of Providence brought me in my drifting to the very doors of the British Linen Company's bank.
In the fear of which, and lest any one should complain of scurvy usage, he hastens to protest that all went well with both, in the limited and human sense of the word "well"' that whatever befell them, it was not dishonor, and whatever failed them, they were not found wanting to themselves.
A sixteen-year-old orphan is kidnapped by his villainous uncle, but later escapes and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule.
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and you trying to secure yourself. (