Kidnapped

Sharpen up your Gaelic and colloquial language skills if you want to get through this classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson set in 1751 Scotland...smoothly. Although published in 1886 in a boy’s magazine, Young Folks, the story is told in the local Scottish dialect with lots of Gaelic thrown in for good measure. I loved the challenge. I’ll give you a sample of what I’m writing about. When our narrator (young seventeen year old David Balfour) meets his crotchety Uncle Ebenezer for the first time at Ebenezer’s dilapidated estate and while David’s having something to eat, Ebenezer answers David’s question of: Why is he so hostile to him? “Hoot-toot!” Said Uncle Ebenezer, “dinnae fly up in the stuff at me. We’ll agree fine yet. And, Davie, my man, if you’re done with that bit parritch, I could just take a sup of it myself. Ay,” he continued, as soon as he ousted me from the stool and spoon, “they’re fine, halesome food - they’re grand food, parritch” (I’m assuming that he is talking about porridge). Later he says, “Na, na; na, na, I like you fine; we’ll agree fine yet; and for the honour of the house I couldnae let you leave the way ye came. Bide here quiet, there’s a good lad; just you bide here quiet a bittie, and ye’ll find that we agree.” Did you notice that Stevenson is a big fan of the semicolon? Later, I’ll give you some examples of the Gaelic language in this story. Some of the characters are real, such as the Jacobite rebel, Alan Breck Stewart, who has been fleeing from the British redcoats in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion (Charles Edward Stuart’s failed attempt to grab the British throne from King George II, in 1745/1746). There are a lot of innuendos of actual happenings in this excellent work of historical fiction to go along with the compelling fictional story.  

The story opens with David Balfour talking with Minister Campbell of Essendean. David’s father has recently died (his mother previously), and Campbell reads David a letter in which states is his inheritance, “give my boy this letter into his hand, and start him off to the house of Shaws, not far from Cramond. That is the place I came from”, he said, “and it’s where it befits that my boy should return. He is a steady lad, your father said, and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and be well lived where he goes.” So off he goes to live with his Uncle Ebenezer, who he has never met. On his walking trip to his uncle’s estate, he ask people on the road about the House of the Shaws. The responses are not good. The last person he asks is a woman on top of a hill as they look down to the valley at a ‘great bulk of a building’...with anger, she says, “Blood built it; blood stopped the building of it; blood shall bring it down. See here!” she cried again “I spit upon the ground, and crack my thumb at it! (what does that mean?) Black be its fall! If ye see the laird, tell him what ye hear; tell him this makes the twelve hunner and nineteen time that Jennet Clousten has called down the curse on him and his house, byre and stable, man, guest, and master, wife, miss, or bairn-black, black be their fall!” Wow, it doesn’t sound like David is going to a friendly asylum. Once David gets to his uncle’s estate, he finds Ebenezer unsympathetic with his situation. During an evening storm, Ebenezer sends David up an unfinished tower with missing steps and without a candle to retrieve a chest. David realizes that his uncle might have been trying to kill him after he almost falls to his death. Why is Ebenezer trying to get rid of David? A irritated David locks Ebenezer in his room with the promise that Ebenezer will answer all of David’s questions in the morning.

The next morning, before David can quiz Ebenezer, a ship’s cabin boy comes with a letter for Ebenezer from the Hawes Inn at the Queen’s ferry. It’s from a Captain Hoseason of the ship Covenant. It reads: “Sir,-I lie here with my hawser up and down, and send my cabin-boy to informe. If you have any further commands for over-seas, to-day will be the last occasion, as the wind will serve us well out of the firth. I will not seek to deny that I have had crosses with your doer, Mr. Rankeillor; of which, if not speedily redd up, you may looke to see some losses follow. I have drawn a bill upon you, as per margin, and am, sir, your most obedt., humble servant, ELIAS HOSEASON. Agent.” Now you can see for yourself why this novel was so hard to understand. The cunning Ebenezer says to David, “You see, Davie, I have a venture with this man Hoseason, the captain of a trading brig, the Covenant, of Dysart. Now, if you and me was to walk over with yon lad, I could see the captain at the Hawes, or maybe on board the covenant if there was papers to be signed; and so far from a loss of time, we can jog on to the lawyer, Mr. Rankeillor’s. After a’ that’s come and gone, ye would be swierto believe me upon my naked word; but ye’ll believe Rankeillor. He’s a factor to half the gentry in these parts; an auld man, forby: highly respeckit, and he kenned your father.” What is Ebenezer scheming? What is he trying to hide from David? Later on that day, Ebenezer tricks David to come aboard the ship where he is knock out, chained and stowed below after which his uncle is seen sitting in the stern of a boat pulling for town. The ship was bound for the Carolinas...David realized that “white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me.” This is where the story takes off...and prospers. End of my 43 page review.

I liked this novel but thought Treasure Island (1883) was more exciting and was easier to comprehend the language (see my review of 8/23/2016). I promised you something in Gaelic. Okay, half way through the novel, the ship David was on (the Covenant) sunk. You can say, a little hole will sink a big ship, or you can say in Gaelic, bathaidh toll beag long mhor. I have no idea how you would pronounce that. Lastly, the author, China Mieville constantly uses the word ‘that’ consecutively (that that) in his novels, but Stevenson used ‘there’ consecutively (there there). Here is the sentence on page 144, “Now,” said he, “there is a little clachan not very far from Corrynakiegh, and it has the name of Koalisnacoan. There there are living many friends of mine whom I trust with my life, and some that I am no just so sure of.” So there there you go (Haha).

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Robert Louis Stevenson died at an early age of 44 in Samoa. He was sickly all his life, suffering from consumption (now called tuberculosis). In his later years he found the sea air helpful to his health. He travelled to the Hawaiian Islands (where he became a good friend of King Kalakaua), the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Samoan Islands. In Samoa, the natives loved him, naming him Tusitala (teller of tales).