Kidnapped | Literary Precedents

Kidnapped Literary Precedents

The bildungsroman, a genre of novel about the development from youth and innocence to age and experience has an old tradition in world literature. While Stevenson probably did not have such an intention in mind, Kidnapped does bear a thematic resemblance to Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-1796), Dickens's David Copperfield (1849-1850) and Great Expectations (1860-1861), and Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). The tradition has been followed by many authors in later years also. The novels of Sir Walter Scott offer numerous tales of young men learning about life and experiencing lively adventures.