The Scottish novels

Tour great novels take us deep into Robert Louis Stevenson's imaginative and bittersweet relationship with his native country.Kidnapped, and its sequelCatriona, are renowned the world over as supreme stories of adventure and romance. On another level they also explore the subtle divisions of Scottish history and character in the 18th century, and (some would say) the present day. TheMaster of Ballantraetakes a darker and more disturbing turn, with its tale of rival brothers caught in a web of hatred, obsession, love, and betrayal which draws them to their end in the frozen wastes of North America. Stevenson's fascination with the divided nature of the human self (most obviously demonstrated inDr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) appears again in theWeir of Hermistonwith its terrible confrontation between a father and his son. With an unsurpassed combination of physical adventure and psychological insight,The Scottish Novelshave moved and thrilled readers and writers from Stevenson's contemporaries to the present day. Introduced by Jenni Calder and Roderick Watson.