Treasure Island - BookRaptor

English language

Published by Penguin Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-062083-2

(1 review)

Treasure Island (originally The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys) is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold." Its influence is enormous on popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an "X", schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.As one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels, Treasure Island was originally considered a coming-of-age story and is noted for its atmosphere, characters, and action. It was originally serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks from 1881 through 1882 under the title Treasure Island or the mutiny of the Hispaniola, credited to the pseudonym "Captain George North". It was first published as a book on 14 November 1883, by Cassell & Co.

37 editions

mikerickson@bookwyrm.social reviewed Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

-

3 stars

Feels like whenever I read a ~classic~ I inevitably come across some pop cultural reference that I never realized was originally sourced from a book. Turns out in this case I didn't know that "Long John Silver" was the name of a character and not just a fast-food chain.

I got what I wanted out of this book: a bonafide swashbuckling high seas adventure with pirate tropes out the wazoo. And really, it had it all: treasure maps, castaways, talking parrots, peg legs, treachery, scurvy, cannonballs, etc., etc. It was interesting to read what basically amounted to the source material of an entire genre and aesthetic.

Beyond that, this modern-day reader didn't think it was that special plot-wise. The pacing threw me off because despite near-constant action in every chapter, there was a rather abrupt ending I wasn't expecting. Some of the dated slang in the dialogue and in-depth explanations …

Feels like whenever I read a ~classic~ I inevitably come across some pop cultural reference that I never realized was originally sourced from a book. Turns out in this case I didn't know that "Long John Silver" was the name of a character and not just a fast-food chain.

I got what I wanted out of this book: a bonafide swashbuckling high seas adventure with pirate tropes out the wazoo. And really, it had it all: treasure maps, castaways, talking parrots, peg legs, treachery, scurvy, cannonballs, etc., etc. It was interesting to read what basically amounted to the source material of an entire genre and aesthetic.

Beyond that, this modern-day reader didn't think it was that special plot-wise. The pacing threw me off because despite near-constant action in every chapter, there was a rather abrupt ending I wasn't expecting. Some of the dated slang in the dialogue and in-depth explanations of rigging and ship descriptions were hard to follow, and the protagonist (I don't think we're ever given an exact age, but he's referred to as a boy throughout) is so conveniently lucky so many times that it defies belief. But then again, this book was aimed at nineteenth-century children, so I'm clearly not the intended demographic and that's okay.