Book Review: Treasure Island

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Source: Amazon.com

From the book’s cover:

One of the most enduringly popular adventure tales, Treasure Island began in 1881 as a serialized adventure entitled "The Sea-Cook" in the periodical Young Folks. Completed during a stay at Davos, Switzerland, where Stevenson had gone for his health, it was published in 1883 in the form we know today.

Set in the eighteenth century, Treasure Island spins a heady tale of piracy, a mysterious treasure map, and a host of sinister characters charged with diabolical intentions. Seen through the eyes of Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy of the Hispaniola, the action-packed adventure tells of a perilous sea journey across the Spanish Main, a mutiny  led by the infamous Long John Silver, and a lethal scramble for buried treasure on an exotic isle.

Rich in atmosphere and character, Treasure Island continues to mesmerize readers with its perceptive views of the changing nature of human motives.

The review: 

Well it is tough to review a classic, and I really just wanted to read Treasure Island again with the eyes of maturity in my favor, so to speak.  Really, I ought to read this one to my kid.  Now that I can do it justice and explain it as I go.  Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island really is a griping story.  But then that author, from my experience, knew how to do that story par excellence.

By way of a bit of personal history, I've read Treasure Island a few times in my life.  The first time I can specifically recall doing so was when I was in Junior High (maybe eighth grade, I think).  I did a report on it in English class, if memory serves.  And, for a shocker, I actually read the book in order to do the assignment.  I was not always so interested in academics, gentle reader.  As a kid, I was very much anti-school work.

The author, Robert Louis Stevenson. / Source: Wikipedia.org

Back to my story.  I had a hard time understanding Treasure Island that first read-through in Junior High.  You know, that was the problem in the pre-internet years.  If you didn't understand things in a book that were said, you had to ask somebody who did (which was anathema to me then: I'd as sooner asked about the birds and the bees in my rebellious/shy teenage years).  Or you had to look up your question in another book.  Which I was never cool with.  After all, you shouldn't have to read two books to understand one, I would reason.  So I muddled through.  But I still appreciated that there was good stuff there, despite my lack of understanding.  It helped to have the imagery from the classic 1950 Disney flick to fall back on.  That old guy who played Long John Silver (Robert Newton) is the buccaneer extraordinaire to me.  You can keep your Captain Jack Sparrow's, in comparison.

I've read Treasure Island a few times since then, but as I get older and... wiser, shall we say? - I read it with a much improved understanding.  This time I figured to read the novel again and enjoy it without the effort of trying to analyze the material or do a report or some such chore.  Just to enjoy seeing the movie in my head playing.  The best books do that, you know.  At least for me they do.  You see what's going on in your mind, as the author spins his tale.  Which is pleasant, as the last few books I've read have left me very much wanting, in that regard.  Sure, I see what the author's of those texts mean for me to see (to a certain extent, that is), but I have to work at it to keep the scene going.  Not so with Stevenson's novel.  And that is truly comfortable, let me tell you.

Having seen the Disney film way before I ever read the novel, I can't make anyone else's face appear when I think of Long John Silver except for Robert Newton's. / Source: disneyfilmproject.com

Ok, enough palaver.  Back to the Admiral Ben Bo and that rascal, Billy Bones.  Adventure awaits.  I recommend Treasure Island whole-heartedly.  You could have skipped my whole review and taken my word at that one sentence, and we would be in accord, folks.  Good stuff indeed.

Learn more about Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson,  on Amazon.com

Or read the free Kindle version here!

The parting comment:


It has nothing to do with Treasure Island, but I got a kick out of this brief Monty Python sketch.  Maybe you will too.  And if not...  then you must be a communist.