The Master of Ballantrae
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Stevenson's eerie historical novel unfolds against the backdrop of a ghostly beautiful Scottish landscape, amid the fierce loyalty and relentless hostility that characterizes Scottish history, while showcasing its most enduring theme – the spontaneous struggle between good and evil. When two brothers try to split their loyalties between the warring factions of the Jacobite uprising of 1745, a family is tragically divided. Stevenson's highly vivid features create a touching, psychologically complex work; As Andrea Barrett notes in Introduction, "The characters of the brothers shape the drama, not the historical facts."
