Treasure Island

Read aloud with Althea. Another in the list of classics I never got around to. Wonderful writing— Stevenson casually does things that a lot of writers don’t even attempt, and yet the prose still appears effortless and is accessible. A compact, exciting, enjoyable tale. It’s an adventure story, and not a modernist novel—focus is on the action itself and not on the journey of mankind or someone’s inner journey, etc. And yet it has tremendous moments of poignancy. Because the tropes and beat of an action story have been reused and turned into Hollywood cliches, I kept expecting the next thing to happen, and I was often wrong. This book comes before all that. If they made it into a beat-for-beat movie now, it would be called show more fresh, original— but it may just be that the familiar formula was only half developed at the time. The clearest example comes at the end, when my brain said there was going to be one last double-cross, one last jump scare, etc, the way a modern movie would require— and it didn’t occur. But more powerfully, the book let the heroes be good-hearted, and yet capable of failure, capable of killing, and the narrator was capable of making stupid choices. I loved the descriptions. And it was wonderful to see action written so well, without making a big deal of itself. This book doesn’t stand up to a modern understanding of the world—it is a book entirely peopled by white British men, undoubtedly written with the expectation that only white British men would ever read it. This actually helps keep the book acceptable, because women and any other race or nationality do not appear at all, so you don’t have to see overt racism or sexism. And since the universe of the book is almost completely outside of real life, this doesn’t read as a racist or sexist omission, either. It’s fortunate, as it means you can read a piece of popular fiction from the 1800s without constantly cringing. In a more amusing flaw, I think that the book defies modern geology as well— could Skeleton Island exist, with the flora, fauna and hills as described? Nutmeg trees, goats, the Spyglass mountain, etc? show less

A fun adventure story for all ages, Treasure Island nevertheless felt like a bit of a letdown. I feel guilty saying that, but it's told so quickly and the story is so familiar that, nowadays, I don't believe it's possible to be comprehensively thrilled by its content. It's a good, breezy little romp, to be sure, but the main quality of Treasure Island nowadays is the respect and appreciation one must have for its sheer influence on popular culture. It defined the whole pirate genre – even to list the most prominent examples would be a lengthy exercise – and had an immeasurable influence on adventure stories as a whole. Show me a child who has not been wooed by Treasure Island or at least elements from it, a child who has not sought show more for hidden treasure in their parents' garden, a child who has not fought with cutlasses made from cardboard, and I will show you a child who did not have a childhood. Whilst it may not be as engrossing a read as one might suppose, Stevenson's small, unassuming book is one of the earthquakes of Western civilisation; he is of those very few writers – alongside Shakespeare and Tolkien – who inarguably changed the course of popular culture. If any writer was ever inspired to craft an exciting adventure, it was only by standing on the shoulders of this giant. show less

The term 'classic' doesn't tell you much. I read 'The Prisoner of Zenda' a while back, and it too was termed a classic though I cannot say honestly that the quality was all there. So is 'Treasure Island' a certifiable classic, in that case?

I can happily answer in the affirmative. 'Treasure Island' not only has a plot that moves swiftly and logically from development to development, but is also stocked full of a cast of characters that will long remain in your mind and heart. From brave Jim Hawkins, our hero and narrator, to the enigmatic and dangerous Long John Silver, there are enough well-drawn characters here to populate a whole series of books. Their adventures prove intoxicating, and it is with sadness rather than relief that the show more last page in their tale is turned. show less

So there I was, drifting in Pandemic Land, wondering what to read next, when the soft dulcet voice of Lou Reed drifted into my sullen consciousness:
"I wish that I'd sailed the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
On a sailor's suit and cap..."
And, then, right after that, this early Dylan lyric came crashing through the Pandemic Mayhem: "Haul on the bowline, we sang that melody...like all tough sailors do, when they're far away at sea!" In a moment, the die was cast. I knew that the next book I would read, or reread rather, would be Treasure Island, one that I read some, what, forty years ago, as a mere child? It was a great idea! What a treat! What pleasure! And the fact that the back cover said, show more "For children, aged 10-14," discouraged me not a whit! To make matters even better, it so happened that my edition was a facsimile of a 1911 one, illustrated by one NC Wyeth, the father of the very Andrew (Mansplain Alert!), who painted Christina's World (and not to forget the voluptuous Helga). But I digress. This adventure story was an unalloyed delight, a story of intrigue, treachery, courage, and a cast of characters right out of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland! I can say no more save this: English literature is awash (as we pirates say) with secondary characters of the highest order: Holmes' Dr Watson, Dickens Madame Defarge, King Arthur's Merlin, Alice's Cheshire Cat, and so on...so allow me to introduce another one, the charismatic Long John Silver, the humble, affable ship's cook in this gripping yarn...or was he only a cook? Read it to find out! show less

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Shiver me timbers!

This is THE PENULTIMATE pirate adventure, me mateys!

Never mind that it's written for a 12-year-old or that practically every aspect of this adventure has percolated through our collective zeitgeist.

Here it is! The YA to eat ALL YA. Or the tale to drown your young one in so much rum that he or she expires by the bloody knife he or she didn't see while inebriated or by the blasted drink itself.

Pure escapism? No. There's a bit of a heart in here and mercy is not the least of it. But even mercy has a very keen edge.

Pirates, mutiny, dastardly villainy, greed, and democratically elected captaincies.

Wait... WHAT?

*slips quietly out the back door*

Where's Sparrow?


Even so, this was quite a fun show more diversion. :) show less

I had the sudden urge to re-read ‘Treasure Island’ because one of my favourite TV shows, Black Sails, recently finished. It was ostensibly a prequel to ‘Treasure Island’ although it transcended the source material in just about every way. Presumably I read this book as a child, but had no real memory of it, and had certainly forgotten that it is narrated by a child who doesn’t know what the hell is going on most of the time. Jim Hawkins is a troubling character when you think about him - a boy of uncertain age who goes to sea on a whim knowing nothing of sailing, and has adventures in which he faces death many times and kills several people. He appears too young to really understand mortality; it occurred to me that none of show more his parents or guardians were doing the most responsible job. The search for Captain Flint’s treasure is pretty thrilling stuff, nonetheless, and much more entertaining with the Black Sails backstory in mind. Certainly the mysterious Long John Silver, and his parrot Captain Flint, are a great deal more interesting with an idea of Silver's past piratical exploits. I think the moral of the tale is: don’t try and recover pirate treasure on a lark, as your odds of death or serious injury are high. Get a safer hobby. Also, flying the union jack on a pirate-infested island is just asking for trouble. Unfortunately ‘Treasure Island’ has not filled the gap left by the end of Black Sails, so I guess I’ll have to re-watch it. show less

I have a soft spot for Treasure Island. It was the first book I ever read (at 12) that truly fucked with my head. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Wait, are the bad guys the good guys? No, wait, maybe there are no good guys...and there are no bad guys...maybe they're all just messed up people? Maybe this book is not as good as I remember it being, I feel open to that. But that was a cool life lesson to get at 12, and it is not every book that is able to pull off that nuanced dance of a child in a confusing world trying to figure out who to trust, and realizing it might be nobody.