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The Master of Ballantrae

Robert Louis Stevenson

3.73 · Rating details · 5,526 ratings · 289 reviews

Set in Scotland during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, in the exotic French Indies, and in the North American wilderness, the story has as its hero one of the most compelling yet horrifying studies of evil in nineteenth-century fiction—James Durie, Master of Ballantrae. The Master is about his infective influence—on his younger, less attractive brother Henry; on Henry's wife ...more

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Paperback, 388 pages

Published (first published 1889)

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Books Set in Scotland

814 books — 619 voters

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Best Books of the Decade: 1880s

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Sep 12, 2012 GoldGato rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, winter, historical-fiction

Gosh, I love RLS. He was the man. Adventure, intrigue, travel, romance, gothic suspense...gosh I love RLS. He would have made a terrific screenwriter during cinema's golden age, all swash and buckle. This ripping yarn just doesn't let you leave. You may pretend you're working or gardening or conversing with others during your everyday boring life, but really, you're just thinking about the Brothers Durie. Which one is really good and which one is really evil?

This specific edition is from 1968 (p ...more

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Apr 15, 2017 Issicratea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1800-1900, reviewed

I approached my rereading of The Master of Ballantrae with some trepidation. It was a book I adored when I was very young, and it’s always a risky business revisiting bookish old flames (like old flames of any kind.)

I’m pleased to report that the novel stood up to revisitation quite triumphantly. I have a better knowledge of the literary context now, and I enjoyed picking up on the echoes of James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (use of invented documents and mem I approached my rereading of The Master of Ballantrae with some trepidation. It was a book I adored when I was very young, and it’s always a risky business revisiting bookish old flames (like old flames of any kind.)

I’m pleased to report that the novel stood up to revisitation quite triumphantly. I have a better knowledge of the literary context now, and I enjoyed picking up on the echoes of James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (use of invented documents and memoirs as a narrative means; doomed pairing of contrasted brothers; theme of destiny vs free will; motifs of a night duel and an uncanny exhumation.) There are also echoes of Stevenson’s own Jekyll and Hyde, written three years earlier, to the extent that the two Durie brothers, the devilish, mercurial James and the stolid, brooding Henry can seem unhappily yoked parts of a single, conflicted whole (perhaps, in a Scott-like way, representative of Scotland’s divided identity: the novel is set in the aftermath of the ’45 uprising, in which James Durie fights and is initially thought lost.)

The plot of the novel is highly melodramatic and exotic, in the spirit of romance. In addition to Ballantrae, on the south-west coast of Scotland, its settings include a primitive, traders’ New York, and the wilderness of the Adirondacks, where the dramatic last chapters of the novel take place (and where Stevenson first conceived of the novel, in a stay in an experimental tuberculosis sanatorium in 1887.) The characters include a highly “orientalised” Hindu retainer, Secundra Dass, and the novel finds time for a small but perfectly formed Caribbean pirate narrative, told in an inset narrative by the rollicking Irish soldier of fortune Chevalier Francis Burke.

All this riot of color is kept expertly under control, throughout most of the novel, by the dry, methodical prose of the chief narrator, the steward Ephraim Mackellar, through whose unreliably partisan eyes we see most of the events of the novel. For long stretches, in between the action scenes, the novel is a kind of chamber piece, charting the changing relationships between a tight family knot of characters: the brothers, Henry and James (the Master of the title); their father, the old laird, unwitting cause of their rivalry through his favoritism; Allison Graeme, their cousin, who loves James and married Henry; and Mackellar himself.

Although our attention is directed principally towards the depicted characters, the romantic, doomed Durie family, Mackellar himself is pivotal to the effect of the novel. Despite the prissy, old maidish elements in his characterization, he is far from lacking in passion, as his fierce devotion to the put-upon Henry Durie shows. Nor is he quite secure from the Master’s demonic seductions, however clearly he sees through his Byronic performances. One of the most interesting and destabilizing passages in the novel, set significantly on a ship heading across the Atlantic, sees our trusty narrator half-beginning to fall prey, despite himself, to the Master’s charms.

After a long time of being consigned to the dusty dressing-up box of the “adventure novel,” I have a sense that Stevenson is now taken much more seriously by literary criticism, as a forerunner of modernism, or post-modernism. I think that’s right—although it doesn’t stop his novels from being immensely enjoyable on a straight, adventure-novel level, as my adolescent self can attest.

I’ve also always loved Stevenson as a stylist. I came to this novel after Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, with its placid, leisurely prose, and I found his terseness quite thrilling by contrast. Stevenson has the meta-narrator figure in his preface—the man who publishes the found manuscript of Mackellar—refuse to embellish the style, on the grounds that “there is nothing so noble as baldness.” It’s typical of Stevenson’s sprezzatura to frame a stylistic manifesto in such a nobly bald way.

...more

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Feb 11, 2018 Cphe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, romance, classic, guardian-boxall-2018, historical, obsession, angst, historical-romance, mystery, scotland

Read this many many years ago but I enjoyed Master of Ballantrae so much more with this second reading. Robert Louis Stevenson could spin an entertaining tale.

This novel has something for all readers. A sweeping tale of sibling rivalry, adventure, derring do, romance, greed and mystery. The story unfolds over many years and takes place in Scotland and the American wilderness.

The classic tale of the brothers Durie, narrated through the eyes of their stalwart Steward Ephraim Mackellar.

Read this a ...more

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Dec 13, 2014 GoldGato rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, winter, historical-fiction

Christmas came early this year! A whole set of uncut Robert Louis Stevenson books. RLS! This is better than coffee ice cream, meat pies, and pecan rolls. Shazam!

I have already reviewed the story itself here, so I will use this review for the actual physical book. As we increasingly turn to e-books in the current century, it is always a pleasure to hold a book which was made when printing presses were considered to be state-of-the-art and most folks couldn't even afford a book, let alone a set.

Th ...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Laura by: Bettie, Wanda

Shelves: e-books, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, adventure, fiction-19th-century, british-literature, mtbr-challenge-2014, read-2014, books-on-books, hf-scotland

Free download available at eBooks@Adelaide.

This book is being discussed by the 19th Century Literature Yahoo Group.

This is the story of two brothers set during & after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, often referred to as "the Forty-five", in Scotland, India & America.

An incident in the rebellion of 1746, by David Morier

The narrator of this book is done by Mackellar, the loyal steward to the Durie of Durisdeer family, which consists of an old lord and this two sons - James, the Master of Ballantr ...more

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Jun 22, 2014 mark monday marked it as on-the-shelf

I just watched the wonderful 50s adaptation of this, starring a debonair but slightly long in the tooth Errol Flynn. awesome action! awesome Technicolor! if the book is half as fun, I need to read it soon. so fast-paced and full of surprises. plus a new favorite character: the French pirate, an effete dandy and killer, with a badass scar on his face to provide a nice contrast to his stylish outfits... so dreamy. and now I'm wondering if Black Sails was renewed for a second season. I sure hope so ...more

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May 31, 2020 Terry rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, swashbuckler

This story of two brothers and an enmity that destroys their family is a great tale. Somewhat gothic, a little swashbuckling, and definitely tragic this is my favourite tale by RLS so far. The plot is more or less straightforward, but Stevenson spices it up a bit by mixing in a few points of view, thus introducing varying levels of unreliability in the narrators. Our main tale teller is the somewhat school-marmish Ephraim Mackellar, the major domo and factotum of Henry Durie, younger (and less f This story of two brothers and an enmity that destroys their family is a great tale. Somewhat gothic, a little swashbuckling, and definitely tragic this is my favourite tale by RLS so far. The plot is more or less straightforward, but Stevenson spices it up a bit by mixing in a few points of view, thus introducing varying levels of unreliability in the narrators. Our main tale teller is the somewhat school-marmish Ephraim Mackellar, the major domo and factotum of Henry Durie, younger (and less favoured) son of the Lord of Durrisdeer in Scotland. The elder son, the charismatic and dissolute adventurer James (the titular ‘Master of Ballantrae’, or Mr. Bally as he is often later called) decides to spurn his father, brother, and fiancée in order to go off and fight for Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 1745 rebellion, leaving his younger brother to be the ‘loyalist’ son who manages the estate. As the rebellion crumbles and the elder son is presumed dead, the staid younger brother is left to inherit the title, and his elder brother’s fiancée, living forever in the shadow of his ‘heroic’ elder brother, and more or less spurned by his family and tenants with only the loyal Mackellar to act as ally and friend.

Of course it turns out that tales of the elder Durie’s death were somewhat exaggerated and years later he walks into the midst of an already strained family like a ticking timebomb of resentment, scorn, and trouble. All seem to favour the dissipated elder son who plays the affable friend and hard done by hero in the presence of his father and former fiancée (now his sister-in-law), but acts as a merciless scourge to his brother when they are alone. Only Mackellar witnesses this double nature of the Master and it leaves the long-suffering, and somewhat dull-witted Henry at his wit’s end (not a great distance for him really).

We learn about the Master’s somewhat dubious adventures with pirates through the writings of Colonel Francis Burke, a former compatriot of his during both the rebellion and their subsequent exile, which he sends to Mackellar long after the events of the book proper have ended and which become a part of the narrative he pieces together to commemorate the feud that defined his life and the fall of the family he served . The picture painted of the Master by the pens of both Mackellar and Burke is not exactly complimentary, but one cannot deny that the man has style, cunning, and a certain rash appeal for all of his many failings. Things come to a head for the brothers in a spectacular, and somewhat unexpected, event that leads to the Master once again disappearing and Henry somewhat regaining his place in the eyes of his family. The story continues with more twists and turns as the Master’s adventures off-stage are again given a shadowy outline by Burke’s pen and on his next return to the family estate he is subject to an unexpected maneuver by his brother and his family that leads them to the final stages of their fraternal enmity which are played out to their tragic end in the New World under the eyes of Mackellar.

The plot was definitely entertaining, and well-told, but I think the characters are what made the book. Mackellar and the Master get center stage with the former, for all his dweebishness and watery puritan sensibilities, being an affable narrator probably most admirable not only for his loyalty to his master Henry, but for his surprising ability to appreciate the allure of the rakish Master of Ballantrae. Or perhaps he is just showing his own human weakness for the intriguing Byronic villain who seems equal parts Milton’s Satan and 18th century dandy. Admittedly the younger brother Henry doesn’t quite come up to these two characters, seeming little more than a foil to first his brother and then his own rash pride and self-satisfaction, but he plays his part of the story well. It may not have giants, or true love, but the story has almost everything else: fencing, fighting, (psychological) torture, revenge, monsters (of self-love), chases, escapes, and (apparent) miracles! Definitely a recommended read! ...more

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Sep 11, 2014 Wanda rated it really liked it

Recommended to Wanda by: Cheryl, Dagny, and Karen

Shelves: project-gutenberg, 2014, 19th-century-literature, google-play-books

11 SEP 2014 -- lovely cover.

Background info for the Rising of '45 --
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobi...

13 SEP 2014 -- Jacob is Esau and Esau is Jacob. Interesting play on the Biblical story.

15 SEP 2014 -- this is definitely more than a boys' adventure tale. Except for the difficult (for me, at least) written brogue, I am enjoying this novel. Of course, I already do not like the Master one single bit.

16 SEP 2014 -- today, I discovered the new depths of evil the Master is capable of reachi ...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Bob rated it really liked it

There are certain corners of the high-brow literary establishment - perhaps it's the London Review of Books? - where one is often reminded that R.L. Stevenson has a complex reputation; a bit more than a writer of boys' own adventure stories - perhaps Jules Verne merits the same treatment and is analogous.
In any event, I picked this up on whim when I stumbled into Dumbo's P.S. Books, for the slightly silly reason that they didn't have anything I was really looking for but I like the people that w ...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Bettie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, historical-fiction, revenge, britain-scotland, victorian, seven-seas, adventure, war, hardback, published-1889

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 22, 2017 Leah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, classics, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, scottish-fiction

Brotherly love?

When Bonnie Prince Charlie arrives in Scotland in 1745 to reclaim the lost Stuart crown, the Durie family of Durrisdeer must decide where their loyalties lie. If they make the wrong choice, they could lose everything, but pick the winning side and their future is secure. The old Laird has two sons. Jamie, the eldest, known as the Master of Ballantrae, is attractive and popular but evil, while Henry, the younger, is dull but good. The family decides one son should join Charlie's re Brotherly love?

When Bonnie Prince Charlie arrives in Scotland in 1745 to reclaim the lost Stuart crown, the Durie family of Durrisdeer must decide where their loyalties lie. If they make the wrong choice, they could lose everything, but pick the winning side and their future is secure. The old Laird has two sons. Jamie, the eldest, known as the Master of Ballantrae, is attractive and popular but evil, while Henry, the younger, is dull but good. The family decides one son should join Charlie's rebellion while the other should declare loyalty to the Hanoverian King George II, a kind of hedging of bets in which many noble families would indulge (so says Stevenson, and I have no reason to doubt him). By rights, as the younger, Henry should have joined the rising, but the Master thinks this is the more exciting option so claims it for himself. When the rising fails, word reaches Durrisdeer that Jamie died in battle. Henry gains the estate but is vilified by the townspeople for, as rumour has it, betraying his more popular brother, while his father and Alison, the woman he is to marry, make no secret that they loved Jamie best and mourn his loss extravagantly. So things are bad for Henry... but they're going to get worse when news arrives that Jamie didn't die after all...

I freely admit I thought this was going to be a story about the Jacobite rebellion, but it isn't. The enmity between the brothers had begun before long before the rising, and although it is used to set up the conditions for further strife between them, in fact it's a minor strand in the book. This is actually a story of two opposing characters and their lifelong struggle against each other. It's told by Ephraim Mackellar, steward to the estate of Durrisdeer and loyal supporter of Henry, who was present for many of the main events and has gathered the rest of the story from witnesses and participants. It will involve duels, smugglers and plots, love and hate, loyalty and betrayal; it will take us aboard a pirate ship and all the way across the Atlantic to the little town of New York in the far away American colonies. And it will end with a terrifying journey through the wilds of (Native American) Indian country on a quest for treasure!

It would be possible to read this, perhaps, as some kind of allegory for the Scotland of the time, divided in loyalty between the deposed Stuarts and the reigning Hanoverians, but I don't think that can be taken too far since neither brother seems actively to care who wins, nor to be loyal to anything or anybody very much, so long as they come out of it with their lands and position intact. The things that divide them are personal, not political. There's also a kind of variant on the Jekyll and Hyde theme going on – the two brothers opposite in everything, one tediously decent, the other excitingly bad.

However as we get to know the brothers over the long years covered by the story, we see that the contrasts between them are not as glaring as they first appear. The same flaws and weaknesses run through all members of this doomed family (not a spoiler – we're told they're doomed from the very beginning) – they just show themselves in different ways. Poor Mackellar – while his loyalty to Henry never fails him, as time goes on he becomes a solitary and unregarded voice of reason in the middle of their feud, and grows to see that, to coin a phrase, there are faults on both sides.

Stevenson always writes adventure brilliantly and there are some great action scenes in the book, many of them with more than an edge of creepiness and horror. But there's much more to this one than simply that. The characterisation is the important thing, of the brothers certainly as the central figures in this drama, but equally of the other players – the old Laird, Alison and not least, Mackellar himself. Stevenson does an excellent job of showing how the various experiences they undergo change each of them – some becoming stronger, better people, others giving way to weakness and cruelty. I admit none of them are particularly likeable, (though despite myself I developed a soft spot for poor, pompous, self-righteous Mackellar – he had a lot to contend with, poor man), but they're so well drawn that I was fully invested in their fates anyway.

Each of the settings is done brilliantly, from the life of a middle-ranking Laird of this period to the growing settlements in the New World. The pirate episode is especially good, as is the later voyage to America – Stevenson always seems to excel once he gets his characters out on the ocean wave. There are dark deeds a-plenty and not a little gore, but there's also occasional humour to give a bit of light amidst the bleakness. There's a lot of foreshadowing of doom, and a couple of times Mackellar tells us in advance what's going to happen, but nevertheless the story held my interest throughout and the ending still managed to surprise and shock me. Though the adventure side means it could easily be enjoyed by older children, it seems to me this has rather more adult themes than Treasure Island or Kidnapped, in the sense that the good and evil debate is muddier and more complex, and rooted in the development of the characters rather than in the events – again, the comparison to Jekyll and Hyde would be closer. Oh, and there's very little Scottish dialect in it, so perfectly accessible to non-Scots readers. Another excellent one from Stevenson's hugely talented pen, fully deserving of its status as a classic, and highly recommended!

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com ...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson is a romance in the old style--full of adventure and the heroic theme of the struggle between good and evil. It is the story of two brothers--one the favorite of his father, but somewhat a black sheep, and the other the faithful, loyal son who always does his best for the family, no matter the cost to himself. The time period is that of the Jacobite Rebellion. It served families at the time who could to back their bets both ways. The Durie famil The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson is a romance in the old style--full of adventure and the heroic theme of the struggle between good and evil. It is the story of two brothers--one the favorite of his father, but somewhat a black sheep, and the other the faithful, loyal son who always does his best for the family, no matter the cost to himself. The time period is that of the Jacobite Rebellion. It served families at the time who could to back their bets both ways. The Durie family is no different. It is decided that one son will go and fight for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the other will stay home and loyal to King George II. Henry, the younger and less favored son, volunteers to go and his father his willing to let him and protect his favorite--but James, the Master of Ballantrae, will have none of it. It appeals to his restless, reckless spirit to go and fight and seek what adventures he may. So he demands they spin a coin for it--and he "wins" and takes himself off to battle.

As history notes, the fight does not go well for Prince Charlie and the news reaches Durisdeer, the family castle, of the death of James. The title is passed on to Henry and he marries his brother's intended as well. The household settles down to an uneasy existence....the father and daughter-in-law spend much time comforting each other for the loss of James and Henry, loyal and hard-working as ever, is neglected and even ignored. Then the terrible adventures begin...for the Master of Ballantrae is not dead and is unwilling to leave his family to their uneasy peace.

This is really a good story. Unfortunately, it is not nearly as well-told as Treasure Island or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There are lots of romantic adventures--pirates and treasure and the walking of planks; ramblings in the wilderness surrounding New York; the burying of treasure; near-misses with Indians (of the New World); travels in India; and an honest-to-goodness duel with swords. There is lots of atmosphere--gothic and guilt-ridden. There is the classic struggle between good and evil. But Stevenson makes rather too much of a good thing. Instead of the clear narration of Jekyll and Hyde, we have lots of ponderous descriptions and drawn-out story-telling by second and third narrators. I found myself skimming some of those bits--and losing nothing of the story, I might add. In the Master of Ballantrae, Stevenson had an evil villain who comes just shy of the pure villainy of Hyde. He could have done so much more with that. But it is, as another Goodreads reviewer mentioned, as if Stevenson were pouring on the literary, highbrow method of storytelling to impress Sir Percy Florence and Lady Shelley--to whom the story was dedicated. A more simple, straight-forward narration would have served him better. Two and a half stars...edging on three. ...more

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Dec 19, 2016 Nicola rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

3 1/2 Stars

This often tense physiological tale about the nature of good and evil is done in a surprisingly subtle and convincing way.

The two opposing brothers, one 'good' the other 'bad' are opponents from early manhood due to the (as we see it) unremitting villainy of one brother towards the other. The young son, while kind of heart, is not appreciated by either his family or those around him. He lacks his older brothers charm of manner although his principles are held out to be much better th ...more

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Jul 14, 2018 Chris Purser rated it liked it

not his best but a good story.

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Oct 29, 2020 George rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-list-read-2006

3.5 stars. An engaging, dark, tragic adventure tale about James and Henry Durie. The rival brothers are caught in a web of hatred, obsession, love and betrayal. James, the Master of Ballantrae, is involved in the tragedy of Culloden and word gets back to the Durie family that James is dead. Henry takes over the house of Durrisdeer and marries Alison, who previously had been James’s intended marriage partner. Things get complicated when it is discovered some three years later that James is alive. ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 Summer added it · review of another edition

Shelves: victorian-classics

I hesitate to rate this. I don't know what happened, but I was just severely uninterested in this. It could've very well been a mood thing. I don't know if I couldn't connect with the writing style, but I only just had a vague idea of what happened in each chapter. It was interesting to see the Esau/Jacob dynamic, but I think I had the expectation of learning a little bit about the Jacobite revolution and history behind it and that's not really what I got. I might try to read this again someday, ...more

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Dec 01, 2017 Sylvester rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, classic, favorites, audio-book

I wasn't expecting this, but in retrospect, Stevenson did write "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", that should have been some indication. Stevenson excels at character examination, and this novel is just that. (I was thinking that with the right cast, it would make a fantastic movie. I know about the 1953 movie, but I mean now - a modern version. Kind of a combination of American Psycho and The Revenant.) So, what happens when there's a psychopath in the family? ...more

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Feb 17, 2008 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone!

Shelves: classics, adventure, 2008, 18th-century

After a couple of dud books that I had been looking forward to, I was really relieved when I picked this one up and was hooked almost from the first page. Maybe it helped that I skipped the long introduction and got right into the story.

This is a retelling of the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau set during the 1745 Jacobite Revolution. Two Scottish brothers, James and Henry Durie, reprise the roles of those scriptural brothers and the conflict could not be more exciting. After a coin toss, James ...more

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May 22, 2010 Surreysmum rated it liked it

Shelves: classics-british, 1983, gothic

[These notes were made in 1983; I read a 1925 edition:]. There's a certain amount of good, clean picaresque fun in this book. But it is overshadowed by a gloomy attempt at psychological characterization - of a man embittered by the monstrous behaviour of a quasi-Gothic brother (said brother does a brief but rather effective resurrection act at the very melodramatic close of the book). A struggle here, once again, I think, between the symbolic and typic tendencies of melodrama/romance, and the "r ...more

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Oct 02, 2014 Carol Storm rated it it was amazing

I read this as a teenager because the movie version with Errol Flynn really rocked! But the book is much darker and more psychological. Jamie Durie and his brother Henry have a tortured relationship that's truly haunting.

It's less TREASURE ISLAND and more DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE! ...more

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Dec 15, 2018 Brian rated it liked it

The final book in the Robert Louis Stevenson collection that I got from my brother-in-law for Christmas several years ago. (Well this was actually second to last, but I skipped ahead to read David Balfour right after Kidnapped, so I should say it was the last one left for me to read). This story was pretty good, and it ended really strong, but there were chunks that felt a bit laborious and hard to get through.
Some of the difficulty came from the narrator himself, especially when he interrupted The final book in the Robert Louis Stevenson collection that I got from my brother-in-law for Christmas several years ago. (Well this was actually second to last, but I skipped ahead to read David Balfour right after Kidnapped, so I should say it was the last one left for me to read). This story was pretty good, and it ended really strong, but there were chunks that felt a bit laborious and hard to get through.
Some of the difficulty came from the narrator himself, especially when he interrupted the flow to make some declaration about why he's telling the story a certain way. I liked him as a character, but not as much as a narrator if that makes any sense. Altogether the narrative structure was interesting and convincing that it could have arisen through the given means rather than be an entire work of fiction.
Once again I feel like some elements of the story assume that the reader is familiar with the Jacobite Uprising and some of the associated politics. My casual familiarity from having read (and doing some background research about) some of the other books saw me through well enough, but I think I would have appreciated it more if I had done a little more research to refresh and maybe deepen my understanding of that chapter in history before picking this one up.
For me, the last part of the book was worth slogging through the slower parts. Looking back, I would say that started about four or five chapters from the end, and just got better the closer it got, right up to the final words of the book, which I think made the perfect ending and left quite an impact, almost like the final words of a really pointed and focused poem.
If I were to rank this one, I would put it above Prince Otto and David Balfour, but below Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Black Arrow, and Jekyll & Hyde. On reflection, I would say that there were lots of parallels between this one and J&H, including themes and the efforts to make a convincing story for how the narrative itself came to be. I'm a little fuzzy on the finer points of that story, so it might be time to revisit it... ...more

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Jul 12, 2019 The Mustache Louie Matos rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-books, read-2019, author-r-l-stevenson, historical

This is the second time I read the Master of Ballantrae and I remembered not loving it the first time around; however, as we mature, things change. I am not disappointed that I read this novel. In fact, I’m quite happy at rediscovering this gem that I hope to revisit sometime in the future, including it in my best books alongside Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde., and Treasure Island. The story is about two brothers. James is restless and charismatic; whereas Henry is staid and sober. James goes off to w ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Adelaide Mcginnity rated it did not like it

Considering how much action happens over the course of relatively few pages, it is truly a feat of literary incompetence that The Master of Ballantrae seems to plod along at such an excruciatingly tedious pace. The culprit here is obvious: the manner of framing the narrative is way too complex for the story's own good, and often results in the narrative losing forward momentum on mundane repetition while the main action happens only in passing.

Complex narrative structures, particularly for stor ...more

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Nov 04, 2019 Rebeca Pacheco added it

The master of Ballantrae
Last week the teacher gave us a book to read in class. We finished the book today and I am going to say that is very boring. I do not think that this book was written for young people.
The book was written in Scotland in 1745. I was expecting so much from it because the images were so interesting. Despite not liking the book, I like the part when the brothers die, because they tried to save James' wife.
The reason the characters of the book were the best part is because the ...more

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Nov 04, 2019 Marco Vinicio added it

The Master of Bellantrae
Two months ago, I started reading the book "The Master of Bellantrae" which is a book that talks about Scotland in 1745. This year many people fought to put a Scottish king on the British throne. I expected it to be more interesting but it was not. I must admit, the book can be very popular around the world.
The best point about this book are the plot and the places where the story takes place. The places are very interesting because they always change but it is a notoriou ...more

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Nov 04, 2019 Max Tapia added it

A week ago, I was very lucky to be invited by teacher Andrea to read Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, “The Mastre of Ballantrae”. The book is set in an imaginary situation in the year 1745, and fiction is beautifully mixed with the story of the book. I was not expecting too much from it because I hate reading and the unpopularity with the general public of this writer’s book.

The best points about the film are the characters and the end. On the one hand, the main characters show amusing aspects of ...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Jean-françois Baillon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have to admit that it took me quite a while before I was able to go past the first page of this daunting masterpiece. I had to try a few times before I could actually get the hang of Stevenson's austere introduction to a world of deceit and darkness, not unlike his easier texts in many ways but of a less seductive appearance. The language spoken by the narrator as well as the characters is probably part of my difficulty: this is a world the reader enters without any guarantee that any rewards ...more

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Jan 26, 2019 Charlene rated it liked it · review of another edition

An intriguing story, but I felt the execution of the narrative was choppy at times. It didn't flow as naturally as his other works. Still, the characters certainly grabbed and tugged at the emotions and I really wanted to see justice come for poor Henry. This felt like a psychological study and I think the Master is one of the best literary villains I've seen. Complex, elegant, ruthless, yet human all the same, in all its grime and glory. ...more

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Apr 18, 2019 Ian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

A tale of two Scotties: or rather, feuding brothers after one joins Bonnie Prince Charlie's uprising in '45, and when presumed dead the younger brother marries his sweetheart. Pitting selfishness and evil not against angelic perfection but decent human morality, the action leaps to America, France and India, but no good comes to either of the Durie brothers. Surprisingly gripping, Stevenson spins his tale through the voice of a trusted family retainer. ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 Marysia Suchcitz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Conflict, history, moral ambiguity, adventure, psychology and treachery - The Master of Ballantrae brings together so many of RL Stevenson's other novels and places them within a narrative which uses juxtapositions, parallels and contrasts in order to present the relationships between the novel's characters.
This story is about more than just good and evil, instead it dives into the complexity of family fueds and sibling rivalry, between two brothers who are at the same time very different yet a ...more

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Reading 1001: Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson	1	8	Jul 18, 2018 09:48PM

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About Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

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Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is onl ...more

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“It is one of the worst things of sentiment that the voice grows to be more important than the words, and the speaker than that what is spoken.” — 13 likes

“He was in that humour when a man will cut off his nose to spite his face” — 11 likes

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