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regshoeI think it was the introduction to my copy of Kidnapped that pointed out that one of RLS's favourite themes, and the reason why Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are not quite as unalike as contemporary reviewers thought they were, is duality: two people who seem in some ways completely different and significantly opposed, but who actually have a lot in common, depend on each other, and ultimately form two sides of the same coin (as the slash dragon from BBC Merlin might have put it). Kidnapped is the relatively happy and fluffy (though not without depth) version of this, Jekyll and Hyde the seriously dark and twisted version. The Master of Ballantrae (1889), besides being RLS's other Jacobite novel, is another and an intriguing development of this theme.
The story is about the Duries of Durrisdeer and Ballantrae, an old family whose lands lie near the Solway Firth. The Lord Durrisdeer at the time of the '45 is an old man with two sons: James, the eldest—the Master of Ballantrae is the courtesy title given to the heir—and a rebellious bad boy who spends his time drinking, gambling, getting into fights, &c. &c.; and Henry, the younger, a dutiful and honest son. The family are prudent Jacobites: obviously one of them should go and fight for Prince Charlie and the other should stay at home to ensure the family's security should the rising fail; but they disagree about which of them should do which, James arguing that the heir ought to be the one to go and Henry that there's no sense in James risking his rights as heir. Well, they toss a coin; James wins; he goes to fight and is attainted after the defeat; Henry steps into his place as heir and later as Lord Durrisdeer, and marries the cousin who would have married, and was in love with, James. But James—still called the Master of Ballantrae throughout—bitterly resents Henry's usurpation of his rights, and in between various mysterious adventures abroad, he returns to haunt and plague his brother through the rest of their lives.
I think what I liked most about this book is how RLS does know how to handle the central duality; the book avoids falling into either the obvious conventional morality of making Henry a picture of noble perfection and James straightforwardly pure evil or the obvious unconvention of making James a lovable rogue who's not all that bad really and Henry an unlikeable prig, all while keeping up the drama and the horror of James's persecution of his fortunate brother. My sympathy for the Master of Ballantrae was limited by how unreasonable he is—he was the one who wanted to go in the first place, and if Henry had got his way he would never have usurped James at all!—but his charisma and cleverness are enough to see why the other characters are so drawn to him.
There is of course an amount of exciting and dramatic adventure, international in this case as James's post-Jacobite wanderings lead him all over the world. He becomes a pirate and defeats an evil pirate captain named Teach who, we're assured, is not Blackbeard (the dates don't match, apparently); he goes and does some mysterious stuff in India; the last part of the book's action takes place in America. Parts of the adventure are very well-done, and RLS's vivid writing is there throughout, especially when the drama has more of a psychological as well as a purely adventure side; I thought the horror of the duel and of the sea-voyage towards the end were especially good. Other parts don't work quite so well, especially when the book descends into an oddly non-committal use of period-typical racism to add to the American adventure.
The book is (mostly) narrated by Mackellar, Henry's steward, and that's the other really interesting thing about it. Like Kidnapped it's a first-person narrative supposedly written by the narrator some time after the events related; but I think it goes much further than Kidnapped in using the limitations of the format. Mackellar, who stays with Henry for most of his life, doesn't know what's happening with James for much of the time he's away; he inserts short first-person accounts from another character, obtained by request, which fill in just enough of the gaps to heighten the sense of mystery. And Mackellar's perceptions of the brothers colour everything we hear about them and the story. Mackellar wants to be the loyal old retainer to Henry, and to an extent he is; he knows Henry better than anyone, and sympathises with and works around the weaknesses he understands so well; but he hates the Master of Ballantrae with the sort of fascinated, magnetic horror, drawn to him against his will, that makes for a really compelling portrayal of a character like James. This book is not slashy in the way that Kidnapped is slashy, and has none of the warmth and friendship of that book, but slashy potential, in more than one direction, it certainly has.
The story is about the Duries of Durrisdeer and Ballantrae, an old family whose lands lie near the Solway Firth. The Lord Durrisdeer at the time of the '45 is an old man with two sons: James, the eldest—the Master of Ballantrae is the courtesy title given to the heir—and a rebellious bad boy who spends his time drinking, gambling, getting into fights, &c. &c.; and Henry, the younger, a dutiful and honest son. The family are prudent Jacobites: obviously one of them should go and fight for Prince Charlie and the other should stay at home to ensure the family's security should the rising fail; but they disagree about which of them should do which, James arguing that the heir ought to be the one to go and Henry that there's no sense in James risking his rights as heir. Well, they toss a coin; James wins; he goes to fight and is attainted after the defeat; Henry steps into his place as heir and later as Lord Durrisdeer, and marries the cousin who would have married, and was in love with, James. But James—still called the Master of Ballantrae throughout—bitterly resents Henry's usurpation of his rights, and in between various mysterious adventures abroad, he returns to haunt and plague his brother through the rest of their lives.
I think what I liked most about this book is how RLS does know how to handle the central duality; the book avoids falling into either the obvious conventional morality of making Henry a picture of noble perfection and James straightforwardly pure evil or the obvious unconvention of making James a lovable rogue who's not all that bad really and Henry an unlikeable prig, all while keeping up the drama and the horror of James's persecution of his fortunate brother. My sympathy for the Master of Ballantrae was limited by how unreasonable he is—he was the one who wanted to go in the first place, and if Henry had got his way he would never have usurped James at all!—but his charisma and cleverness are enough to see why the other characters are so drawn to him.
There is of course an amount of exciting and dramatic adventure, international in this case as James's post-Jacobite wanderings lead him all over the world. He becomes a pirate and defeats an evil pirate captain named Teach who, we're assured, is not Blackbeard (the dates don't match, apparently); he goes and does some mysterious stuff in India; the last part of the book's action takes place in America. Parts of the adventure are very well-done, and RLS's vivid writing is there throughout, especially when the drama has more of a psychological as well as a purely adventure side; I thought the horror of the duel and of the sea-voyage towards the end were especially good. Other parts don't work quite so well, especially when the book descends into an oddly non-committal use of period-typical racism to add to the American adventure.
The book is (mostly) narrated by Mackellar, Henry's steward, and that's the other really interesting thing about it. Like Kidnapped it's a first-person narrative supposedly written by the narrator some time after the events related; but I think it goes much further than Kidnapped in using the limitations of the format. Mackellar, who stays with Henry for most of his life, doesn't know what's happening with James for much of the time he's away; he inserts short first-person accounts from another character, obtained by request, which fill in just enough of the gaps to heighten the sense of mystery. And Mackellar's perceptions of the brothers colour everything we hear about them and the story. Mackellar wants to be the loyal old retainer to Henry, and to an extent he is; he knows Henry better than anyone, and sympathises with and works around the weaknesses he understands so well; but he hates the Master of Ballantrae with the sort of fascinated, magnetic horror, drawn to him against his will, that makes for a really compelling portrayal of a character like James. This book is not slashy in the way that Kidnapped is slashy, and has none of the warmth and friendship of that book, but slashy potential, in more than one direction, it certainly has.
