Kidnapped

David Balfour leaves home with a letter of inheritance and enters an adventure of uncertain welcome and threatened liberty.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by Mark F. Smith. Press Listen in the reader to hear each chapter as you read.

Length: 31 chapters
Reading time: About 5 hr 35 min
Words: 79,747

About the book

With both parents dead, David takes leave of the village he knows and walks towards the House of Shaws. A minister's kindness and a sealed family message make his departure seem hopeful, although he has little knowledge of what awaits him.

Stevenson gives the adventure to David's own retrospective voice, combining youthful expectations with the precision of a remembered journey. The chapter titles promise roads, ships and dangerous meetings, while the opening makes trust a practical question for a young man dependent on strangers and relatives.

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Adventure

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Robert Louis Stevenson died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original dedication.