David Balfour

The sequel to Kidnapped, written after an interval of six years, marks, as is pointed out in the chapter on the former work, a notable development of Stevenson's powers. In Kidnapped the Appin murder is a mere ghmpse ; in Catriona the story is deeply involved with the trial which followed it and with the personages which figured in this piece of the aftermath of the '45 in the Highlands. It is historical in a much larger measure and closer relation than the tale of which it is the continuation ; it depends so much less on the element of excitement, and so much more on its drawings of people, that the two scarcely make a homogeneous work.