“Kidnapped” is now one of my favorite books!  I don’t know how it took me this long to finally read it. It isn’t hard to read, nor does it deal with adult content, or anything like that.  What it does have is sparkling characters, a beautiful friendship that isn’t always so beautiful, heart-racing adventures, awesome landscapes for the minds eye, very laughable moments and an asking of the reader to see farther than a man’s bloodlines, wealth and political policies.   Friendship, though, is probably it’s most prominent theme.  While Adventure is this book’s last name, Friendship is it’s second.  No, it wasn’t always pretty, but always there was forgiveness and eventually there was an acceptance of the other’s faults, background and beliefs.  There was humor that still has me laughing or smiling, and a satisfying overcoming of the odds against escape and against a love between two men of totally different beliefs.

“Kidnapped” is written in first person, with David Balfour telling of his adventures with his new-found friend, Alan Breck Stewart, set in the year 1751.  First, David is sold as a slave to a ship’s Captain who intended to sell him in America.  Then he is shipwrecked and afterwards finds himself wanted for murder, along with his friend, Alan Breck Stewart, who was already a notorious outlaw.  The book is the telling of their adventures together, and how, after all I’ve mentioned happened, they tried to make their escape.  David to southern Scotland where a fortune belongs to him, though it is stolen, and Alan back to France.  As you read, you are given a privileged seat where you can watch interest turn to alarm, alarm to hope, hope to courage, courage to fear, fear to hope again, hope to anger, anger to hate, and hate to love at last.

I have only a few warnings: in the entire book, there is one dirty word, and it is the one that sounds like the name of the things beavers build; also, when David is on the ship, the sailors are often drunk, and there is a murder committed by the very drunk first mate; and, last of all, there are slightly detailed descriptions of wounded men, such as blood pouring out of a man’s mouth and the like.

Here are a few other things you should know about “Kidnapped”: there are many Scottish words that would have left me in the cold if the edition had not had notes in the back of it, telling me what they meant.  The style of the book is, of course, very similar to Treasure Island, being written by the same author, even down to the fist person writing.  If you or the person you have in mind have read that, you needn’t worry about the style being difficult to read.   I think Treasure Island is one of the classics that are easy to read, even for today’s audience.  However, I would recommend Kidnapped for a more advanced reader.  Kidnapped is just as much a character study as an adventure story, whereas Treasure Island had more of the adventure and slightly less rich characters. The adventure was a character in Treasure Island.

Even though I was an avid reader of good classics, “Kidnapped” would have lost me at times with all the verbosity and fairly lengthy descriptions.  I also would not have appreciated the depth of character, though I would have wondered why I liked the characters so much.

However, if you or the person you have in mind are able to read an old book and enjoy it, by all means, read it. I believe anyone can enjoy “Kidnapped” for one reason or another, if they don’t love all the good that is in it.  How many people nowadays can find a friend like Alan, or innocence in an 18 year old like David, or an adventure that is “clean” and leaves you thinking back on the characters as old friends? This book is too good to leave on the shelf, let us share it with the new generation!

• This is the edition I own.
• And this looks like a good paperback edition of “Kidnapped” and “Catriona”, it’s sequel, in one volume together.