Treasure Island
4/5
()
About this ebook
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.
Read more from Robert Louis Stevenson
Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 4 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Children's Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wrong Box Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Body Snatcher Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robert Louis Stevenson: Seven Novels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 1 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5ARABIAN NIGHTS: Andrew Lang's 1001 Nights & R. L. Stevenson's New Arabian Nights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/550 Classic Love Poems You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Penny Dreadfuls MEGAPACK ®: 10 Classic Shockers! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Master of Ballantrae Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Treasure Island
Related ebooks
Treasure Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island & Kidnapped Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island AND The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island (Adventure Classic with Illustrations): Adventure Tale of Buccaneers and Buried Gold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pirate Super Pack # 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsR. L. Stevenson: Complete Novels: Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Black Arrow, Kidnapped… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Robert Louis Stevenson Novels Collection: 12 Classic Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island: Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island: New Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island (Illustrated Edition): Adventure Tale of Buccaneers and Buried Gold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island (A Children's Classic): Adventure Tale of Buccaneers and Buried Gold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobert Louis Stevenson: Complete Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island: (With the Original Illustrations) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island + The Mysterious Island (2 Unabridged Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island (Classic Literature) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island (And the True Story Behind the Novel): The History Of Pirates and Their Treasure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobert Louis Stevenson Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island (Legend Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsISLAND TALES: The Mysterious Island & Treasure Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #63] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island (ArcadianPress Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Classics For You
The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebecca Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged) (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Affair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Treasure Island
4,697 ratings170 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I 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. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's Adventure, with capital A.If you didn't read it, you didn't have a happy childhood.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very enjoyable as an audiobook. The reader does a fantastic job with the voices and the emotion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5YAAARR. This be a tale of scallywags and high seas. Adventure be at it's finest, and the rum flows like water me lads.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pure classic.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Narrated by Alfred Molina. Had this on my to-listen list because of Molina's lauded performance. He tackles the classic with aplomb, differentiating among the voices of the growly pirates and the keen gentlemen, and smoothly describing the technical sailing terms as if he were an experienced sailor. I have to say the sailing terms were hard to grasp on audio, as well as the strategizing among the gentlemen and pirates. But at least I can say I finally experienced this pirate classic.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fantastic swashbuckling adventure!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Echt actieverhaal, maar van een bijzondere soort. Jim is een echte held, die ondanks naiviteit toch bepalend is voor de redding van de groep. Opvallend is vooral het dubbele portret van John Silver: moorddadige piraat, valserik aan de ene kant, maar ook romantische piraat, intelligent, goed wetend wat het goede is.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rereading Treasure Island for the first time since adolescence, I was struck by how tightly plotted the story is, and also how much of the story I had missed as a young reader. Stevenson writes with what is surely deadpan humor - for example, an over-the-top passage where the Squire begs forgiveness from his mortally-wounded gamekeeper for having dragged him on a wild-goose chase for buried treasure, only to have the servant (1) reply that it wouldn't be proper for him to forgive his master, (2) forgive him, and (3) promptly die. When the young protagonist kills a pirate in self-defense, Stevenson wastes no time on the notion that a good character must throw up or feel paralyzed by the knowledge they have taken a life; instead he describes, coolly, the way the pirate sinks to the bottom of the crystal clear bay. The story moves at a steady clip, is totally unsentimental, and lets the protagonist drive all the main action of the story through his choices, wise and otherwise. This book has aged well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This vastly influential pirate novel, first published 1881 (but with its story set in the middle 1700s) is of course superb, warmly recommended for everyone.But first a warning on what *not* to expect from its pirates. With all the pop-glamour surrounding buccaneering today, it's a surprise to see how the pirates in Treasure Island are depicted. Dangerous & bloodthirsty, but also seemingly rotten & somewhat incapable, with the only benefit of the doubt befalling Long John Silver.There may be undertones & hidden messages, but at face value most of the demonstrated competence is on the side of the British Empire, with her apparently disciplined sailors, stern captains, effective gentry, & fearless magistrates. Not to mention the Union Jack flag, furiously pitted against the skull & crossbones Jolly Roger.Modern pirate stories, in which imperial Britain may come out less favourably, have many fans. But the more old-fashioned point of view in Treasure Island is precisely what makes it interesting to modern readers. It highlights the multiple myths surrounding this pioneering age of global navigation.Also, to grasp the mystique of the treasure, it helps to understand how outlandish it is. The treasure buried on the island is estimated at £700,000. This sum was at the time of the story vast almost beyond comprehension. A booty share of £100,000 placed at, say, 5% interest, would yield the annual income of £5,000, enough to compete with the (extremely select) truly wealthy gentry, even with parts of the aristocracy. In Jane Austen's regency novel Emma, the heroine's father has a fortune of £30,000, repeatedly pegging him as "rich", certainly the richest man in the area. Yet his income is merely £1,500 a year.Even £1,000 a year (an elite threshold already) gave you resources for a good house & a private carriage - with all the needed servants. This is exactly the sort of respectability that many of the book's pirates & misfits articulate so loudly. Repeatedly, almost hypnotically, they utter their ultimate fantasy: owning a carriage.This isn't mere greed. It's the longing for an existence redeemed.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finished reading this book aloud to the kids TODAY! Hooray- it took all of 6 months.. with *many* breaks in between.. But it was a great read aloud. We had to look up many of the nautical terms and lingo, but it was a good story over all. I think I said in my original post that I wouldn't have picked this book up on my own. It's an adventure story about seafaring pirates.. And that is not something that grabs me, but nevertheless I did enjoy reading it to the kids. And now we can say we've read Treasure Island!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The first time I read this book was in fourth grade and I loved it even then. Its definitely one of my favorite classic books and my all time favorite pirate story. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist and main narrator is a thirteen year old boy who many young boys can easily relate to. The characters are vibrant and unique, including Long John Silver, one of the most incredible villains ever created. The story also flows nicely with a only a brief interruption of Jim's narrative in which another character narrates for a couple chapters. However the transition is smooth and doesn't cause confusion. All this together makes this one of my favorites books and I would definitely recommend it to readers of all ages. And I can't say enough about the Word Cloud Classic edition of the book. Imprinted to the front and back of the book are characters' names and quotes from the book and it just looks awesome. Also the movie Treasure Planet based on this book is a really interesting Science Fiction adaption of the story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So glad I finally read this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good adventure story at any age. I never read it as a child as it was considered a boy's book. It's a great tale, very fast paced with interesting characters.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: An old sailor named Billy Bones comes to the Admiral Benbow Inn, and dies after telling Jim Hawkins, the innkeeper's son, that his old crewmates are after the contents of his chest. When Jim opens the chest, he finds a map that supposedly has the location of an island where the notorious pirate Captain Flint buried much of his treasure. A local squire and doctor come up with the plan of buying a ship and going after the treasure, but the crew that they hire for the ship turns out to be former associates of Flint's, who are seeking the treasure for themselves.Review: Treasure Island is on the list of classics that I'd never read - which is sort of surprising, because naval adventures and pirates are right up my alley. But then I started watching Black Sails, and talking to a friend who was also watching it, and she told me that it was a prequel to Treasure Island, so I figured I should probably go tick another classic novel off my "to read" list.I'm sorry I waited so long. Admittedly, if you'd handed me this book as a kid I don't know that I'd have gotten into it; a lot of classics have fairly dense text that makes my eyes glaze over, and looking at the print version, this seems like one of them. But I listened to it in audio, and thought it was great. The narrator did an excellent job of parsing through the longer and more tangled sentences, and really brought the adventure to life. There were a few things that didn't entirely work for me, particularly the transition from one part to the next. I found the relatively large shifts in story (in location, in time, or in narrative voice, and sometimes in more than one of those) really distracting, and I didn't have a good enough handle on all of the character's names (particularly the more minor characters) to always be able to figure out who was where and who was doing what. But overall, it was a fun story, and it convinced me to seek out more of Stevenson's books -- in audio, though, of course. 4 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Pirates! Secret maps! Talking parrots! Mutiny! Castaways! Skeletons! Buried Treasure! If you like any of those things, it's probably best to go back to the source, and the good news is this book is pretty easy going (especially in audio) and fun. (Although you do get some spoilers about who lives and who doesn't in Black Sails. Heh.)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Definitiv ein Klassiker des Abenteuerromans ist „Die Schatzinsel“ und zu Recht ist R.L. Stevenson ein mittlerweile wieder anerkannter Autor. Dieser Erstlingsroman des damals 30-jährigen entstand, als er mit seinem Stiefsohn zum Zeitvertreib eine Schatzkarte zeichnete. Zunächst erschien die Geschichte als Fortsetzungsroman und dann- das war der endgültige Durchbruch- als kompletter Roman. Bis heute prägt dieses Buch unsere Bilder von Piraten: Holzbein, Papagei auf der Schulter, Schatzkarte. Die Namen der Protagonisten sind auch ohne Kenntnis des Buches bekannt: Jim Hawkins, Ben Gunn, Captain Flint und natürlich vor allem Long John Silver. Vor allem der letztgenannte entspricht ganz dem zwiespältigen Bild des Piraten und trägt zu den vielen Wendungen des Buches bei: Einerseits erscheint er fleißig, humorvoll und jovial, andererseits verschlagen, grausam und rücksichtslos. Für jugendliche Leser ist der junge Jim Hawkins die Identifikationsfigur. Jim fand die Schatzkarte bei einem verstorbenen Gast im Gasthaus eines Vaters und fährt als Schiffsjunge mit. Er ist mutig, findet immer wieder interessante Informationen heraus und rettet letztendlich seine Freunde und den Schatz.„Die Schatzinsel“ ist ein auch heute noch lesbarer Abenteuerroman - erstaunlich unterhaltsam und spannend.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good clasic
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Title: Treasure IslandAuthor: Robert Louis StevensonRelease Date: February 25, 2006 [EBook #120][Last Updated: November 10, 2010]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ASCIIPROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TREASURE ISLAND Produced by Judy Boss, John Hamm and David Widger
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Classic tale of Pirates and TreasureA pirate from Captain Flint’s ship who has Flint's treasure map stays at the Admiral Benbow Inn and when he dies Jim Hawkins (who becomes the cabin boy) finds the map and so begins the adventure. Sadly I’d never read this classic before although have seen a variety of adaptations. It’s a rollicking adventure tale that has had a massive impact on what we all think of when we think of pirates. Treasure maps marked with an X, parrots saying “pieces of eight”, 1 legged pirates (Long John Silver), the black spot etc etc. Although the language is a little dated it really doesn’t make the story any less readable.Overall – If your at all interested in pirates I think this is a must read!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A copy of this text is in my personal library. Actually in a junior high theatre class I'm teaching they are reading the musical version of this text. I wanted to read it to see the way it compared to the script. The reason I gave it three stars is I believe certain portions of this text contained words and phrases students would struggle comprehending. I wouldn't make it a class wide assignment, reading the book independently, but rather read it as a whole class. I would love to use this book as a read aloud and then select a scene from the play to act out. I think it would work well for readers theatre.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Re-reading this was an absolute pleasure from the first sentence to the last. Or to be precise, listening the audiobook with outstanding narration by Alfred Molina.Long John Silver is one of the extraordinary characters of literature, at times he almost feels on par with the creations of Shakespeare and Dickens. His extraordinary physical and psychological aptitude, his ambiguous amorality, and the way in which he controls from a position of servitude. The narrator, Jim Hawkins, and his group are more cookie cutter cardboard romantic heroes, but still interesting and compelling. And many of the characters with walk on parts, like Billy Bones and the blind pirate Pew, are fascinating.The plot moves along briskly, although the terrors are considerably greater in the first quarter--before the mutineers declare themselves--and toward the end when Jim ends up back with the pirates. In between is a decent amount of fighting and straight up adventure, which is well told and interesting but hardly something that on its own would stand the test of time.Occasionally all of the pirate talk feels a little oppressive and cliched, but then you remind yourself that this is the novel that invented all of it. But mostly the language lends a strong scent of salty reality to this classic boys adventure novel.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island, a classic young adult adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, is largely deserving of its fame. Although the plot is fundamentally simple, it's tightly written and manages to include a couple small, unexpected twists. Surprisingly, the characters are one of the book's strengths: while none of them are terribly deep, they are all rendered with such color and personality that you get to know them (and like or dislike them) by the end of the book. Treasure Island is also unlike many modern novels in its combination of brevity and completeness: it successfully includes the entirety of a satisfying tale in a single, fairly slim book.Treasure Island tells of a turning point in the life of Jim Hawkins, a young, British teenager in the 1760s or 1770s. Partially by happenstance and partially through his own thoughtless actions, he uncovers a treasure map and becomes cabin boy on a voyage to recover gold buried on a remote island by the infamous pirate Captain Flint.Stevenson's writing doesn't give you a look inside Jim's head, so we only get to know him through his words and actions. Thus, the reader only comes to the gradual realization that Jim is a surprisingly dumb and foolish protagonist. Early on, it is evident that he has an excess of bravery. But apart from that, as scene follows scene, Jim repeatedly exhibits a certain naivete about the world that is not cured by his repeated realizations that he has erred. This may or may not be realistic- it's hard for me to say- but it's certainly not common for novel protagonists, who tend to be of above-average intelligence.We also get to know the other characters through their words and actions. Jim seldom passes judgment on any of the characters- and when he does, you have no confidence whatsoever in his feelings- leaving you to decide what you think of men like Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and above all, Long John Silver.Long John Silver is the star of the book- more complex, colorful, and just plain fun-to-read-about than any other character. Getting to know him is an important part of the book, so I won't say more about him here.The book does have flaws. It lacks any female or minority characters or viewpoints. The protagonist isn't particularly appealing, nor is he a good role model. The story leaves a glaring loose end (Trelawney's failure to keep the island's latitude and longitude a secret), the consequences of which I was waiting for throughout the entire book. And lastly, the simplicity of the tale precludes any particularly brilliant or impactful scenes or lessons. In short, the book doesn't attain greatness. But it's pretty good, and it achieves what it attempts to achieve.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Treasure Island stands out as a classic of young adventure fiction for good reason. Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale has survived the test of time because it is fast paced enough for the modern reader, packed with action and heroism that the young readily take to, and populated mostly with characters who leave little doubt about whose side they’re on. I say mostly, because one exception added a new element to this type of adventure fiction in the 1880’s—moral ambiguity. But more about that below.I recently revisited Stevenson’s young hero, Jim Hawkins, because his tale is one of the most read of all time. And it has gone on to become a story to be savored beyond the printed word. Without including the scads of TV serializations in many languages, at least seventeen movie versions of the story have been filmed since the first one in 1912.In case you’ve forgotten Jim, or were never aware of him in the first place, he is a 14 year-old who is helping his struggling parents run a quiet country inn when events overtake him. The inn is chosen as a hideaway by a frightening sailor with a dark secret. The sailor, Billy Bones, stays on long after his money runs out because Jim’s parents are too intimidated to send the man packing. Eventually, several rogues Bones has double crossed catch up to him. In the turmoil that follows, Jim’s father dies, his mother loses the inn, and Jim comes away with a treasure map.It’s here that the real adventure starts when the second most famous character from the book, Long John Silver, joins the crew that sets out on the voyage to recover the treasure. Silver is the model for all the later fiction pirates with parrots on their shoulders and peg-legs. The plotting begins soon after the ship hoists anchor, but the actual skullduggery doesn’t begin in earnest until arrival at the destination, the tropical Caribbean island marked on Jim’s map. There the two sides become clear. They become even clearer at the actual site of the X marked on the map.Jim sees what needs to be done to save his friends and confronts the various pirate mutineers several times. Because Jim’s companions are unaware that he is responding to the threats he uncovers, they come to question his reliability and loyalty. However, it is Jim’s brave actions that more than once allow his friends to stay half a step ahead of the pirates.Jim proves himself when he is captured by the pirates and puts his word and honor above his own safety. His actions eventually redeem him in the eyes of his friends and set him free, but only after he learns everything is not always black and white in the adult world. This is where the moral ambiguity comes in because Jim accepts help from the dubious character alluded to in the opening paragraph. I am speaking of Long John Silver, of course.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5As noted by a prior reviewer, Stevenson's classic adventure tale was clearly written for young people. However, the book goes no further. Its simplistic characters and lack of depth or story line will leave the adult reader wanting more. Personally, I thought the book was unimpressive. Read Stevenson's Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde instead.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed reading through this. It's a great adventure tale, and it has been deemed a classic for good reason.
A lot of my reading was colored by the number of times I've seen various film adaptations of the story, and I must say I was impressed that no film version I have ever seen accurately represents the entire story. One will get these things right, another will get those things right, and all of them will miss out on this tidbit, or that one. But I liked the book a great deal.
It doesn't get five stars for... some reason or another. I don't quite remember. My brain is a little frazzled right now, for personal reasons; perhaps I will amend this review later if I think of more details. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jim Hawkins narrates this story of the search for buried treasure. Main characters include Dr. livesey, Trelawney, capt Smolttet, Long John Silver and members of the crew.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An adventures book that manages to be crafted as a masterpiece. The utlimate teens book. Beautifully lyric passages that made me, for the first time, realize the beauty of the English language.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Never 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson was an excellent book that I enjoyed reading. I like adventures and have not read a lot of pirate stories but this was one that I liked. I could see this story being well perceived by young and old as well. I would recommend this to be read by others.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5this book is not a book for me not enough action and just boring
Book preview
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
Part One
The Old Buccaneer
Chapter 1
The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow
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 2
Black Dog Appears and Disappears
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 as sailed with him. And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm, bless his old ‘art, to be sure. You and me’ll just go back into the parlour, sonny, and get behind the door, and we’ll give Bill a little surprise—bless his ‘art, I say again.
So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlour and put me behind him in the corner so that we were both hidden by the open door. I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath; and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the throat.
At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, without looking to the right or left, and marched straight across the room to where his breakfast awaited him.
Bill,
said the stranger in a voice that I thought he had tried to make bold and big.
The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us; all the brown had gone out of his face, and even his nose was blue; he had the look of a man who sees a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, if anything can be; and upon my word, I felt sorry to see him all in a moment turn so old and sick.
Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shipmate, Bill, surely,
said the stranger.
The captain made a sort of gasp.
Black Dog!
said he.
And who else?
returned the other, getting more at his ease. Black Dog as ever was, come for to see his old shipmate Billy, at the Admiral Benbow inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, since I lost them two talons,
holding up his mutilated hand.
Now, look here,
said the captain; you’ve run me down; here I am; well, then, speak up; what is it?
That’s you, Bill,
returned Black Dog, you’re in the right of it, Billy. I’ll have a glass of rum from this dear child here, as I’ve took such a liking to; and we’ll sit down, if you please, and talk square, like old shipmates.
When I returned with the rum, they were already seated on either side of the captain’s breakfast-table—Black Dog next to the door and sitting sideways so as to have one