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jhbandcats 's review for:
Kidnapped
by Robert Louis Stevenson
I know this is a classic and I know I should give it five stars, but it just didn’t feel like a five star book. The problems are likely all on my side, not Mr Stevenson’s.
I was unused to Scottish dialect and slang, and even though the edition I read had a lot of definitions, I feel I lost the flow by having to stop every few pages. Because I was unfamiliar with the language, I missed a lot of the emotional intent (and likely a lot of other bits, too), so I didn’t always understand why characters responded to each other the way they did. I also felt lost geographically and the map included didn’t help me at all. (I don’t know if that map was specific to my edition or not. I’m not sure it was original to the first publication, which was serialized in a magazine.)
I really wish I’d enjoyed this more. I enjoyed Treasure Island when I reread it a couple of years ago which is why I’m thinking my issues were with the Scottish dialect and not the 18th-19th C rendition of language.* I feel like I’ve failed as a reader by not being more enthusiastic.
*It was written in the 19th C but the action takes place in the 18th C.
I was unused to Scottish dialect and slang, and even though the edition I read had a lot of definitions, I feel I lost the flow by having to stop every few pages. Because I was unfamiliar with the language, I missed a lot of the emotional intent (and likely a lot of other bits, too), so I didn’t always understand why characters responded to each other the way they did. I also felt lost geographically and the map included didn’t help me at all. (I don’t know if that map was specific to my edition or not. I’m not sure it was original to the first publication, which was serialized in a magazine.)
I really wish I’d enjoyed this more. I enjoyed Treasure Island when I reread it a couple of years ago which is why I’m thinking my issues were with the Scottish dialect and not the 18th-19th C rendition of language.* I feel like I’ve failed as a reader by not being more enthusiastic.
*It was written in the 19th C but the action takes place in the 18th C.