This was an excellent book. The hero, David Balfour, is a Lowland Scottish lad whose father died and is being cared for by a Campbell priest, who he very much respects. He sets off in the world to find his uncle who lives at the House of Shores (I'm not sure that I spelled that right). When he asks questions about directions, people give him strange looks and act like he's crazy; when he finally knocks on the door of his uncle's mansion -- in the middle of the night -- his uncle appears out of the window and tells him he has a gun and asks gruffly what he wants. David tells him who he is and is invited in. He's surprised that someone who inherited such great fortune lives so poorly. His uncle tells him that his share of the family fortune is at the top of an old tower, and David goes up the stairs in the middle of the night to find the chest of money. He gropes his way up the steps until, when lightning lights up the stairway, he realizes that he has been tricked and the stairs are not finished. If he had not seen that they were unfinished, he would have fallen to his death. He dashes back down and accuses his uncle, who acts innocent all the way through. The next day, his uncle tells him that he's got business down at the shore and that he should come with him. David complies, and is introduced to the captain of a ship. They go aboard, as the captain is apparently his uncle's old friend, and the uncle, unbeknown to David, leaves in a rowboat. He is kidnapped.
The rest of the events of this book are many and quite exciting. They all speak in faint brogue, which is a bit hard to read at first, but you get used to it. David is a wonderful character who is very normal, which is always good for a book, in my opinion. It has a sequel called David Balfour: Part Two, which I started and didn't like because it's all about some girl he starts following around.
Anyway, it was a great book and I hope to read it again someday.
No comments:
Post a Comment