Kidnapped (english)

Kidnapped
The central character and narrator is a young man named David Balfour (Balfour being Stevenson's mother's maiden name), callow but resourceful, whose parents have recently died and who is out to make his way in the world. He is given a letter by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, to be delivered to the ominous House of Shaws in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives. On his journey, David enquires to many people where the House of Shaws is, and all of them speak of it darkly as a place of fear and evil.