Treasure Island (Adventure Classic with Illustrations): Adventure Tale of Buccaneers and Buried Gold

By Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". Stevenson conceived of the idea of Treasure Island (originally titled, "The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys") from a map of an imaginary, romantic island idly drawn by Stevenson and his stepson on a rainy day in Braemar, Scotland. Plot: An old sailor, calling himself "the captain" comes to lodge at the Admiral Benbow Inn on the west English coast during the mid-1700s, paying the innkeeper's son, Jim Hawkins, a few pennies to keep a lookout for a one-legged "seafaring man." A seaman with intact legs shows up, frightening Billy — who drinks far too much rum — into a stroke, and Billy tells Jim that his former shipmates covet the contents of his sea chest. After a visit from yet another man, Billy has another stroke and dies; Jim and his mother (his father has also died just a few days before) unlock the sea chest, finding some money, a journal, and a map. The local physician, Dr. Livesey, deduces that the map is of an island where a deceased pirate — Captain Flint — buried a vast treasure. The district squire, Trelawney, proposes buying a ship and going after the treasure, taking Livesey as ship's doctor and Jim as cabin boy…. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Musaicum Books
• Release date: Apr 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9788075830302

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.

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Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island (Adventure Classic with Illustrations)

Adventure Tale of Buccaneers and Buried Gold

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2017 OK Publishing

ISBN 978-80-7583-030-2

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Table of Contents

Part I. The Old Buccaneer

Chapter I. The Old Sea-dog at the 'Admiral Benbow'

Chapter II. Black Dog Appears and Disappears

Chapter III. The Black Spot

Chapter IV. The Sea Chest

Chapter V. The Last of the Blind Man

Chapter VI. The Captain’s Papers

Part II. The Sea Cook

Chapter VII. I Go to Bristol

Chapter VIII. At the Sign of the 'Spy-Glass'

Chapter IX. Powder and Arms

Chapter X. The Voyage

Chapter XI. What I Heard in the Apple Barrel

Chapter XII. Council of War

Part III. My Shore Adventure

Chapter XIII. How My Shore Adventure Began

Chapter XIV. The First Blow

Chapter XV. The Man of the Island

Part IV. The Stockade

Chapter XVI. Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship was Abandoned

Chapter XVII. Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat’s Last Trip

Chapter XVIII. Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day’s Fighting

Chapter XIX. Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade

Chapter XX. Silver’s Embassy

Chapter XXI. The Attack

Part V. My Sea Adventure

Chapter XXII. How My Sea Adventure Began

Chapter XXIII. The Ebb-tide Runs

Chapter XXIV. The Cruise of the Coracle

Chapter XXV. I Strike the Jolly Roger

Chapter XXVI. Israel Hands

Chapter XXVII. 'Pieces of Eight'

Part VI. Captain Silver

Chapter XXVIII. In the Enemy’s Camp

Chapter XXIX. The Black Spot Again

Chapter XXX. On Parole

Chapter XXXI. The Treasure Hunt — Flint’s Pointer

Chapter XXXII. The Treasure Hunt — The Voice Among the Trees

Chapter XXXIII. The Fall of a Chieftain

Chapter XXXIV. And Last

To

LLOYD OSBOURNE

An American Gentleman

In accordance with whose classic taste

The following narrative has been designed

It is now, in return for numerous delightful hours

And with the kindest wishes, dedicated

By his affectionate friend

THE AUTHOR

Part I

The Old Buccaneer

Table of Contents

Chapter I

The Old Sea-dog at the 'Admiral Benbow'

Table of Contents

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:

"Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest —

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

This is a handy cove, says he at length; and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?

My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

Well, then, said he, this is the berth for me. Here you, matey, he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit, he continued. I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you’re at — there; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. You can tell me when I’ve worked through that, says he, looking as fierce as a commander.

And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question, but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did put up at the Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month came round and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me and stare me down, but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my four-penny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for the seafaring man with one leg.

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum, all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.

His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were — about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a true sea-dog and a real old salt and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea. In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us, for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.

All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbours, and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open.

He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old Benbow. I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he — the captain, that is — began to pipe up his eternal song:

"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!"

At first I had supposed the dead man’s chest to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it was new, that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey’s; he went on as before speaking clear and kind and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous, low oath, Silence, there, between decks!

Were you addressing me, sir? says the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, I have only one thing to say to you, sir, replies the doctor, that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!

The old fellow’s fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him as before, over his shoulder and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: If you do not put that knife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at the next assizes.

Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.

And now, sir, continued the doctor, since I now know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. I’m not a doctor only; I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility like tonight’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice.

Soon after, Dr. Livesey’s horse came to the door and he rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.

Chapter II

Black Dog Appears and Disappears

Table of Contents

It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard frosts and heavy gales; and it was plain from the first that my poor father was little likely to see the spring. He sank daily, and my mother and I had all the inn upon our hands, and were kept busy enough without paying much regard to our unpleasant guest.

It was one January morning, very early — a pinching, frosty morning — the cove all grey with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him as he turned the big rock was a loud snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey. Well, mother was upstairs with father and I was laying the breakfast-table against the captain’s return when the parlour door opened and a man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand, and though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had always my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum; but as I was going out of the room to fetch it, he sat down upon a table and motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my hand.

Come here, sonny, says he. Come nearer here.

I took a step nearer.

Is this here table for my mate Bill? he asked with a kind of leer.

I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person who stayed in our house whom we called the captain.

Well, said he, my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one cheek and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We’ll put it, for argument like, that your captain has a cut on one cheek — and we’ll put it, if you like, that that cheek’s the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my mate Bill in this here house?

I told him he was out walking.

Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?

And when I had pointed out the rock and told him how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few other questions, Ah, said he, this’ll be as good as drink to my mate Bill.

The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of mine, I thought; and besides, it was difficult to know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself into the road, but he immediately called me back, and as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I was back again he returned to his former manner, half fawning, half sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good boy and he had taken quite a fancy to me. I have a son of my own, said he, "as like you as two blocks, and he’s all the pride of my ’art. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny — discipline. Now, if you had sailed along of Bill, you wouldn’t have stood there to be spoke to twice — not you. That was never Bill’s way, nor the way of sich

Reviews for Treasure Island (Adventure Classic with Illustrations)

[zentasy72 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book contains everything you could expect from a story like this. Although this is one of the well-known classics, I had not read it yet. I am very happy that I have done so now.

The story follows Jim Hawkins who lives with his mother in the "Admiral Benbow" inn in a seaside town. When pirate Bill, who is a client at the inn, leaves a treasure map after his death, Jim sets off on an adventure to find the treasure. It is written in short chapters and after each chapter you want to know what Stevenson has in store for Hawkins and co. Because of the interesting story and the short chapters I read this fairly quickly.

If you have not yet become acquainted with this classic, it is highly recommended.

[toby.neal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fun and wonderfully told adventure story. It’s amazing how much of piracy in pop culture owes to Robert Louis Stevenson.

[larryking1-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 seasOn a great big clipper shipGoing from this land here to thatOn 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, "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!

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I just really had trouble getting into this. The characters were so two-dimensional and the "action" went from a lot of talking to a lot of killing and back to a lot of talking. Not my cuppa Joe.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When an old seaman named Billy Bones comes to stay at the Admiral Benbow Inn run by Jim Hawkins and his parents, the young English boy finds himself unexpectedly caught up in an exciting adventure involving pirates and hidden treasure. Enlisted in the local squire's quest to find the treasure buried on the eponymous Treasure Island, Jim becomes a cabin boy on the voyage out, encountering treachery and dangers he did not anticipate...Like many children's classics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Treasure Island was first published serially, in the Young Folks magazine, before being released in book form in 1883. An instant success, it has remained immensely popular ever since, published in innumerable editions, and frequently adapted for stage, film and television. Somehow, despite being well aware of it since childhood, I had never picked it up, until it was assigned as one of our texts in a class I took during the course of my masters. I'm so happy that I finally did get to it, as I found it immensely engrossing and entertaining. Atmospheric, exciting, it immediately grabs hold of the reader, and takes them along on an extraordinary adventure. The themes here are fascinating, and led me to include the book in a paper I wrote on the island as an example of the 'lapsed topos,' as envisioned by Jane Suzanne Carroll, in her Landscape in Children's Literature. Recommended to all readers who enjoy adventure stories, or who love tales of seafaring and pirates.

[caseybp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book that gave us our mythical idea of pirates. Such a great story! One of the best novels I have ever read!

[sarahgracegrzy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not really my cup of tea, but I can understand why it's a classic.

[bettesbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I usually dislike reading classics because the writing style is so different from what we read every day. But, RLS style was not offsetting, maybe because I expected the “pirate” style of talking and so wasn’t distracted by mentally trying to rewrite the text. And, with any adventure story you must be in the frame of mind for the adventure. I put down several times because I couldn’t settle into the story, but once my attention was attached I could not put it down.

[odinblindeye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

YAAARR. This be a tale of scallywags and high seas. Adventure be at it's finest, and the rum flows like water me lads.

[stephlaymon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Treasure Island was so much more my thing than I thought that it would be. There was a lot of drama, action, and suspense. It's an odd thing to read classics that were intended for a younger reading audience. I would let my children read them, but I can easily see where some parents would give pause. Some of the content in these books is controversial today...But hey! They are among the best ever written.

[bohemima · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Come and join us in a wonderful adventure story. Pirates, parrots, treasure maps. One of the most complicated villains in all of Victorian literature. An exotic setting, an exotic time frame. Who could ask for more?At a coastal inn, a mysterious and somewhat evil man takes up residence. Soon he’s pursued my creepy foes. What ensues is the most influential pirate story ever. Stevenson was admittedly aiming at a young male audience, but a reader would need to be unimaginative in the extreme not to get caught up in Jim Hawkins’ adventures on the high seas. Definitely recommended.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My book club likes to choose at least one classic every year. This past year we had trouble settling on one that too many people hadn't already read or that were too long for the reading time frame so I suggested Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, a book I hadn't read since I was a child but one that I knew I'd be happy to revisit. After all, who doesn't like swashbuckling?As a classic, the plot is probably familiar to most people but broadly drawn, young Jim Hawkins, son of an innkeeper, finds a map to Treasure Island in the late Billy Bones' belongings and sets out with a couple of old men eager to add to their wealth and a scurvy crew of mostly shifty sailors for the promised treasure. Along the way there is plotting, betrayal, and mutiny from the sailors, treasure unearthed, a battle fought, a maroon found, and ultimately the triumph of goodness, luck, and bravery. This novel is in fact the original pirate tale, the one that has influenced so much of the pop culture portrayals of pirates to this day. It is a portrait of Britain in the Victorian age and of the romanticism of the high seas; it is pure adventure. The language in it is decidedly more difficult than what is presented to children today but the story, after a bit of a slow start, is still completely entertaining and engrossing. Young Jim is lucky, often in the right place at the right time, and he has invaluable instincts. Long John Silver seems charming and kindly but who hides his real, greedy and evil nature as long as possible. I first read this at our cottage by flickering gaslight and that was perfect for the atmosphere evoked here. If you don't have such a place to sink into this book, I suspect it would make a fantastic read aloud bedtime story. Be warned though, that the audience for the story will beg you not to stop at this chapter or that, wanting the whole adventure in one go. And good luck not getting "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" or "sixteen men on a dead man's chest" stuck in your head after you read it!

[hopeevey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an awesome novel! It manages to be a great adventure story, and a great Victorian period piece, without feeling dated or forced. Yes, the hero has things go unnaturally well for him, but it makes perfect sense in the story. It's a great read, and a great young adult read. The abridged versions, really, should be shot for the lame imposters they are.

And, on top of being a great story, this is where the whole pirate genre started, everything from buried treasure tropes, to the rules of "gentlemen of fortune." Every pirate aficionado should give this a gander.

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book when I was a kid and, read it again. This time around, I read it in almost one sittingHe could indeed spin a tale, and managed to create marvellous atmosphere. In the search for the hidden treasure, he also created some memorable characters. All of them. This is a brilliant book, and one for all ages.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 last page in their tale is turned.

[joe73-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A classic story. The determination of the characters is well done. If you have not read it....the chances are Earth is a very distant place for you.

[scarylullabies · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A re-read of a favorite from my childhood. It held up beautifully and filled me with nostalgia.

[mhanover10 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very enjoyable as an audiobook. The reader does a fantastic job with the voices and the emotion.

[ramirez_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's Adventure, with capital A.If you didn't read it, you didn't have a happy childhood.

[jothebookgirl · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audio and read the book. It never got any better. My eyes went over the words but I do not know what really happens in the book. I used wikipedia to try and separate the characters but there were just too many. The only thing I really remember is about the apple barrell.
But I gave it all I had.

[feelinglistless · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Never having been a fan of the pirate genre I entered communication with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, one of its pillars, with some trepidation especially since as the author’s biographer Claire Harmon notes like his Jekyl and Hyde, it’s so well known that it hardly requires being read at all, “Long John Silver is more real to most people than any historical buccaneer.” I’d like to offer a narrative of rediscovering the genre, but young Jim Hawkins is such a greedy, repellent narrator and the various pirates so difficult to understand and the story points so subtly telegraphed, I was less thrilled than appalled. That Silver and Gunn are the most entertaining figures it does go without saying, but as Harmon hints because their old bones have been resurrected so many times since, the original now seems prosaic and slothful. But such things are not Stevenson’s fault, of course.

[brikayama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! This is the first time I experience a novel on audio. My reading experience was magnified, the story seemed more alive and personal. I don't know why I waited so long to hear a novel on audio. I will definitely give my future students the choice of enjoying stories this way too. I didn't care too much about the plot of the story and the words were a bit complicated for me, but I really enjoyed many of the character traits. I gets pirate stories have never appealed to me.

[internisus_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I endeavored to read Treasure Island as an entry point into a chronological approach to adventure stories, golden-age science fiction, and later speculative ventures. It seems to me that this classic novel has done well to satisfy in that role, and I will also add that the Oxford World's Classics introduction, explanatory notes, and other supplements were useful, if unessential.That said, I am afraid there is little to recommend Treasure Island to the modern reader. The story itself has been surpassed many times over, and the archaic maritime language is a double-edged sword of charm and impediment; the writing is fun and quotable for the same reasons that often render it a right chore to comprehend. If one's sole purpose in selecting Stevenson's tale of the stalwart Hispaniola crew's quest for buried booty amid the treachery of Long John Silver upon Skeleton Island is merely to be entertained by a hardy lads' romp, it must be said that many superior (and less frustrating) options have become available since it was published in 1883. You and I are simply too removed from this work by time to enjoy it properly.However, I am ultimately glad that I read Treasure Island. Its historical value is clear both as a genre pioneer and as the origin for so many well-known pirate tropes, and, although it can be difficult in the telling, to be sure, the tale is not an unpleasant one.

[boes0106 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was pretty neat. I read a super old edition my dad had when he was in school. It totally made me want to watch Muppet treasure island, one of my favorite movies growing up. After reading the book i am better able to appreciate some of the humor in the movie, like "you killed dead tom" and the talking crab that is supposed to be the parrot captain flint.

[sarbow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a fun adventure book, and introduced all our pirate stereotypes. For adults, its a good lighthearted jaunt, for younger reader it would be very exciting. Hidden treasure, pirates, the sea..what's not to like?

[billiecat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A rollicking adventure story, a coming of age, a swashbuckling sea-tale, a boy's book. I read this to my son over many nights before bed, and while I feared the violence would frighten him and cause nightmares, it did not; but it did hold his attention and get him talking and thinking (and drawing treasure maps). What fun!

[edgeworth_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read Kidnapped in 2010 and quite liked it, so I figured I’d give Treasure Island a go. Now I’m reflecting on whether perhaps Kidnapped was a book I enjoyed because it provided me with entertainment at a time when I didn’t have much else to do.Treasure Island is the classic pirate story, a book that spawned thousands of imitators and almost single-handedly created a genre. Young Jim Hawkins, the poor son of innkeepers, is swept up into excitement and adventure after one of his lodgers entrusts him with a treasure map before dying. Jim promptly takes the map to Dr. Livesey, local magistrate and gentleman, and together they assemble an expedition to recover the treasure from the titular Caribbean Island. All doesn’t go to plan, of course, with the crew turning out to be half pirates, and upon arrival on Treasure Island all manner of mutinous hijinks break out in the scramble to seize the treasure.Treasure Island is a pirate story with 19th century mores, where the good guys are upstanding English gentlemen and the pirates are villainous scoundrels – unlike modern incarnations, where Johnny Depp is cast as a dashing and romantic figure of fun, the script neatly sidestepping the fact that pirates are bad people who do bad things. (I dearly love Mister Gibbs, but I expect he’s raped his fair share.) Treasure Island contains a good amount of betrayal, cold-blooded murder and terrible fates, and to his credit, Stevenson does not shy away from the fact that this is the sort of thing that can utterly ruin a boy’s fantasised adventure:Although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone would be glad to get to land after so long at sea, my heart sank, as the saying is, into my boots, and from that first look onward I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.And although the book has what you’d technically call a happy ending, it finishes on a dark note, with Jim still haunted by what happened on the island.These good points aside, I can’t recommend Treasure Island, largely because I had trouble maintaining an interest in it. It starts out and finishes well enough, yet drags in the centre, as Jim’s crew hold out a stockade against the pirates. There’s far too much technical detail, a wholly unnecessary switch to Dr. Livesey as narrator, and it’s all just poorly paced. As the book goes on, far too much time is spent debating the loyalties and power struggles of the various crews, and the men within the crews, with overly-wrought dialogue. I also felt that Stevenson was treating the plot like a chess game, moving pieces here and there, and having certain characters do things which made no sense simply because it was necessary for the plot (Jim sneaking off and recovering the ship against all odds is the prime offender here.) Kidnapped, in comparison, contained a number of unexpected twists and turns which never felt out of place or contrived.Not a bad book, but not a good one either – certainly a disappointment compared to its reputation, and not as good as Stevenson’s less-famous Kidnapped.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Young Jim Hawkins finds adventure when a "gentleman of fortune" stays at his father's inn, and the old pirate's compatriots come looking for him -- and a treasure map!Treasure Island is the quintessential adventure tale: a daring hero, a treasure, and dastardly pirates. I had a few false starts trying to read it as a kid, but I drowned in the antiquated language due to a book that's a hundred years old set in the 1700s. But when I was without power for several days, it was the perfect book to take me far and away from my circumstances. Partly because I knew much of the storyline (mostly, I am embarrassed to admit, through watching Muppet Treasure Island as a kid), partly because Jim is clearly narrating events that happened before, there was never any doubt that our English heroes would make it through unscathed, but this true blue adventure tale is certainly entertaining.

[ben_a_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A classic. Pirates are bad people. Let me add to that. Glamorous evil is a problem in fiction. I say 'a problem' not because positive representation of wicked characters has bad effects (although doubtless it does), but because it is so false to fact as to be jarring, to break fictional tone. There are exceptions to this rule. Satan is glamorous, but he's an angel -- and as the first or second most powerful created being, of course he's going to have some pace on the ball. But in general, wickedness is not glamorous, or inventive, or interesting. It's a person who will kill a stranger for money, and then spend the money on trash -- as squalid, loathsome, and weak as a humanity gets. That's the type of person who becomes a pirate, in point of fact; that's who a pirate is. Simone Weil has a great quote to this effect: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Stevenson invests his pirates with real evil, in Weil's sense, and it's the critical tone-setting choice in the novel....my name is Alexander Smollett, I've flown my sovereign's colours, and I'll see you all to Davy Jones. You can't find the treasure. You can't sail the ship—there's not a man among you fit to sail the ship. You can't fight us—Gray, there, got away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, Master Silver; you're on a lee shore, and so you'll find. I stand here and tell you so; and they're the last good words you'll get from me, for in the name of heaven, I'll put a bullet in your back when next I meet you

[cecrow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is not the classic I was expecting. I can see the roots of adventure stories, all the original establishment of what have become pirate cliches, but I just wasn't grabbed for most of the story and I'm not sure why that is. Some of Jim Hawkin's actions were too reckless for me to believe and I never grew close to his character, but then I lack the 19th century sense of British forthrightness that might have made me think his decisions more rational. Long John Silver I did like and appreciate throughout, and I was disappointed that his story's ending lacked any sort of power; you can see how this has been corrected in any movie rendition. Among RLS' works, his Jekyl and Hyde remains my favourite.