The Coral Island
Written by R. M. Ballantyne
Narrated by Wayne Forester
4/5
()
About this audiobook
An enduringly popular classic of children’s fiction, The Coral Island tells the story of three boys stranded on a seemingly idyllic desert island. Thoughtful Ralph, clever, brave Jack and mischievous Peterkin soon find, however, that their new home has more than a few surprises in store! Wayne Forester’s energetic reading brings this classic adventure vividly to life. The Coral Island inspired a whole genre of adventure literature, influencing Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
Related to The Coral Island
Related audiobooks
Heart of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robinson Crusoe: Timeless Classics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island of Dr. Moreau Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Journey to the Center of the Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Fang: Unabridged Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Around The World In 80 Days Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Around the World in Eighty days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Call of the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robinson Crusoe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Monkey's Paw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520,000 Leagues Under the Sea Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Swiss Family Robinson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5White Fang Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Time Machine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDr. Jeckyll & Mr Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moby Dick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Door in the Wall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wizard of Oz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gulliver's Travels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5B. J. Harrison Reads The Swiss Family Robinson Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Invisible Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Build A Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case Of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Expectations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Children's Action & Adventure For You
Howl's Moving Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Captain Underpants: Color Edition (Captain Underpants #1): Captain Underpants, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire #2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warriors #1: Into the Wild Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets: Color Edition (Captain Underpants #2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Peter Pan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voyage of the Dawn Treader Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Magician's Nephew Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The False Prince (The Ascendance Series, Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dragonet Prophecy: Wings of Fire, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl Who Drank the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prince Caspian Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Horse and His Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues, Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Battle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Restart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Island of the Blue Dolphins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Refugee Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silver Chair Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Once There Was Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iceberg Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Heir (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sky Raiders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Big Tree Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Coral Island
20 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I think this was Mr. Ballantyne' fourth book and his first foray into the Pacific. His previous books had been about Canada and the Hudson Bay Company's life style. This was my dad's favourite Ballantyne. I read it as a kid myself and liked it. I guess that it, and my dad's connection with it, got me interested in Ballantynes and started the collection. The three friends in this story turn up again in a later book, The Gorilla Hunters. Here they are shipwrecked on a ......coral island.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A member of the Boys Stranded on a Deserted Island genre, this one rolls along pretty well, although it gets surprisingly dark toward the end. Still, a fun-enough read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Great Boy's Own style adventure - the British lad wins out against all unpleasantness and low behaviour!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Another 1001 book read. Adventure. Action. Pirates. Cannibals. Murder. Treasure. Mystery. What more does a book need?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I must admit I got into this crazy mid-Victorian jingoistic evangelical boy's adventure story.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not really sure what I think. Picked up from a shelf of second hand books in a Pembrokeshire cafe. Last read from the library when I was 10 or 11. I loved the first half - almost a manual on how to survive on a coral island in the South Seas. Enjoyed the pirate interlude as a bit of a change. Loathed the last bit of cannibals and christians. However the language is delicious throughout.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Would have been good had it not been for ridiculously long detailed descriptive entries and the whole beat-you-over-the-head Christian bent. Take out the more egregious examples of both and this would be a good boy's adventure story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great little adventure story. One that anyone who likes to read, should read. Ballantyne has many more worth reading - Martin Rattler, Sunk at Sea, The Young Fur Traders, and The Dog Crusoe and His Master, just to name a few.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great boys book about a few boys shipwrecked on an island. Kind of a cross between Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The earlier parts of this book are fun. Like his successor Robert Louis Stephenson, Ballantyne was very good at vivid descriptions of ocean, waves, islands, storms, vegetation, etc. The second half of the book is very different from the first; in the first, the boys are all alone on the island and cooperate with the utmost cheer in making a safe and comfortable life for themselves in spite of danger from animals and weather, in the second, they must cope with the outside world in the form of natives, pirates, and missionaries. Then they go home.The whole book has an extremely simple and untheological Christian message: Christianity is good, belief is good and will help you. There are no fine questions of theology on which our hero, Ralph, must exercise his mind. This makes the book very different from the Narnia books, which are drenched in theological metaphor.Some of the cover images are misleading; Jack, the eldest of the boys, is already 18 when they are shipwrecked, well-grown and strong. Only Peterkin, at 12 or 13, could be expected to look boyish. Nonetheless, much of the cover art makes all three look roughly 10 years old.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An enjoyable boys adventure story set on some remote Island in the Pacific Ocean, where three teenagers are shipwrecked. After some time of Robinson Crusoe-like experiences they are intangled in some nasty tribal wars and tries to rescue a young woman from being executed. The latter part of the novel are dealing with some missionaries who try to convert the "heathens". There are some very gruesome and graphic detailed descriptions in the novel that surprised me a lot. The moral of the story are not told in a subtle way - no doubt about the Christian and Victorian virtues that are being instilled in the young reader of that day.Ballantyne wrote numerous novels of this kind, but Coral Island is one of his most famous.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very dated nontheless quite a good read
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A gift from my childhood, in fact I cannot recall the story in detail, but I remember I re-read this several times. Great fun. Nor this cover, a cover with an orange sky and the 3 lads.