Robert Louis Stevenson · 1889 · global

Stevenson's dark tale of two brothers, told by the steward Mackellar, in which the elder, James Durie, the brilliant and merciless Master of Ballantrae, ruins the family that disowns him. Across the novel the Master's wanderings carry him to nearly every corner of the eighteenth-century world, and each return brings fresh destruction. This route traces those peregrinations, from a Scottish estate to the frozen American wilderness where the long feud ends.

1. 1
   Durrisdeer

   The house of Durrisdeer, seat of the Duries on the Solway coast of Scotland, where the trouble begins. When the Jacobite rising of 1745 comes, the family hedges its bets: the elder son and heir, James, the Master, rides out for Prince Charlie, while his quieter brother Henry stays loyal to King George. Only one is meant to come home.

2. 2
   Culloden

   James follows the doomed cause into the Highlands, and after the slaughter of Culloden he is reported dead among the fallen. But the Master is not so easily killed. He has slipped away, and the news of his death is only the first of the many deceptions by which he will haunt his family for the rest of his days.

3. 3
   The Caribbean

   Fleeing the wreck of the rebellion by sea, the Master falls in with pirates and takes to the account himself, sailing the Atlantic and the Caribbean aboard a buccaneer ship. He proves as cold and able among cutthroats as among gentlemen, surviving treachery and bloodshed that would finish a lesser man.

4. 4
   New York

   Escaping the pirates, the Master and his companion Burke make their way through the wilds of the American colonies to Albany and New York, and so back toward Europe. It is the first of his crossings of the great ocean, the New World no more than a stage he passes over on his restless way.

5. 5
   France

   In France the Master takes his place among the exiled Jacobites about the court, living by his wits, his charm, and a steady stream of money extorted from his brother at home. From this safe exile he plays upon Durrisdeer like an instrument, draining the estate and poisoning Henry's peace from across the sea.

6. 6
   India

   His wanderings carry him as far as India, where he spends years in the trade and intrigue of the East and gathers a fortune, returning at last with a silent, devoted attendant named Secundra Dass. The riches and the strange servant alike will follow him to the bitter end.

7. 7
   Durrisdeer

   The Master comes home to Durrisdeer to torment his brother in person, and the long-banked hatred at last takes fire. By night, by the light of candles on the frozen shrubbery walk, the two brothers cross swords, and Henry, driven past all endurance, runs the Master through and leaves him for dead.

8. 8
   New York

   But once more he survives, and when the ruined, haunted Henry flees with his family to New York, the Master follows across the Atlantic, a ghost that will not be laid. Even in the new country there is no escaping him; he comes to settle, with Secundra Dass, almost at his brother's door.

9. 9
   The Adirondacks

   The feud ends in the frozen wilderness north of Albany, where the Master, hunting his buried treasure, attempts a last desperate trick, a fakir's feat of being buried alive to cheat his pursuers. The bid for resurrection fails in the killing cold, and there, in the snow, both brothers at last find their graves.