Listened To: "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson

Listened to: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Blackstone Audio Edition, downloaded from Overdrive.

Pretty good. I was surprised by this; the story was not what I expected.

I tried reading this book quite a while ago in either elementary school or junior high and gave up after a chapter or so. I was very surprised about how much of the story I remembered. All of the storyline that I initially read came back very quickly.

I cannot quite recall why I quit reading Kidnapped the first time around. I suspect the storyline of the main character being kidnapped and taken aboard ship queered the whole thing for me. Too creepy, maybe. Or, I didn't want to read what appeared to be a sea story.

Recap: In 1745 sixteen year old Scotsman David Balfour's father dies and David is sent to an uncle he never knew existed. The uncle, although a Lord, lives as a hermit in a decaying mansion. After trying to kill David by sending him up a decaying staircase in the dark, David forces the uncle to take him to town for his proper inheritance. But, the uncle ends up selling David to a ship captain who will take David to the Colonies as a slave in the tobacco fields.

In the voyage around Scotland the ship runs over a smaller boat and they rescue the passenger, Alan Breck. Long story short: Alan and David take arms against the crew, the ship wrecks, and David and Alan walk across Scotland - with the added danger that Alan is a much wanted man.

A well written book. It fits in as a "classic".