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A review by booksarebetter
The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
3.0
I first read Kidnapped many years ago, back when I was maybe fourteen. I've read most of the classics at that age, my grandparents having nice hardback editions of the books sitting on oak shelves (I presume they were oak-what would I know being fourteen?) I breezed through Kidnapped, the Count of Monte Cristo, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many many more. But I never read past Kidnapped by RLS, mostly because I had no idea that other of his works existed at the time. I have not only Kidnapped on my shelf but now I also have The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae.
This book was a good read though definitely dated. I have a reprint of the book, and it's a Watermill edition as I'm attempting to collect all of them. While I did so enjoy this lovely little classic, I also found a few issues here and there. The writing took a bit to get into, as classics generally seem to do. For example:
...I left Ruthven (it's hardly necessary to remark) with much greater satisfaction than I had come to it; but whether I missed my way in the deserts, or whether my companions failed me, I soon found myself alone.
After a while that gets rather annoying in terms of run on sentences. Though I grew used to it, it took a while for me to do so and made want to throw the book across the room. I found the characters annoyingly whiny for some of them and for others I just couldn't care less about their plights as they seemed to make poor decisions for everything. The rebellion was interesting however, and I enjoyed the bit of action towards the latter part of the book.
The plot itself was described on the back as two brothers choosing different sides of a war, all to keep their family home in their hands. I won't spoil the book and tell you what happened, that's for you to do.
Overall I give this a solid 3 ⭐. Not bad, and a fairly quick read, but nothing at all like Kidnapped.
This book was a good read though definitely dated. I have a reprint of the book, and it's a Watermill edition as I'm attempting to collect all of them. While I did so enjoy this lovely little classic, I also found a few issues here and there. The writing took a bit to get into, as classics generally seem to do. For example:
...I left Ruthven (it's hardly necessary to remark) with much greater satisfaction than I had come to it; but whether I missed my way in the deserts, or whether my companions failed me, I soon found myself alone.
After a while that gets rather annoying in terms of run on sentences. Though I grew used to it, it took a while for me to do so and made want to throw the book across the room. I found the characters annoyingly whiny for some of them and for others I just couldn't care less about their plights as they seemed to make poor decisions for everything. The rebellion was interesting however, and I enjoyed the bit of action towards the latter part of the book.
The plot itself was described on the back as two brothers choosing different sides of a war, all to keep their family home in their hands. I won't spoil the book and tell you what happened, that's for you to do.
Overall I give this a solid 3 ⭐. Not bad, and a fairly quick read, but nothing at all like Kidnapped.