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Even the least well-read could probably surmise that Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped involves an abduction, but academic chiefs have nonetheless cautioned undergraduates that the 19th Century classic 'contains depictions of murder, death, family betrayal and kidnapping'.
The so-called trigger warning was issued by the University of Aberdeen, which also told students that Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar – written more than 400 years ago and set in 44 BC – features 'sexist attitudes' and has a plot that 'centres on a murder'.
Meanwhile, a warning about Charles Dickens's French Revolution novel A Tale Of Two Cities, which famously features the guillotine, says that it 'contains scenes of violence, execution and death'.
The University of Aberdeen have cautioned undergraduates that Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped 'contains depictions of murder, death, family betrayal and kidnapping'
Documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday under Freedom of Information legislation show the university, which was rated 158th in the recent Times Higher Education World University Rankings, is urging its teaching staff to draw up trigger warnings for literary classics – despite admitting there is no conclusive evidence that they serve any useful purpose.
The university told lecturers that students had expressed 'a strong preference' for warnings on potentially 'distressing' and 'emotionally challenging' novels, plays and poems.
Its staff guidance says: 'Consideration
