Helpful Score: 1
Robert Louis Stevenson is one of those authors that I read when I was young. My father gave me a copy of TREASURE ISLAND for Christmas when I was 10 years old and I always considered it one of my favorites. I've also read DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, THE BLACK ARROW, and KIDNAPPED and enjoyed them for the most part.
THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE focuses upon the conflict between two brothers, Scottish noblemen whose family is torn apart by the Jacobite rising of 1745. Like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, it is a tale of adventure and includes instances of piracy including walking the plank, travels to India, and buried treasure in America's wilderness of upper New York. But the heart of the novel is about the conflict between James, the Master of Ballantrae, and his brother Henry over their ancestral seat in Scotland. It's a tale of good vs. evil and can be related back to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where the conflict of good vs. evil is enacted through the two brothers rather within one individual.
Overall, I found this novel to be rather slow going. The narration is very wordy and although it contains the elements of a good adventure story, Stevenson spends too much time with drawn-out ponderous descriptions during the parts of the story that occur at the home of the protagonists. The language used was also very archaic with many words that are little-used today. I mainly read this one because it is on the list of 1001 books you must read before you die but I probably could have lived without reading it!
THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE focuses upon the conflict between two brothers, Scottish noblemen whose family is torn apart by the Jacobite rising of 1745. Like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, it is a tale of adventure and includes instances of piracy including walking the plank, travels to India, and buried treasure in America's wilderness of upper New York. But the heart of the novel is about the conflict between James, the Master of Ballantrae, and his brother Henry over their ancestral seat in Scotland. It's a tale of good vs. evil and can be related back to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where the conflict of good vs. evil is enacted through the two brothers rather within one individual.
Overall, I found this novel to be rather slow going. The narration is very wordy and although it contains the elements of a good adventure story, Stevenson spends too much time with drawn-out ponderous descriptions during the parts of the story that occur at the home of the protagonists. The language used was also very archaic with many words that are little-used today. I mainly read this one because it is on the list of 1001 books you must read before you die but I probably could have lived without reading it!
