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jasondangelo 's review for:
Kidnapped
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Of the three Robert Louis Stevenson novels I have read so far (Treasure Island, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped), Kidnapped was the most difficult. The difficulty stemmed from two causes, the language and the history of 18th-century Scotland.
I have been reading these adventure stories out loud to my wife, and Kidnapped is more thoroughly drenched in dialect than any of the other novels. My Scottish accent is not much more than a bad Shrek impersonation, but my wife endured it admirably. What impressed me however, was that the very cadence and movement of the sentences demanded that the accent be used for the whole book, not just the dialogue. Given that Stevenson hails from Edinburgh, this is not particularly shocking, but since I did not feel this impetus in either of his other two novels, I felt that he purposefully employed this rhythm to capture the language of David Balfour as a narrator. While the language was challenging to read out loud, it was greatly enjoyable since Stevenson is a wonderful writer.
The second difficulty, the history, required that I read up on the various revolutions in Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century and the parliamentary acts that were enacted in their wakes. This was fantastic educationally, but it did mean that we were frequently stopping to research things, which interfered with the rhythm of the narrative.
Stevenson’s true gift is for understanding the human nature and the complicated cluster of emotions that come together and get in the way with communication and clear actions. The best example of this in Kidnapped is the sequence near the end of David’s and Alan’s travels, when David is angry with Alan and angry with himself for being so childish, which only forces him to act still more childishly. It is a beautifully constructed passage in which Stevenson thoroughly dissects the various emotions at play.
Related to this understanding is Stevenson’s other gift, which I have commented on in my posts about his other novels: he is a fantastic creator of complex characters. Alan Breck is reminiscent of Long John Silver in his richness. There is always a perfectly moral foil for these more complex characters (Hawkins for Silver and Balfour for Breck), and I suspect that these morally upright characters not only fit Stevenson’s own desire for moral rectitude but allowed him to revel in the moral messiness that is the more common human experience, and clearly the thing that most interests Stevenson.
While the language and history are challenging and while the adventure itself is not as gripping as in Treasure Island, it is still very rewarding and enjoyable, as are the characters and the completeness of the world.
I have been reading these adventure stories out loud to my wife, and Kidnapped is more thoroughly drenched in dialect than any of the other novels. My Scottish accent is not much more than a bad Shrek impersonation, but my wife endured it admirably. What impressed me however, was that the very cadence and movement of the sentences demanded that the accent be used for the whole book, not just the dialogue. Given that Stevenson hails from Edinburgh, this is not particularly shocking, but since I did not feel this impetus in either of his other two novels, I felt that he purposefully employed this rhythm to capture the language of David Balfour as a narrator. While the language was challenging to read out loud, it was greatly enjoyable since Stevenson is a wonderful writer.
The second difficulty, the history, required that I read up on the various revolutions in Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century and the parliamentary acts that were enacted in their wakes. This was fantastic educationally, but it did mean that we were frequently stopping to research things, which interfered with the rhythm of the narrative.
Stevenson’s true gift is for understanding the human nature and the complicated cluster of emotions that come together and get in the way with communication and clear actions. The best example of this in Kidnapped is the sequence near the end of David’s and Alan’s travels, when David is angry with Alan and angry with himself for being so childish, which only forces him to act still more childishly. It is a beautifully constructed passage in which Stevenson thoroughly dissects the various emotions at play.
Related to this understanding is Stevenson’s other gift, which I have commented on in my posts about his other novels: he is a fantastic creator of complex characters. Alan Breck is reminiscent of Long John Silver in his richness. There is always a perfectly moral foil for these more complex characters (Hawkins for Silver and Balfour for Breck), and I suspect that these morally upright characters not only fit Stevenson’s own desire for moral rectitude but allowed him to revel in the moral messiness that is the more common human experience, and clearly the thing that most interests Stevenson.
While the language and history are challenging and while the adventure itself is not as gripping as in Treasure Island, it is still very rewarding and enjoyable, as are the characters and the completeness of the world.