KIDNAPPED by Stevenson, Robert Louis - 1886

1886. 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 Apr 1886. Original terra-cotta cloth. First Edition, first 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; with 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 he did, with DAVID BALFOUR / CATRIONA, in 1893). This is a copy of the first issue (with "name his business" on p. 40, "nine o'clock" on p. 64, and "Long Islands" on p. 101). The ads also are in the first (April) state (some first-issue copies have the July ads that are present in the second issue). This copy's color is terra-cotta, one of several used without priority. This is a good-to-very good copy, with the spine gilt quite dull and the volume (as usual) a bit askew; the original endpapers are cracked, but the foldout map is atypically in fine shape. Beinecke 378; Princeton 31 (copies 1-4).