Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Illustration by Georges Roux

Here's another book that escaped me when I was a child.  Naturally, I saw the Disney film featuring Robert Newton's "ar-har" version of Long John Silver, but I never actually got around to reading the book.

So. Jim Hawkins, a lad, finds a treasure map in the belongings of a dead pirate.  He teams up with Squire Trelawney (the money) and Dr Livesey (the brains), and they buy a sailing ship, hire a crew and head for the West Indies.  Oops! The hired hands are actually pirates, and they mutiny when the ship has reached the island marked on the treasure map.  How will Jim and his friends live long enough to find the treasure?

Robert Louis Stevenson knows how to tell a tale, and this one has its fair share of twists and turns.  In Jim Hawkins he has created an intelligent, resourceful and sympathetic protagonist; in Long John Silver, he has created an intelligent, resourceful and sympathetic villain; and it is a real treat to see interplay between the two as their separate fortunes wax and wain.

Stevenson also had the skill to populate his story with some interesting support characters, both good and evil and those that waver in between.  Of course, what would have been novel in the author's day seems cliche to we folk of the 21st century who have had the legacy of over a hundred years of the story being retold.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and my regret is that I did nor read it as a child,  I can imagine how this tale would have seared itself on an open and impressionable mind.

Publishing details: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Originally published 1883. This edition: A Public Domain Book, obtained through Amazon Books, no publication information given)

The Celestial Steam Locomotive by Michael Coney

The year is 143,624.  The human race has evolved into five dictinct species.  Two of these species - the Cuidadors and the Neotenites - dwell exclusively in giant domes dotted across the countryside.  The Cuidadors oversee a gigantic worldwide computer known as The Rainbow.  The Neotenites' bodies lie in suspended animation while their minds live in an idyllic cyberspace reality known as Dream Earth.  But things are starting to go wrong.  The Rainbow becomes unreliable, and the Neotenites are dying for no apparent cause.  An unlikely triad - a Cuidador, a Neotenite and a Wild Human from outside the domes - join together to discover what is happening.

I first read this novel in 1987.  I think it is one of the best stories I have ever read.  Coney is a master narrator,  and he gently nudges the main narrative forward while leading the reader down many delightful, horrifying or plain amusing sidetracks.  Coney's inventiveness is to be marvelled at, as is his prescience.  This novel describes a worldwide computer web and a shared cyber-reality, and it pre-dates William Gibson's Neuromancer.

The reader is introduced to concepts of The Greataway, The Ifalong, Hate Bombs, Happentracks, Dream Earth and The Celestial Steam Locomotive itself.  Once these are understood (and they are described beautifully and succinctly), an amazing tale unfolds, and it takes us from the jungles of South America to the far reaches of the galaxy, and backwards and forwards through time.  Improbably, In amongst all of this, we meet Blind Pew, Long John Silver and Marilyn Monroe.  Yes, an amazing tale, and one told with good humour and great compassion.  And, yes, Science Fiction is literature too. 

The Celestial Steam Locomotive is Book One of The Song of the Earth.  Book Two is called Gods of the Greataway.  I will be reviewing that book in the near future.

Publishing details: The Celestial Steam Locomotive by Micheal Coney (First published by Orbit Books in 1983.  This edition: [e-reads] Books, New York, 2003)

The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning

Illustration by Kate Greenaway

I have found that quite a few things escaped my notice when I was a child; one of them was Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin.  Of course, I knew the story, but I had never heard or read Browning's version.  I mentioned this to my wife and to my surprise she started reciting parts of the poem.

According to Browning, the people of Hamelin were happy and prosperous, except in one respect: their city was heavily infested with rats, which were getting into every cellar and cupboard in town.  One day a piper dressed in red and yellow turns up at the Town Hall and he tells the mayor and aldermen that for a thousand guilders he will rid the city of the rats.  The Piper's terms are accepted, and he delivers on his promise; however, the Council refuse to uphold their side of the bargain, and they offer to pay only fifty guilders.  The Piper exacts his revenge by enchanting away the children of Hamelin, and they are last seen following the Piper into a cave entrance, which shuts forever when the Piper's music stops.  Despite their best efforts, the people of Hamelin never have news of their children again.

Browning's poem is very readable.  He does tend to pile up the end-rhymes throughout the stanzas of the poem, and the meter is wayward in places.  Even so, Browning's apt choice of words to paint brief but vivid scenes redeems the poem, and we can forgive any resemblance it bears to doggerel. Anyway, the kids will love it.

The moral of the tale seems straightforward - don't break your promises - but I've often wondered about the symbolism of this tale.  The Piper has supernatural talents.  He can punish as well as reward, and he does punish those who do not keep their promises.  Krishna is traditionally depicted as a piper, for it is he who bestows the breath of life.  And we know how judgemental and vengeful the God of Abraham can be to anyone who breaks His covenant.  The Piper offers both the rats and the children a vision of paradise (as is reported by the one surviving rat and the one remaining child).  Yes, I think there are quite a few avenues of metaphorical speculation that the willing reader can stroll down at their leisure, should they read the poem.

Publishing details: The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning (originally published 1842)

A copy of the poem can be found at: The Pied Piper of Hamelin