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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.