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)