Kidnapped: A Historical Adventure of the Scottish Highlands - Hardcover

by Robert Louis Stevenson (Author)

First published in 1886, Kidnapped is Robert Louis Stevenson's historical adventure set in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745, following the journey of David Balfour through the Scottish Highlands.

The novel begins with David's departure from his Lowland home to seek his inheritance, only to be betrayed and carried off at sea. Escaping shipwreck on the western coast of Scotland, he encounters Alan Breck Stewart, a fugitive of the Jacobite cause, and the two form an uneasy but enduring alliance. Their passage through the Highlands unfolds against a landscape still marked by political division and cultural tension, giving the narrative both immediacy and historical depth.

Stevenson combines the structure of an adventure tale with careful attention to place, language, and historical circumstance. The movement across regions-Lowland, island, and Highland-serves not only as a physical journey but as an exploration of identity, loyalty, and shifting allegiances in eighteenth-century Scotland. The result is a work that has remained central to both historical fiction and the literature of adventure.