Kidnapped and Catriona

In Kidnapped (1886) and later fiction such as The Master of Ballantrae (1888), Stevenson examined some of the extreme and contrary currents of Scotland's past, often projecting a dualism of both personality and belief. This dualism is most famous in Kidnapped, whose two central characters are David Balfour, a Lowland Whig, and Alan Breck Stewart, a Highland Jacobite. The novel revolves around their friendship and their differences, suggesting a metaphor for Scotland itself. Stevenson wrote the sequel Catriona with the title David Balfour, but during serialization in England the public became confused, thinking it might be a reprint of Kidnapped. At publisher Cassell's request, the title was changed to Catriona, after Balfour's daughter.