Kidnapped (Penguin Classics S.) - Softcover

Stevenson, Robert Louis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140434011 ISBN 13: 9780140434019

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1994

Synopsis

This edition looks at the Scottish identity through the text of Stevenson's classic. The duality of Scottish life - the mercantile, "respectable" Lowland Scot, as represented by David Balfour, and the romantic, rebellious Highlander, Alan Breck Stewart - runs deep in the psyche and literature of Scotland. Although Stevenson claimed that "Kidnapped" was simply an adventure tale to while away the long winter evenings, the journey and experiences of the characters can be seen as a rite of passage. He questions both the values of the "civilized" Lowland society, and the sentimental view of the highlands portrayed by Sir Walter Scott and others. The topography of the novel is detailed in extensive notes, with a Scots glossary to supplement Stevenson's own.

About this title

Review:

These inaugurate a new series of uniform classics, simplified so that little more than their bare essentials remain. Where there may be an excuse for a revision for young moderns of, say, the stilted quality of Defoe's Crusoe or a shortening of Kidnapped's lengthy descriptions - these are matters of individual taste. But it does seem that readers should be willing to take what the authors wrote originally. That case is strengthened by the bone-dryness of these revisions, all of which have been cut so extensively that little atmosphere remains, and the purpose-to introduce young readers to the classics-defeats itself. Attractive size and format and plentiful supplies of colored pictures make up for textual imperfections. Plastic covers. (Kirkus Reviews) --Kirkus Reviews

Book Description:

'As a writer of the English language there has been no one to touch Stevenson in a hundred years...as a story-teller he is unsurpassed' George MacDonald Fraser

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0140434011
• ISBN 13: 9780140434019
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: McFarlan Donald