Kidnapped
: the adventures of David Balfour
By Robert Louis
Stevenson
Brief
Summary: David Balfour, a young, arrogant orphan in 18th century
England, receives a note announcing that he has received a wealthy inheritance.
Despite ominous warnings from the locals, David decides to visit with other
family members at the house of Shaws. At the house of Shaws, David meets his
miserly and greedy uncle, Ebenezer, who attempts to kill him and later sends
David as a hostage to be sold into slavery in the Carolinas with the ship
captain, Elias Hoseason. However, David soon acquires a friend on Hoseason’s
ship, who is named Alan Breck. When Hoseason’s ship encounters coastal reefs, David
is thrown overboard by fierce waves. During his period of isolation and wandering,
David experiences a number of hardships along the way to find Alan and is framed
for a murder that he did not commit. David teams up with Alan, as they run from
the dragoons, who are pursuing them.
Elements of the Adventure Genre:
Pacing: The novel’s plot is driven by
brisk pacing (Saricks, 2009, p. 17), and the book focuses on “escaping from one
dangerous situation to the next” (Saricks, 2009, p. 17).
Storyline: The book’s storyline emphasizes
action (Saricks, 2009, p. 17). The novel’s storyline is historical and involves
civilians and military personnel (Saricks, 2009, p. 18). In addition, David survives
“amid the elements, with physical, human, and animal dangers” (Saricks, 2009,
p. 18). David also escapes from perilous situations and is successful (Saricks,
2009, p. 18).
Characterization: David is strong and “operates
under a strong moral code” (Saricks, 2009, p. 18). David also exhibits an “intuitive
skill at interpreting dangers and discovering solutions” (Saricks, 2009, p. 18).
In addition, David’s plight is sympathetic to the audience (Saricks, 2009, p. 18).
Also, villains, such as David’s uncle, Ebenezer, and Elias Hoseason, are “drawn
in extremes and are very evil” (Saricks, 2009, p. 19). The novel additionally focuses “on male characters, ensures a
happy ending, and features a community of men” (Saricks, 2009, p. 19).
Frame/Setting: David often travels to exotic,
unknown, and mysterious locations in order to complete his various tasks (Saricks,
2009, p. 20). The novel also supports the setting by being dominated by details
and by not diminishing the book’s level of danger (Saricks, 2009, p. 21).
Tone/Mood: The novel’s tone is dark and
moody, since David experiences a number of hardships and terrifying dangers (Saricks,
2009, p. 21).
Style/Language: The novel is filled
with colorful “language, rich in the jargon of the milieu” (Saricks, 2009, p. 22).
Also, the book contains a great amount of excessive details with far-fetched events
and exotic and deadly locales (Saricks, 2009, p. 22).
Read A Likes:
The
silent boy by Andrew Taylor. This novel describes historical tales,
where “a young boy is kidnapped and used as a pawn in adult power struggles” (EBSCO
Industries, Inc., 2018, n.p.).
Birthright by Roger A.
Ekirch. Readers who wish to discover more about the events that Kidnapped
was based on will be pleased by this novel’s “well-documented and compelling
history” (EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2018, n.p.).
References:
EBSCO Industries,
Inc.. (2018). Read-alikes for Kidnapped.
Retrieved from
Saricks, J. G.
(2009). The readers’ advisory guide to genre fiction (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL:
American Library Association.
This sounds like it would be a great read and fits the genre well. I have not read either of the read-alikes, but they both sound dark and moody, so they seem like good fits. Do you find the details take away or add to the story?
ReplyDelete(PS - your photo seems to not be coming up??)
I feel that the details are often too excessive, although they seem accurate and give the novel a sense of place. When the details aren't describing places or wildlife, they take a lot away from the story. I'm also sorry if my photo isn't appearing on the post. The photo appeared in Microsoft Word and when I posted the raw text with the photo in the fake Microsoft Word editing document in blogger. It might be an issue with the blog. The photo was supposed to be a photograph of the Reader's Digest Association edition of Kidnapped: The Adventures of David Balfour, since that was the edition that I acquired from the New Haven branch of the Allen County Public Library. I received the photo from the Amazon.com website from Google images, but I figured that I didn't need to cite it, since the examples of annotations did not cite their pictures. (Although, you can obviously see the web address for the photo on the blog, due to the error.)
DeleteI've read some of Stevenson's other works, but not this one. It looks like it fits well within the adventure genre though, and a classic at that. Do you regularly read adventures or was this stepping out of your comfort zone? I know I tend to avoid the genre especially if I know there's going to be a lot of fighting/chasing action. I usually find myself skimming those sections because they fail to draw me further into the story.
ReplyDeleteI don't regularly read adventure novels, so I was stepping out of my comfort zone in terms of reading books. However, I am familiar with the adventure genre outside of reading. I've watched plenty of James Bond films, which exhibit traits in the adventure genre, and played adventure-themed video games, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. In fact, I would argue that reading a book from the adventure genre is fairly similar to playing an exploratory video game. There are mysteries to solve, exotic places to travel to, instances of survival, and lots of things and individuals to discover.
DeleteExcellent annotation! Your summary and key elements are well written, cited, and spot on. Full points. Also, for this class, you are correct, we don't need to cite book covers. Well done!
ReplyDelete