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1ReifEdward
It's been so long since I have read this book but every time I think of it I start the sympathize with "Young Jim" since I am a Minister and my coworkers think that a Street Ministry is best for everyone. I always feel as though I am in easy reach of people that think a Pirate's way of life is better than a Sailor's and well I just try to do the best I can with what I got. I really like looking for the treasure inside of us all with whomever I associate with because I like to make friends. I think I'm normal and sometimes if you're around you might hear me yelling for help but it might sound like I'm kicking somebody's ass. I would love to hear any comments from anyone that has also read this book or any other.
2Crypto-Willobie
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
3anglemark
Are there people in this world who have NOT read Treasure Island? I suppose there must be, unlikely as it seems to me.
5suitable1
>4 MrAndrew:
Will it pass the "cocktail party" test?
Will it pass the "cocktail party" test?
6amysisson
>3 anglemark:
I haven't read it.
My public high school in the 1980s apparently didn't believe much in having the students read. Oh, we read the in-textbook versions of Romeo and Juliet, but the only self-contained book I was actually assigned in three years of American high school was The Outsiders. Which I loved, but still.
I only picked up some of the classics because I went to Germany for year as a junior. The public library had lots of classics in English. They probably had Treasure Island but for whatever reason I never read that one.
Will I like it at this stage of my life? Is the writing beautiful? Ponderous? Lecture-y?
I haven't read it.
My public high school in the 1980s apparently didn't believe much in having the students read. Oh, we read the in-textbook versions of Romeo and Juliet, but the only self-contained book I was actually assigned in three years of American high school was The Outsiders. Which I loved, but still.
I only picked up some of the classics because I went to Germany for year as a junior. The public library had lots of classics in English. They probably had Treasure Island but for whatever reason I never read that one.
Will I like it at this stage of my life? Is the writing beautiful? Ponderous? Lecture-y?
7abbottthomas
>6 amysisson: Will you like it? Not sure. We share 100-odd books and none is really anything like Treasure Island. The nearest might be The Golden compass, etc. but only if you found it a good story and weren't too dependent on the fantasy aspects of the series. I think Treasure Island is a very good read, quite short, good characterisations, sound plot, exciting. I wouldn't use any of your adjectives to describe the writing - "crisp", maybe?
I have always thought of it as a boys' book - would that put you off? Having said that the current production of the story as a play at London's National Theatre has 'Jim Hawkins', the boy hero, as a girl. I don't know how that worked out but it is part of the inclusive zeitgeist of the NT.
Go on - give it a try. It won't take long to finish and you'll know if you don't like it pretty quickly. Just one thing, there was a rather good film made years ago - 1950s?? - with a grossly over-acting Robert Newton as Long John Silver. Get your own picture of the character first before you are infected by Newton's splendid version - very contagious, see >2 Crypto-Willobie: above ;-)
ETA I don't really get the OP.
I have always thought of it as a boys' book - would that put you off? Having said that the current production of the story as a play at London's National Theatre has 'Jim Hawkins', the boy hero, as a girl. I don't know how that worked out but it is part of the inclusive zeitgeist of the NT.
Go on - give it a try. It won't take long to finish and you'll know if you don't like it pretty quickly. Just one thing, there was a rather good film made years ago - 1950s?? - with a grossly over-acting Robert Newton as Long John Silver. Get your own picture of the character first before you are infected by Newton's splendid version - very contagious, see >2 Crypto-Willobie: above ;-)
ETA I don't really get the OP.
8quillmenow
Shame to say, but I haven't read it. Own it, but my TBR pile is ridiculous.
Thanks for the reminder, though! I may have to tunnel through the book mountain to read.
Book fracker.
Thanks for the reminder, though! I may have to tunnel through the book mountain to read.
Book fracker.
9Crypto-Willobie
All I can say is Rrrrrrr!
10Limelite
Probably read my beautifully illustrated copy three times before I started high school. Each time I was transported by pure and simple adventure. The book kicks off with two of the most famous long sentences in literature. (And one short one.)
“Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof. I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:”
And it's famous for lines like these:
"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you know," I added with a chuckle.”
"It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me - out of college and all - Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle.”
And probably most renowned of all:
“Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
“Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof. I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:”
And it's famous for lines like these:
"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you know," I added with a chuckle.”
"It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me - out of college and all - Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle.”
And probably most renowned of all:
“Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
11krazy4katz
>4 MrAndrew: You're too old NOT to have read it — just like me!
The problem is that I am too old to remember it.
The problem is that I am too old to remember it.
