Kidnapped: Annotated

Robert Louis Stevenson began writing Kidnapped in March of 1885. In February, he had finished writing The Black Arrow and was working on The Great North Road when he read Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A month later, he put aside the The Great North Road and began writing Kidnapped. Shortly after, the project was laid aside while Stevenson focused on Jekyll and Hyde. He returned to Kidnapped in early 1886. During that year however, Stevenson had constantly thought of his character, David Balfour. In one of the letters Stevenson sent to his father, Stevenson wrote, "I am at David again, and have just murdered James Stewart semi-historically?"

The idea for the novel was partially claimed by Stevenson's wife, Fanny. Stevenson had considered writing a play entitled, The Hanging Judge, but had recently discarded the notion. His wife, however, decided to write the play herself. She was encouraged by her husband's offer to help her along the way. She chose to set the play in the period of 1700 but knew very little about this time. To aid her research, Fanny put in an order at a London Bookstore to send her anything that pertained to the Old Bailey trials. When the material arrived, she and her husband pored over it. They were both intrigued. Soon, books on other trials followed. One book ignited the flame in Stevenson that led to his creation of David Balfour, the plot of Kidnapped, and the sequel to follow. The fuel for these stories came from the statement: "The Trial of James Stewart in Aucharn in Duror of Appin For the Murder of Colin Campbell of Glenure, Esq., Factor for His Majesty on the forfeited Estate of Ardshiel."

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