![Picture](/uploads/7/7/7/4/7774990/published/kidnapped-ebook-cover-9781847674432.jpg?1633093888)
Some of us had read Kidnapped in our youth, others were glad to have the opportunity to read it for the first time.
We liked the Scottish setting and the dialect words added to the sense of time and place. You could almost hear the accents. It came as surprise that Scotland was divided by language, Gaelic and English as much as by politics and religion.
Enjoyed how the upright character of David Balfour contrasted with the flamboyant, swashbuckling Alan Breck.
Very enjoyable classic - a good read to look forward to in the evenings.
We all loved the historical setting of the novel - the '45 rebellion, the battle of Culloden and the Highland clearances. The whole clan system came to life with its conflicting rivalries and loyalties and showed how Scott was ranged against Scott, and the dreadful consequences for those captured by their enemies. The hard core of the book is the Flight Through the Heather where the reader is immersed in the weather, the landscape and the twists and turns of fate as our two heroes flee for their lives. Stevenson skillfully uses the unrelenting pursuit and the contrasting loyalties of David Balfour and Alan Breck to build a tension that brings their alliance to breaking point,
We did think that the ending and the whole sub-plot of David's inheritance to be the weakest part of the novel.
The two sections that particularly stood out were the quarrel and the bagpipe contest.
All-in-all, a very enjoyable read.
We liked the Scottish setting and the dialect words added to the sense of time and place. You could almost hear the accents. It came as surprise that Scotland was divided by language, Gaelic and English as much as by politics and religion.
Enjoyed how the upright character of David Balfour contrasted with the flamboyant, swashbuckling Alan Breck.
Very enjoyable classic - a good read to look forward to in the evenings.
We all loved the historical setting of the novel - the '45 rebellion, the battle of Culloden and the Highland clearances. The whole clan system came to life with its conflicting rivalries and loyalties and showed how Scott was ranged against Scott, and the dreadful consequences for those captured by their enemies. The hard core of the book is the Flight Through the Heather where the reader is immersed in the weather, the landscape and the twists and turns of fate as our two heroes flee for their lives. Stevenson skillfully uses the unrelenting pursuit and the contrasting loyalties of David Balfour and Alan Breck to build a tension that brings their alliance to breaking point,
We did think that the ending and the whole sub-plot of David's inheritance to be the weakest part of the novel.
The two sections that particularly stood out were the quarrel and the bagpipe contest.
All-in-all, a very enjoyable read.
The bagpipe contest between Alan Breck and Robin Oig, son of Rob Roy
Robin took the pipes and played a little spring in a very ranting manner. “Ay, ye can, blow” said Alan; and taking the instrument from his rival, he first played the same spring in a manner identical with Robin’s; and then wandered into variations, which, as he went on, he decorated with a perfect flight of grace-notes, such as pipers love, and call the “warblers.” I had been pleased with Robin’s playing; Alan’s ravished me.
“That’s no very bad, Mr. Stewart,” said the rival, “but ye show a poor device in your warblers.”
“Me!” cried Alan, the blood starting to his face. “I give ye the lie.”
“Do ye own yourself beaten at the pipes, then,” said Robin, “that ye seek to change them for the sword?”
“And that’s very well said, Mr. Macgregor,” returned Alan; “and in the meantime” (laying a strong accent on the word) “I take back the lie. I appeal to Duncan.”
“Indeed, ye need appeal to naebody,” said Robin. “Ye’re a far better judge than any Maclaren in Balquhidder: for it’s a God’s truth that you’re a very creditable piper for a Stewart. Hand me the pipes.”
Alan did as he asked; and Robin proceeded to imitate and correct some part of Alan’s variations, which it seemed that he remembered perfectly.
“Ay, ye have music,” said Alan, gloomily.
“And now be the judge yourself, Mr. Stewart,” said Robin; and taking up the variations from the beginning, he worked them throughout to so new a purpose, with such ingenuity and sentiment, and with so odd a fancy and so quick a knack in the grace-notes, that I was amazed to hear him. As for Alan, his face grew dark and hot, and he sat and gnawed his fingers, like a man under some deep affront.
“Enough!” he cried. “Ye can blow the pipes—make the most of that.” And he made as if to rise. But Robin only held out his hand as if to ask for silence and struck into the slow measure of a pibroch. It was a fine piece of music in itself, and nobly played; but it seems, besides, it was a piece peculiar to the Appin Stewarts and a chief favourite with Alan. The first notes were scarce out, before there came a change in his face; when the time quickened, he seemed to grow restless in his seat; and long before that piece was at an end, the last signs of his anger died from him, and he had no thought but for the music.
The Flight of David Balfour and Alan Breck
Map of the Clans