Published in 1886, the same year as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped is one of Stevenson's most enduringly popular novels. At its center is a historical event: the murder of Colin Campbell, the "Red Fox" of Glenure in Scotland. David Balfour, whose father dies leaving him with nothing to live on, goes to live with a cruel and miserly uncle. The uncle attempts to have the boy killed and then has him kidnapped and taken to sea. The ship is wrecked, and the novel follows David and and his friend Alan as they journey across the Highlands through numerous dangers including witnessing and becoming suspects in the murder of the Red Fox.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13, 1850. Although he was expected to pursue his father's career as an engineer, he became a lawyer. He attended Edinburgh University, where he also declared himself agnostic. Robert suffered from tuberculosis, and during his trip to France he wrote An Inland Voyage (1879). Luis met Fanny Osbourne, an American, and married her in 1880 in California. During his extensive travels to find favorable climate, he wrote numerous essays, poems, and romances. He overcame his illness in the Marquesas Islands in 1888. He died on the island of Samoa on Dec 3, 1894, where he had settled in 1890.