About This Book

David Balfour is kidnapped by dead father's brother and spirited away to Scotland where he escapes with the help of one Alan Breck, a Scottish nationalist, after which he suffers a great many adventures, including a meeting with the famous (or infamous!) Rob Roy. An obscure sidelight to this book is that Alan Breck actually existed, the trial described in the story actually took place — and Breck did indeed wear a coat such as the one described in the story!

About Robert Louis Stevenson

(1850-1894) Despite the fact that the Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist suffered from acutely poor health all his life, he traveled widely, going to America in 1879 and lived there for a year while he wooed and married his American wife. They journeyed across Europe and, after being diagnosed with tuberculosis, to the south seas where they lived until his death at the age of forty-four.

In addition to numerous essays, travel stories, and novels -- including the still-familiar "Treasure Island," "The Black Arrow," "Kidnapped," "The Master of Ballantrae," and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," he also wrote the beautiful and evocative poems collected as "A Child's Garden of Verses."