Kidnapped

About Kidnapped

David's cautious perspective meets Alan's pride and quick temper, making companionship as important as the pursuit. Highland terrain, disputed allegiances, and the need to judge strangers turn travel into a series of moral decisions. The adventure gains texture from the pair's disagreements rather than treating friendship as an automatic consequence of danger.

Reading focus

Follow a hazardous Scottish journey in which an unlikely friendship must survive betrayal, political divisions, and sharply different temperaments.

This reading edition contains 81,525 words in 32 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.

Opening excerpt

While my husband and Mr. Henley were engaged in writing plays in Bournemouth they made a number of titles, hoping to use them in the future. Dramatic composition was not what my husband preferred, but the torrent of Mr. Henley’s enthusiasm swept him off his feet. However, after several plays had been finished, and his health seriously impaired by his endeavours to keep up with Mr. Henley, play writing was abandoned forever, and my husband returned to his legitimate vocation. Having added one of the titles, The Hanging Judge, to the list of projected plays, now thrown aside, and emboldened by my husband’s offer to give me any help needed, I concluded to try and write it myself.

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