Treasure Island

Instead of directly going into lauding Robert Louis Stevenson's abilities as a writer, I will pause to share with you something that I have just recently learned while going over this book in a literature class. Apparently the map that is published with all copies of Treasure island since it first came out in print is not the original.

This is important only because of the way that Stevenson wrote Treasure Island. According to a letter that Stevenson wrote to his friend immediately after the original printing, it was the map that inspired the story and not the other way around. I find the strange parallelism that can be drawn with the story itself to be very interesting but I'll leave that up to you to do once you read it.

The letter goes on to say that Stevenson drew this map well before the story (with his son I believe) and it was the map itself that caused both of their imaginations to run wild. Stevenson bemoans the fact that the map was misplaced because "it had so many more stories to tell". The map that you find in present day copies of Treasure Island was drawn up after the story was completed and the original was lost, to please the publishers.

The story itself is primarily concerned with Jim Hawkins, our young hero. From the start the reader identifies with Hawkins, because for the first part of the book Hawkins acts as a very passive observer, letting things happen as they will without any initiative.

Through an odd course of events, Hawkins goes off in search of pirate treasure with Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesey, after his father dies. He is dragged along by them onto the ship Hispaniola, following a treasure map that various factions of pirates are seeking to get a hold of. Hawkins goes on observing the characters of the book for the audience until they are nearly to the island. One of the most powerful and memorable characters of children's literature, Captain Long John Silver befriends Jim during the voyage and seems friendly enough at first.

It is during the scene in the apple barrel that our protagonist finally begins to show some initiative. He overhears Silver plotting against the doctor and squire while he is hiding in the apple barrel, and the scene of him crawling out of the barrel can easily be scene as a rebirth of sorts, on many different levels. It is here that Stevenson has Jim first start to think for himself and do things without being told. (Read the book, the whole rebirth thing and all the rest will make sense then).

The rest of the story is full of action, intrigue and adventure. The plot twists are constant and original so they aren't foreseen by the reader. Stevenson quite aptly captures the idea of the subtle and never-ending changes of motive that are part of human nature. The reader is never left without interest or a sense of excited anticipation right through to the story's conclusion.

Overall, this a masterfully crafted tale by Stevenson, whose unique and distinctive writing style has to be read to be truly appreciated. No reader is left unsatisfied at the end, though as a cautionary note to parents, this really is suitable for any younger children. The mayhem and violence are constant, which doesn't tend to mix well with those under eight or nine (your call of course).
As A Side Note:
Do not get the Dover Thrift Edition if you want to read this book more than once. I don't know if this is true of all the Treasure Island's that were printed by them, but mine fell apart almost as fast as I read it, which made doing a paper on it later a lesson in organization as well. Oh, what a silly poor college student to overlook craftsmanship because of a $1.50 price tag....