{"product_id":"kidnapped-isbn-9780141441795","title":"Kidnapped","description":"\u003cb\u003eAt once a rollicking adventure story and an earnest political allegory\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOrphaned and penniless, David Balfour sets out to find his last living relative, miserly and reclusive Uncle Ebenezer. But Ebenezer is far from welcoming, and David narrowly escapes being murdered before he is kidnapped and imprisoned on a ship bound for the Carolinas. When the ship is wrecked, David, along with the fiery rebel Alan Breck, makes his way back across the treacherous Highland terrain on a quest for justice. Through his powerful depiction of the two very different central characters—the romantic Breck and the rational Whig David—Stevenson dramatized a conflict at the heart of Scottish culture in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion, as well as creating an unforgettable adventure story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.\u003cb\u003eRobert Louis Stevenson\u003c\/b\u003e (1850-1894), Scottish essayist, poet and author of fiction and travel books, was known especially for his novels of adventure. Stevenson became famous with the romantic adventure story\u003ci\u003e Treasure Island\u003c\/i\u003e, which appeared in 1883. Among his other popular works are \u003ci\u003eKidnapped \u003c\/i\u003e(1886),\u003ci\u003e The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde\u003c\/i\u003e (1886) and \u003ci\u003eThe Master Of Ballantrae\u003c\/i\u003e (1889).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDonald McFarlan\u003c\/b\u003e, a Glasgow native, worked in publishing and was the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Guinness Book of Why?\u003c\/i\u003e.Introduction by Margot Livesey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I was growing up in Scotland, Robert Louis Stevenson was the first author whom I knew by name, and he remains the only one whom I can truthfully claim to have been reading all my life.  From an early age, my parents read to me from \u003cb\u003eA Child's Garden of Verses\u003c\/b\u003e, and I soon learned some of the poems by heart.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have a little shadow\u003cbr\u003ethat goes in and out with me, \u003cbr\u003eAnd what can be the use of him\u003cbr\u003eis more than I can see. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps I recognized, even then, Stevenson's unique gift for keeping a foot in two camps.  While the poems vividly captured my childish concerns, somewhere in the margins shimmered the mystery of adult life.  A few years later \u003cb\u003eKidnapped\u003c\/b\u003e was the first chapter book I read, and I can still picture the maroon binding and the black-and-white drawings that illustrated David Balfour's adventures.  At the age of seven, a book without pictures would have been out of the question, but, in fact, they turned out to be superfluous.  I could imagine everything that happened just from the words on the page, although I must admit to the small advantage that the view from my bedroom window--bare hills, rocks, heather--was very much like the landscape of \u003cb\u003eKidnapped\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first glance such early acquaintance might seem like a good omen for an author's reputation.  In actuality, that Stevenson is so widely read by children has tended to make him seem like an author from who, as adults, we have little to learn.  It is worth noting that his contemporaries would not have shared this prejudice.  Nineteenth-century readers did not regard children's books as separate species.  Stevenson's own father often reread \u003cb\u003eThe Parent's Assistant,\u003c\/b\u003e a volume of children's stories, and Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, writes of staying up late to finish \u003cb\u003eTreasure Island\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike the shadow of his poem, Stevenson's reputation has waxed and waned at an alarming rate.  He died in a blaze of hagiography, which perhaps in part explains the fury of later critics.  F.R. Leavis in \u003cb\u003eThe Great Tradition\u003c\/b\u003e dismisses \u003cb\u003eStevenson\u003c\/b\u003e (in a footnote, no less) as a romantic writer, guilty of fine writing, and in general Stevenson has not fared as well as his friend Henry James.  People comment with amazement that Borges and Nabokov praised his novels.  Still, his best work has remained in print for over a hundred years, and his is among that small group of authors to have given a phrase to the language: Jekyll and Hyde.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides our perception of Stevenson as a children's author, two other factors may have contributed to his ambiguous reputation.  Although his list of publications is much longer than most people realize--he wrote journalism and travel pieces for money--he failed to produce a recognizable oeuvre, a group of works that stand together, each resonating with the others.  In addition, the pendulum of literary taste has swung in a direction that Stevenson disliked and was determined to avoid: namely, pessimism.  After reading \u003cb\u003eThe Portrait of a Lady\u003c\/b\u003e he wrote to James begging him to write no more such books, and while he admired the early work of Thomas Hardy, he hated the darker \u003cb\u003eTess of the d'Urbervilles.\u003c\/b\u003e The English writer John Galsworthy commented memorably on this aspect of Stevenson when he said that the superiority of Stevenson over Hardy was that Stevenson was all life, while Hardy was all death.","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302694768869,"sku":"NP9780141441795","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780141441795.jpg?v=1767730705","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/kidnapped-isbn-9780141441795","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}