#still going back and forth on whether to draw alan with black hair (book-accurate)

[ratuszarsenal]

the fact that stevenson laboured to reproduce alan breck's appearance from 18th century documents but specifically diverted from those accounts to make him a short king. hysterical

for curious fellows here are some of the descriptions that stevenson apparently would have worked with:

I also want to highlight this fragment which I found to be a very sweet thing for fanny stevenson to mention:

One day, while my husband was busily at work, I sat beside him reading an old cookery book called The Compleat Housewife: or Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion. In the midst of receipts for “Rabbits, and Chickens mumbled, Pickled Samphire, Skirret Pye, Baked Tansy,” and other forgotten delicacies, there were directions for the preparation of several lotions for the preservation of beauty. One of these was so charming that I interrupted my husband to read it aloud. “Just what I wanted!” he exclaimed; and the receipt for the “Lily of the Valley Water” was instantly incorporated into Kidnapped.

made all the funnier by the fact that apparently that recipe was "just what he wanted" with an exclamation mark and yet it literally does not show up anywhere in the book after its introduction. stevenson literally just liked how the checkov's gun looked like on the wall. no firing necessary