KIDNAPPED: being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751.
[London:] Cassell & Company, 1886. 1 page undated ads plus 16 pp ads dated July 1886 (final page of text also dated July 1886). Original red cloth.
First Edition, second issue. In mid-18th Century Scotland, 17-year-old David Balfour is cheated out of his inheritance by a greedy uncle, who has him kidnapped and shipped to the Carolinas; overcoming numerous challenges, Balfour manages to get back to Scotland to fight to regain his property and his name. Stevenson began KIDNAPPED early in 1885 "partly as a lark, partly as a pot-boiler" (according to himself); he finished it in Spring 1886, having interrupted it part way through to write DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. He had accepted Sidney Colvin's suggestion to cut short the novel and leave the rest for a sequel (which, titled DAVID BALFOUR in the U.S. and CATRIONA in the U.K., would come out in 1893).
This is a copy of the second issue (with "name his pleasure" on p. 40, "twelve o'clock" on p. 64, and "Long Island" on p. 101). It is in red cloth, one of several colors used without priority. Condition is very good-plus (minor fading and soil but very little wear, volume a little askew as usual); the frontispiece eight-panel foldout map is in fine shape. The first issue (same date, same binding, etc.) in this condition would cost several times this price. Beinecke 381; Princeton 31 (copies 6-8). Provenance: Doncaster Hall Gate School 1889 prize-label on the front paste-down. Item #15761
Price: $475.00