David Balfour: Being Memoirs of the Further Adventures of David Balfour at Home and Abroad (Scribner's Illustrated Classics)

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Hardcover, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

823.8

Publication

Charles Scribner's Sons (1994), Hardcover, 356 pages

Description

Classic Literature. Historical Fiction. Young Adult Fiction. HTML: Catriona is the sequel to Stevensen's classic, Kidnapped, beginning precisely where the last work left off. David Balfour is back in polite society where he attempts to fight injustices and is caught in the tangled morality of love..

User reviews

LibraryThing member parelle

No, this isn't as good at Kidnapped. I fully admit to being a sap in saying that I enjoyed it, for it isn't the high-flying adventure story that the first book is - at all. No, here we have Davie in loooooooove. I do think though that this book is still best for the connections it has to Kidnapped

- whether it be David doing right by the people who helped him before, or the rare and wonderful appearances of Alan Breck. And yet, even in this somewhat strained circumstances, I still liked him - and her, as well.

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LibraryThing member themulhern

The immediate sequel to Kidnapped. This is not an adventure or travel tale, but a tale of politics, love, propriety, and misunderstanding. David must think through his position constantly, and ultimately accomplishes very little, though he works at it very hard. James Mor MacGregor-Drummond is so

exasperating as to be quite entertaining. David has a very refreshing hard-headedness or cold-bloodedness when those whom he has truly disliked die, but his affection for his friends is unaffected and very strong.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

thoughts and comments to come

LibraryThing member Schmerguls

This book is a sequel to Kidnapped, which I read in 1970. I read a synopsis of it to prepeare to read this volume, which was first published in 1893, the year before Stevenson died. The first 265 pages tell of David traipsing around Scotland, and the things he was trying to do and that others were

preventing him from doing are a mite obscure. And there is much Scot dialect, which is a real pain to read and to try to make sense of. But the second part beginning on page 267, tells of David's trip to Europe, accompanied by the love of his life. This part has little Scot dialect, and tells a good story, even poignant at times. The morals of David and his love are exemplary and people wearied by modern fiction characters who have no morals at all will enjoy the contrast which David displays. Ths book is an illustration of the wisdom of not giving up on a book just because the first 265 pages are a chore at times to read.

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LibraryThing member librisissimo

From the dust-jacket back flap: "Now, in deference to changing tastes and standards, we re issuing the library in a new format. Still in the handy pocket size, the books will be bound in natural-finish fadeless cloth, with real gold titling and blind ornament"

LibraryThing member hhornblower

A surprisingly well done sequel/continuation of a very famous story. I never knew it existed until I saw it at the Huntington gift shop. Having just finish Kidnapped, I figured I'd give it a shot and was pleasantly surprised. Well worth a read.

LibraryThing member soylentgreen23

'Catriona' is the lesser-known sequel to the classic 'Kidnapped', and follows the protagonist David Balfour's adventures. Here he seeks to right a wrong perpetuated in the first book, which plot closely follows reality; he also falls in love with Catriona, a highland girl whose father, James More,

has landed in prison because of his connection to the murder at the heart of 'Kidnapped.' Spurred by a sense of honour and wishing to do the same thing, Balfour becomes involved in the intrigue, only to find himself kidnapped once again.

'Catriona' is a curious book, and well worth reading - especially be would-be writers like myself - because it represents an honest attempt by a great author to make much out of very little. There were enough loose ends in 'Kidnapped' to justify a sequel, but not enough left over to account for quite so long a book, and it is glaring by their absences what precisely is missing from this volume compared to the first. All of those landmark events and fantastic characters in 'Kidnapped' have their shadows here, but none exceed the triumph of the first. For those concerned with what might happen next to David Balfour, the book is worth a read, but for those who had not read the original, this is one sequel where the tale only works for those already fans.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

I was disappointed by this sequel to Kidnapped. A big part of that is due to the large amount of Scots dialect used in this novel (which was at times even worse in the audiobook edition as at least the Kindle book had footnotes on some of the obscure terms!). For example,

"The solan keekit doon

into Tam's face, and there was something unco in the creature's ee. Just the ae keek it gied, and back to the rope. But now it wroucht and warstl't like a thing dementit. There never was the solan made that wroucht as that solan wroucht; and it seemed to understand its employ brawly, birzing the saft rope between the neb of it and a crunkled jag o' stane."

Huh??!

I also found the adventure in this one less compelling and more far-fetched.

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