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Reprint of the 1893 first edition, published in England under the title "Catriona". Hard cover, 8vo in vertically striped green cloth with an art deco style device to the front board blocked in gold, and the titles to the spine in gold, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, x, 406pp." David Balfour" is the sequel to the story begun in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1894's adventure novel, "Kidnapped." The historical novel takes place in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and around the environs of Edinburgh during the politically turbulent times of the late eighteenth century's Jacobite Rebellion. The newly landed laird, young David Balfour, has come south to plead the case for his supposed connection to a Jacobite plot, the Appin murder, which, in "Kidnapped" resulted in the death of the "Red Fox," Colin Roy. He meets with various kinsmen and the Lord Advocate Prestongrange, in an attempt to prosecute the innocence of his of his friends Alan Breck Stewart and James Stewart, but is told the Campbell clan is out for blood. Elements of the story were based on the real historical event of 1752 when Colin Campbell, the government factor of forfeited estates after the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden, was shot in the back at Loch Linne near Ballachulish, the so-called Appin Murder. A romantic subplot has David Balfour meet another highland woman, Catriona More (a part of the then-outlawed McGregor clan.) Politically interested parties conspire to arrange the capture of David Balfour, even as his friend Alan Breck Stewart makes a successful escape. Balfour is imprisoned on the bastion Bass Rock, off the coast of South Berwick, near Tantallon Castle. He manages to escape just in time to arrive in Inverarry to give his testimony at the trial of James Stewart. Meanwhile, the lovers travel to Leyden and Paris, where they eventually overcome misunderstandings and are happily married.**Coincidentally, the current lighthouse on Bass Rock, not built until 1903, was designed and built by David Stevenson, a relative of the Author Robert Louis Stevenson, whose family had been in the lighthouse engineering trade for several generations. RLS initially studied engineering at Edinburgh Univ. but his ill health was such that he was not able to participate in the family business. Six members of the Edinburgh Stevenson family built numerous lighthouses along the Scottish coast between 1790 and 1940. (See B. Bathurst, "The Lighthouse Stevensons ," Harper Collins, 1999.)
Ref: RLS 9270
$55.00