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Kidnapped de Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped

Autor Robert Louis Stevenson
en Limba Engleză Paperback – noi 2020

Lectura romanului Kidnapped impune un ritm stratificat, unde goana palpitantă a aventurii se împletește cu o contemplare melancolică a peisajului scoțian și a onoarei pierdute. Observăm cum Robert Louis Stevenson reușește să transforme ceea ce părea o simplă „carte pentru băieți” într-o explorare profundă a identității, navigând între loialitățile politice fracturate ale Scoției de după răscoala iacobită. Ne-a atras atenția modul în care autorul construiește tensiunea: de la scările neterminate ale casei Shaws, care se termină brusc într-un abis întunecat, până la atmosfera sufocantă de la bordul corabiei Covenant. Atmosfera te trimite cu gândul la Treasure Island, deși aici realismul istoric și nuanțele politice marchează o voce proprie, mult mai matură și mai ancorată în geografia natală a autorului. Dacă în Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson explora dualitatea psihologică a individului, în Kidnapped el proiectează această dualitate asupra întregii națiuni scoțiene, reprezentată prin contrastul dintre David Balfour, un Lowlander prudent și rațional, și Alan Breck Stewart, Highland-erul impulsiv și flamboaiant. Găsim în această lucrare nu doar un itinerar geografic prin munții sălbatici, ci și unul moral, în care maturizarea lui David se produce prin suferință și expunere la nedreptate. Este o operă care, sub masca memoriilor de aventură, ascunde o finețe stilistică ce i-a atras admirația unor maeștri precum Jorge Luis Borges, confirmând statutul lui Stevenson de povestitor universal.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781513266350
ISBN-10: 1513266357
Pagini: 196
Dimensiuni: 127 x 203 x 11 mm
Greutate: 0.22 kg
Editura: Mint Editions

De ce să citești această carte

Recomandăm această carte cititorilor care caută o aventură clasică, dar rafinată literar. Veți câștiga o perspectivă imersivă asupra istoriei Scoției și o poveste despre prietenie și supraviețuire. Este lectura ideală pentru cei care apreciază proza de atmosferă, unde mediul natural devine un personaj în sine, oferind mai mult decât un simplu roman de gen: o meditație asupra onoarei și a maturizării forțate.

Despre autor

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) a fost un romancier, eseist și poet scoțian, recunoscut drept unul dintre cei mai mari povestitori ai literaturii universale. Născut în Edinburgh, a luptat întreaga viață cu probleme de sănătate, fapt care l-a împins să călătorească în căutarea unor climate mai blânde, stabilindu-se în final în Samoa. Deși faima sa inițială s-a datorat unor lucrări precum Treasure Island, Stevenson a evoluat spre un realism mai întunecat. În prezent, este unul dintre cei mai traduși autori din lume, opera sa fiind celebrată pentru profunzimea psihologică și măiestria narativă.

Notă biografică

Throughout his life, Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was tormented by poor health. Yet despite frequent physical collapses–mainly due to constant respiratory illness–he was an indefatigable writer of novels, poems, essays, letters, travel books, and children’s books. He was born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, of a prosperous family of lighthouse engineers. Though he was expected to enter the family profession, he studied instead for the Scottish bar. By the time he was called to the bar, however, he had already begun writing seriously, and he never actually practiced law. In 1880, against his family’s wishes, he married an American divorcée, Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, who was ten years his senior; but the family was soon reconciled to the match, and the marriage proved a happy one.

All his life Stevenson traveled–often in a desperate quest for health. He and Fanny, having married in California and spent their honeymoon by an abandoned silver mine, traveled back to Scotland, then to Switzerland, to the South of France, to the American Adirondacks, and finally to the south of France, to the South Seas. As a novelist he was intrigued with the genius of place: Treasure Island (1883) began as a map to amuse a boy. Indeed, all his works reveal a profound sense of landscape and atmosphere: Kidnapped (1886); The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886); The Master of Ballantrae (1889).

In 1889 Stevenson’s deteriorating health exiled him to the tropics, and he settled in Samoa, where he was given patriarchal status by the natives. His health improved, yet he remained homesick for Scotland, and it was to the “cold old huddle of grey hills” of the Lowlands that he returned in his last, unfinished masterpiece, Weir of Hermiston (1896).

Stevenson dies suddenly on December 3, 1894, not of the long-feared tuberculosis, but of a cerebral hemorrhage. The kindly author of Jekyll and Hyde went down to the cellar to fetch a bottle of his favorite burgundy, uncorked it in the kitchen, abruptly cried out to his wife, “What’s the matter with me, what is this strangeness, has my face changed?”–and fell to the floor. The brilliant storyteller and master of transformations had been struck down at forty-four, at the height of his creative powers.

Descriere scurtă

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Seamus Heaney. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893. As historical fiction, it is set around 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin Murder," which occurred near Ballachulish in 1752 in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising. 1] 2] Many of the characters, and one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart, were real people. The political situation of the time is portrayed from different viewpoints, and the Scottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically. The full title of the book gives away major parts of the plot and creates the false impression that the novel is autobiographical. It is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson. The central character and narrator is a young man named David Balfour (Balfour being Stevenson's mother's maiden name), young and naive but resourceful, whose parents have recently died and who is out to make his way in the world. He is given a letter by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, to be delivered to the House of Shaws in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives. On his journey, David asks many people where the House of Shaws is, and all of them speak of it darkly as a place of fear and evil. David arrives at the ominous House of Shaws and is confronted by his paranoid Uncle Ebenezer, armed with a blunderbuss. His uncle is also niggardly, living on "parritch" and small ale, and indeed the House of Shaws itself is partially unfinished and somewhat ruinous. David is allowed to stay, and soon discovers evidence that his father may have been older than his uncle, thus making himself the rightful heir to the estate. Ebenezer asks David to get a chest from the top of a tower in the house, but refuses to provide a lamp or candle. David is forced to scale the stairs in the dark, and realizes that not only is the tower unfinished in some places, but that the steps simply end abruptly and fall into the abyss. David concludes that his uncle intended for him to have an "accident" so as not to have to give over his inheritance. David confronts his uncle, who promises to tell David the whole story of his father the next morning. A ship's cabin boy, Ransome, arrives the next day, and tells Ebenezer that Captain Hoseason of the brig Covenant needs to meet him to discuss business. Ebenezer takes David to a pier on the Firth Of Forth, where Hoseason awaits, and David makes the mistake of leaving his uncle alone with the captain while he visits the shore with Ransome. Hoseason later offers to take them on board the brig briefly, and David complies, only to see his uncle returning to shore alone in a skiff. He is then immediately struck senseless. David awakens bound hand and foot in the hold of the ship. He becomes weak and sick, and one of the Covenant's officers, Mr. Riach, convinces Hoseason to move David up to the forecastle. Mr. Shuan, a mate on the ship, finally takes his routine abuse of Ransome too far and murders the unfortunate youth. David is repulsed at the crews' behaviour, and learns that the Captain plans to sell him into servitude in the Carolinas.

Recenzii

“It’s a pacy, twisting story that appeals to all ages and across classes and cultures.”
– Ian Rankin
"It stands as one of Robert Louis Stevenson's most compelling works - it was one of the author's favourites, and his affection for his central characters is unmistakable - and is a novel you want to press on people, knowing they'll love it" -- Ian Rankin Guardian "Generations of readers have been enthralled by his tale of the gauche young David, orphaned at 17, who is plunged into a life of danger and excitement... His rescue by the daredevil Jacobite Alan Breck Stewart, their bloody battle with the crew of the Covenant and shipwreck on rocks off the west coast isle of Earraid are among the most exciting scenes penned by a Scots author" Daily Mail "Anyone who has read Kidnapped knows that Robert Louis Stevenson was a marvellously powerful storyteller as well as a great stylist" Daily Telegraph "It's a pacy, twisting story that appeals to all ages and across classes and cultures. It's a tale of friendship in adversity, and a coming-of-age story" -- Ian Rankin Guardian

Descriere

Descriere de la o altă ediție sau format:
'Your bed shall be the moorcock's, and your life shall be like the hunted deer's, and ye shall sleep with your hand upon your weapons.'Tricked out of his inheritance, shanghaied, shipwrecked off the west coast of Scotland, David Balfour finds himself fleeing for his life in the dangerous company of Jacobite outlaw and suspected assassin Alan Breck Stewart. Their unlikely friendship is put to the test as they dodge government troops across the Scottish Highlands. Set in the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion, Kidnapped transforms the Romantic historical novel into the modern thriller. Its heart-stopping scenes of cross-country pursuit, distilled to a pure intensity in Stevenson's prose, have become a staple of adventure stories from John Buchan to Alfred Hitchcock and Ian Fleming. Kidnapped remains as exhilarating today as when it was first published in 1886.This new edition is based on the 1895 text, incorporating Stevenson's last thoughts about the novel before his death. It includes Stevenson's 'Note to Kidnapped', reprinted for the first time since 1922.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Extras

Introduction by Margot Livesey

I.

When I was growing up in Scotland, Robert Louis Stevenson was the first author whom I knew by name, and he remains the only one whom I can truthfully claim to have been reading all my life. From an early age, my parents read to me from A Child's Garden of Verses, and I soon learned some of the poems by heart.

I have a little shadow
that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him
is more than I can see.

Perhaps I recognized, even then, Stevenson's unique gift for keeping a foot in two camps. While the poems vividly captured my childish concerns, somewhere in the margins shimmered the mystery of adult life. A few years later Kidnapped was the first chapter book I read, and I can still picture the maroon binding and the black-and-white drawings that illustrated David Balfour's adventures. At the age of seven, a book without pictures would have been out of the question, but, in fact, they turned out to be superfluous. I could imagine everything that happened just from the words on the page, although I must admit to the small advantage that the view from my bedroom window--bare hills, rocks, heather--was very much like the landscape of Kidnapped.

At first glance such early acquaintance might seem like a good omen for an author's reputation. In actuality, that Stevenson is so widely read by children has tended to make him seem like an author from who, as adults, we have little to learn. It is worth noting that his contemporaries would not have shared this prejudice. Nineteenth-century readers did not regard children's books as separate species. Stevenson's own father often reread The Parent's Assistant, a volume of children's stories, and Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, writes of staying up late to finish Treasure Island.

Like the shadow of his poem, Stevenson's reputation has waxed and waned at an alarming rate. He died in a blaze of hagiography, which perhaps in part explains the fury of later critics. F.R. Leavis in The Great Tradition dismisses Stevenson (in a footnote, no less) as a romantic writer, guilty of fine writing, and in general Stevenson has not fared as well as his friend Henry James. People comment with amazement that Borges and Nabokov praised his novels. Still, his best work has remained in print for over a hundred years, and his is among that small group of authors to have given a phrase to the language: Jekyll and Hyde.

Besides our perception of Stevenson as a children's author, two other factors may have contributed to his ambiguous reputation. Although his list of publications is much longer than most people realize--he wrote journalism and travel pieces for money--he failed to produce a recognizable oeuvre, a group of works that stand together, each resonating with the others. In addition, the pendulum of literary taste has swung in a direction that Stevenson disliked and was determined to avoid: namely, pessimism. After reading The Portrait of a Lady he wrote to James begging him to write no more such books, and while he admired the early work of Thomas Hardy, he hated the darker Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The English writer John Galsworthy commented memorably on this aspect of Stevenson when he said that the superiority of Stevenson over Hardy was that Stevenson was all life, while Hardy was all death.


From the Trade Paperback edition.