Nuevamente, y por la naturaleza de este libro que leí, decidí “embarcarme” en una novela de aventuras. Luego de leer “Robur, el Conquistador” de Julio Verne, uno de mis ídolos literarios de la niñez, necesitaba releer éste, algo que yo había hecho hace treinta años atrás y por eso decidí comprar la edición de Penguin Clásicos. Muchas veces me sucede que ciertas novelas de argumento complicado o desenlace trágico me saturan y me es necesario alivianar un poco la carga, despejándome con una que me haga disfrutar del placer de la lectura nuevamente.
Siempre consideré a Robert Louis Stevenson un gran escritor. Ha quedado un poco a la sombra de los grandes novelistas sin que eso haya mermado su calidad literaria a través de tantos años. En una acalorada frase resume cómo se sentía al respecto cuando declara en una carta a un amigo ”Que escriban sus malditas obras maestras para ellos y me dejen en paz!”.
Con una buen cantidad de cuentos, la pequeña e inolvidable nouvelle, “El extraño caso del Dr. Jekyll y Mr. Hyde” y este libro le fue suficiente para ser recordado por siempre. Existen otras novelas y cuentos también célebres como “El Diablo en la Botella”, “La Flecha Negra” o “Las Nuevas Mil y una Noches” que están también a la altura de otros títulos de su obra, pero este libro y el de Jekyll y Hyde fueron los que quedaron en la memoria y el corazón del lector.
Stevenson reconoce que se inspiró en otras novelas y sin necesidad de plagiarlas, creó la historia de “La Isla del Tesoro” a partir de un mapa que dibujó junto al hijo de su esposa, llamado Sam “Lloyd” Osbourne y a quien quería mucho, además de tomar como modelo para su personaje Long John Silver a su mejor amigo, W.E. Henley, quien era cojo de una pierna: “Fue el verte en acción con tu fuerza mutilada y tu carisma dominante lo que engendró a John Silver”.
En lo que a este libro respecta, Stevenson, lector asiduo, tomó lo mejor de novelistas como Washington Irving, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe y aspectos del cuento “El Escarabajo de Oro” de Edgar Allan Poe para darle forma a su propia novela. En esa época era moneda corriente encontrarse con libros como “Robinson Crusoe”, “Los Viajes de Gulliver” o “La Narrativa de Arthur Gordon Pym” para utilizar como plataforma de salto a cualquier nueva aventura en el mar y fue clave para Stevenson leer un libro que le regalara su amigo Henley, llamado “Historia general de los robos y asesinatos de los más famosos piratas”, escrito por un tal Johnson.
Con todo ese material, Stevenson se embarcó en el proyecto de escritura que sufriría un parate ante la pérdida de inspiración deteniendo su publicación por partes en el “Young Folks”, una revista literaria muy de moda para jóvenes en esos años.
Por mi parte, me es difícil despegarme de alguien que ha escrito varias novelas sobre el mar, los barcos y las experiencias de los hombres que se subieron a ellos y me refiero a uno de mis escritores predilectos: Herman Melville.
Puedo asegurar que el personaje principal de esta narración, Jim Hawkins posee el deseo de aventura de Ishmael en “Moby Dick,” corre los peligros de “Billy Budd” y tiene la audacia innata de “Israel Potter”, todas ellas escritas por Melville y protagonizadas por personajes arrastrados a situaciones tan peligrosas para ponerlos a prueba y transformarlos rápidamente en hombres aún siendo adolescentes inexpertos.
En este libro aparecen personajes maravillosos. El de Hawkins es un caso. Es un adolescente intrépido, del que estimamos posee entre doce y quince años de edad y del que supongo fue creado por Stevenson para homenajear a su hijastro. Otro personaje digno de admiración es el doctor Livesey, de una entereza intachable a lo largo de todo el libro. Sus valores permanecen inalterables. Junto a él, el caballero Trewlaney y el capitán Smollet conforman un grupo de hombres notables que jamás se rendirán ante las vicisitudes de los motines y de las sangrientas acciones que se desarrollan promediando el libro.
Por el otro lado, nos encontraremos a personajes que tendrán mucho que ver a lo largo de la historia. Desde el primer bucanero, el viejo capitán Billy Bones, pasando por distintos piratas menores como Hands, Merry, O’Brien y Anderson, y especialmente quien descolla como el personaje más complejo de la historia y que es el mismísimo Long John Silver. Es un hombre que fluctúa entre el bien y el mal, entre la ambición y el deber y a quien veremos debatirse entre ir a buscar el tesoro y salirse con su obsesiva intención de quedarse con toda esa fortuna en caso de encontrarlo. Rápidamente, la codicia del "hombre de fortuna", que es definición del pirata, le ganará la compulsa en su cabeza para amotinarse a bordo de la Hyspaniola, la goleta que los llevará a la isla en donde supuestamente se encuentra ese que dejara escondido el famoso Capitán Flint junto con el mapa para llegar a él.
Mención final para Ben Gunn, un personaje del que no contaré mucho para quien no haya leído el libro aún, pero que tiene mucho que ver el transcurso de la historia.
Este libro me ha llevado de vuelta a mi infancia, a mi adolescencia y a la época en que no hacía otra cosa más que leer los libros de aventura que tanto me gustaban.
Y ustedes se preguntarán: ¿Y el tesoro? ¿Por qué esta reseña no dice nada acerca de él? ¿Lo encuentran o no?
Bueno, como en varios pasajes del libro dicen la frase ”Los muertos no muerden”, me transformaré en una tumba y no comentaré nada por respeto al lector que quiera seguir los pasos de Jim Hawkins y su atrapante aventura en busca de "La Isla del Tesoro", así que... ¡todos a bordo!

★★★★★★★★☆☆[8/10]



When you encounter a haggard and bedraggled fellow in the middle of an uninhabited island that you have sailed to to find treasure, and the fellow in question claims that he is rich, you could undoubtedly decide that you have succeeded in your mission. Claim the prize. Flee the scene. End of the story.

Alas, that is not how Robert Louis Stevenson envisaged the ending. At this point, you have more than two thirds of the book to finish. Yet you carry on as if you haven't a clue about how the mariners who are on a death-mission will return absolutely unscathed, to enjoy the riches that the island bestowed upon them.
Yes, because it is Stevenson.

So, if you are not someone who is directionally- and spatially-challenged like me, and is fond of cursing like an old English sailor (or a buccaneer) (Anu, are you reading this? Man! That was seriously messed up even for dootiful followers of the parlance!), and utterly bored with life's real quests, then hop onto Captain Smollett's schooner and head for Treasure Island. Remember, you'll only have young Jim Hawkins to save your butt in case you get caught in trouble. And, may luck be with you. As for the sheer literary brilliance of the book, I leave it up to you to decide (I am not particularly partial to piratealect!).

[The only thing that troubles me is how people treat Long John Silver like a glorified villain. He stabbed a faithful seaman in cold blood at the first chance he got-- and there's no glory in that, I tell you. He is an oleaginous wretch as Jim Hawkins has rightly said, and I have only that much regard for him.]


(Can't say "no" to that, eh?)

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island 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.

An old sailor named Billy Bones comes to lodge in the rural Admiral Benbow Inn on the West English coast. He tells the innkeeper's son, Jim Hawkins, to keep a lookout for "a one-legged seafaring man."

A former shipmate, Black Dog, confronts Bones and engages in a violent fight with him. After Black Dog is run off, a blind beggar named Pew visits to give Bones "the black spot" as a summons to share a map leading to buried treasure. Shortly thereafter, Bones suffers a stroke and dies.

Pew and his accomplices attack the inn, but Jim and his mother save themselves while taking Bones's sea chest. Inside the chest, they find a map of an island on which the infamous pirate Captain Flint hid his treasure.

Jim shows the map to the local physician Dr. Livesey and the district squire John Trelawney, and they decide to make an expedition to the island, with Jim serving as a cabin boy. They set sail on Trelawney's schooner, the Hispaniola, under Captain Smollett.

Much of the crew, as it is later revealed, are pirates who served under Captain Flint, most notable of which is the ship's one-legged chef "Long John" Silver. Jim, sitting in an apple casket, overhears the conspirators' plan to mutiny after the salvage of the treasure and to assassinate the skippers. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: یکی از روزهای سال 1973میلادی

عنوان: جزیره گنج؛ نویسنده: رابرت لوئیس (لوئیز) استیونسون (استیونسن)؛ مترجم: هاجر تربیت؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه، چاپ دوم 1343، در 278ص؛
مترجم: اردشیر نیکپور؛ تهران، گوتنبرگ، چاپ دوم 1351، در 364ص؛ موضوع: داستان کودکان از نویسندگان اسکاتلند - سده 19م

مترجمهای دیگر، خانمها و آقایان: «حسین دستوم»؛ «یوسف فرخ»؛ «عباس کرمی فر»؛ «پرویز نجم الدینی»؛ «محسن سلیمانی»؛ «امیرمهدی مراد حاصل»؛ «صفورا کلهر»؛ «احمد کسایی پور»؛ «سپهر شهلایی»؛ «علی اکبری»؛ «علیرضا نعمتی»؛ «محمدرضا جعفری»؛ «نعیمه ظاهری»؛ «آرمین هدایتی»؛ «مهسا طاهریان»؛ «مهسا یزدانی»؛ «محمد قصاع»؛ «امین دادور»؛ «سهیل رمضانی»؛ «محمد همت خواه»؛ «ناهید حاجی سلیمانی»؛ «شهلا طهماسبی»؛ «بیتا ابراهیمی»؛ «سوده کریمی»؛ و ...؛

داستانی ماجراجویانه، که «رابرت لویی (لوئیز یا لوئیس) استیونسُن» نویسنده «اسکاتلندی» نوشته است؛ این رمان نخستین بار در سال 1883میلادی به صورت کتاب به چاپ رسید، و موضوع آن درباره ی دزدان دریایی، و گنجی مدفون، در یک جزیره است؛ «جزیره ی گنج» هماره در زمره ی ادبیات کودک و نوجوان، بوده است، و منتقدان آن را به خاطر توصیف استادانه ی نویسنده، از: «شخصیت‌ها»، «رویدادها»، و «فضای داستان»، بسیار ستوده‌ اند؛ بارها به روی صحنه ی تئاترها، و پرده ی سینماها رفته، و از محبوبیت ویژه ای، نزد نوجوانان، برخوردار است

رابرت لویی استیونسن، تنها فرزند «توماس استیونسن» یکی ازبهترین مهندسان شهر بود؛ او که از کودکی ضعیف و مریض احوال بود، پس از سفر به کشورهای گوناگون، سالهای پایانی زندگی را، در سرزمین دلخواهش «سامو» گذراند؛ مردمان بومی، ایشان را «قصه گوی قصه ها» نامیدند؛ دریانوردی پیر، در مسافرخانه‌ ای میمیرد، و «جیم» در صندوقچه‌ ی او، نقشه ی گنجی را مییابد؛ او و دوستانش، به جزیره‌ ای دور سفر میکنند، اما دزدان دریایی خطرناکی نیز به دنبال همان گنج هستند

نقل از آغاز متن: (مسافرخانه ی «آدمیرال بِن بو»: از من خواسته اند که هرچه درباره ی جزیره ی گنج میدانم، از اول تا آخر بنویسم؛ برای همین هم چیزی را از قلم نمیاندازم؛ ماجرای من، موقعی شروع شد که پدرم هنوز مسافرخانه ی «آدمیرال بِن بو» را اداره میکرد و این همان موقعی بود که دریانوردی پیر، برای اولین بار به مسافرخانه ی ما آمد؛ خوب به یاد دارم، انگار همین دیروز بود؛ او جلوی در مسافرخانه آمد؛ پشت سرش، یک گاری دستی بود که روی آن صندوقچه ای قرار داشت؛ مرد تازه وارد، قوی و بدقواره بود و کت ملوانی آبی رنگ و کثیفی ب�� تن داشت؛ روی دستانش علامت زخمی دیده میشد و ناخنهایش سیاه و شکسته بود؛ روی صورتش هم علامت زخم شمشیر بود

او به خلیج کوچک جلوی مسافرخانه نگاه میکرد و برای خودش سوت میزد؛ پس از مدتی، ناگهان شروع به خواندن یکی از آوازهای قدیمی ملوانها کرد: پانزده مرد، روی سینه ی یک مرده؛ یوهوهو، هوهوهو

دریانورد پیر، پس از اینکه از پدرم یک نوشیدنی گرفت، گفت: «جای جالبی است؛ آدمهای زیادی اینجا می آیند؟»؛

پدرم گفت: «نه متاسفانه.»؛

مرد گفت: «پس جای من این جاست.»؛ بعد، خدمتکاری را که گاری دستی را آورده بود، صدا زد و گفت: «صندوق را بیاور تو!» و به پدرم گفت: «من آدمی ساده ام؛ از شما هم فقط نوشیدنی، ژامبون و تخم مرغ میخواهم.»؛

بعد چند سکه ی طلا روی میز انداخت و گفت: «هر وقت تمام شد، بگویید! در ضمن میتوانید مرا ناخدا صدا بزنید.»؛

ناخدا مرد ساکتی بود.؛ تمام روز را با دور��ین برنجی اش، در اطراف خلیج یا روی صخره ها پرسه میزد؛ شبها نیز در گوشه ای از سالن مینشست و مینوشید؛ او، اغلب از ما میپرسید: «در جاده، دریانوردی ندیدید؟»؛

اوایل فکر میکردیم که او دوست دارد با دریانوردها هم صحبت شود؛ اما وقتی دریانوردی سر راهش به بریستِل به مسافرخانه ی ما میآمد، ناخدا قبل از ورود به سالن پذیرایی، ابتدا از پشت پرده های در، با دقت به او نگاه میکرد و آنگاه وارد میشد و مثل همیشه، ساکت در گوشه ای مینشست.؛

روزی، ناخدا مرا به کناری کشید و گفت: «جیم! اگر همیشه مواظب باشی و هر وقت ملوانی یک پا دیدی، فوری به من بگویی، هر ماه یک سکه ی نقره ی چهار پنی به تو میدهم.»؛

آن روز، فکر یافتن دریانورد یک پا، خوابهای مرا آشفته کرد؛ با اینحال، بیش از آن که از دریانورد یک پا بترسم، از خود ناخدا میترسیدم، زیرا بعضی از شبها که سرش گرم میشد، همه را ساکت و مجبور میکرد که به داستانهای ترسناکش گوش کنند و آوازهای قدیمی ملوانها را با او بخوانند.)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 05/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Un romanzo di avventura super godibile! Forse mi aspettavo di più soprattutto per quanto riguarda la presenza di scorribande e misteri, ma c'è da dire che rientra nei canoni tipici dell'epoca in cui è stato scritto. Resta comunque un ottimo libro per approcciarsi alle storie di pirati.

My absolute favourite adventure story of them all. You have the Admiral Benbow, a little boy named Jim Hawkins, "Captain" Billy Bones, a cruffy old pirate, an incredible eerie pre-story (black spot), a treasure hunt, the ghost of Flint (Ben Gunn), the fight with Israel Hands and of course the one-legged villain Long John Silver. So many fine characters and an absolutely compelling plot. I've watched all the movies and series about Treasure Island as a kid and still like that classic at my age. What more can I say? Must read. This is one of the most famous adventure books you'll ever come across.

Robert Louis Stevenson was an author I became acquainted with very early in life, as the 1959 date suggests; this was my first book by him, and one of the staple favorites of my childhood. (The date is rough; I may have been younger than seven when I first read it, and two is just a guess as to how many times I read it --it was at least that, but maybe more.) My rating is my hindsight assessment of how it stacks up today in the mental canon of literature I've read; but if I'd read it today, with an adult's perspective, my rating might actually be higher.

Stylistically, this book has much in common with the author's Kidnapped (without the Scots dialect), and illustrates some of the qualities that lead me to rank him as a favorite writer: a well-crafted plot with a hefty adventure and excitement quotient; vivid, vibrant characters; a solidly moral orientation; a protagonist I could identify with. His formal, 19th-century diction seemed to me back then (and probably also would today) like serious prose for a serious story, and seemed appropriate to the historical setting. (Admittedly, the nautical terms and some of the other vocabulary, using terms outside my experience, was a challenge, but I could usually roughly interpret it from the context --for instance, I could tell that a "lugger" was some sort of boat.) Today, I can recognize the book as a classic of Romantic style (I didn't know what that was back then), with its frank evocation of emotion and exotic --once England is left behind-- tropical island setting and pirate milieu. But Stevenson does not "romanticize" pirates, in the sense that much modern popular culture does; these are brutal, coarse, treacherous cutthroats motivated by greed, with nothing glamorous or charming about them. Long John Silver, of course, is the template for the stereotype of the one-legged pirate captain with a talking parrot; but the formation of the stereotype testifies to the power and vitality of the original creation. I agree with the Goodreads description above that the ambiguous relationship between young narrator Jim Hawkins and Silver is one of the strong points of the book, and the storyline has a coming-of-age theme to it through the relationship, as Jim realizes both that an outwardly jovial and winsome facade can mask a personality capable of very ruthless and self-serving choices --and that, at the same time, the ruthless and self-serving aren't cardboard villains, but human beings.

Another similarity to Kidnapped here is that both novels have no major female characters. Indeed, Stevenson wrote this at least partly to please a nephew who was at the age for disliking girls, and had promised him a novel with no female characters except the hero's mother. :-) Given that superstitious 18th-century sailors believed a woman's presence on a ship caused bad luck, that's not an unrealistic situation. So, this isn't a read for fans who insist on having small-r romance with their historical/adventure fiction!

Note finale : 5/5

Alors ce que j'ai vraiment appris en lisant ce livre (et que je pensais déjà savoir), c'est l'importance du choix de la traduction. J'ai commencé ma lecture de L'Île au Trésor avec celle d'André Bay. Je la trouve très bien (vraiment, je ne me pose pas la question de la traduction, je trouve le roman très bien), je suis pris dans l'aventure, j'adore le personnage de Long John Silver, je suis subjugué (comme je m'attendais à l'être) par la vivacité de l'héritage de ce livre. J'ai l'impression que tout l'imaginaire autour de la piraterie s'est cristallisé autour de ce récit. J'ai eu cette impression à la lecture de rares livres (Le Seigneur des Anneaux et Dracula, notamment) : un mythe moderne est né dans ces pages.

Et je tombe sur la version illustrée par Anton Lomaev, éditée par Sarbacane, sorti en 2023 dans une boutique. Je trouve les illustrations vraiment chouettes et c'était dans un contexte où j'avais quelques dizaines de minutes à tuer, donc je me dis "Ecoute, t'aimes beaucoup le livre, offre-toi une version illustrée. Bon, c'est pas la même traduction apparemment, tant pis, tu seras peut-être un peu déstabilisé mais bon...". Et donc je découvre la traduction de Jean-Jacques Greif : et là, c'est un véritable coup de foudre. J'expliquerai en détail pourquoi dans le Coin Lecture qui va en parler mais globalement, il y a un parti pris dans la traduction des dialogues qui rend tout infiniment plus vivant, plus immersif, plus amusant aussi, quelque part plus terrifiant... avec cette traduction, tout est plus "là". Et avec cette traduction, L'Île au trésor de Stevenson passe, dans mon appréciation, de "Classique que j'ai vraiment beaucoup aimé et c'est pas souvent" à "Gros coup de cœur pour un classique et c'est rare".

ARRrrr, me reader! Embark now on a voyage of high seas adventure with scurvy pirates, honest jack-tar sailors, marooned souls, and a vast treasure buried on some faraway island. Aye, that's Treasure Island! Weigh anchor, me laddie! The wind's always fair for gettin' this wonderful tale under way! HAHAAAAARRRGGGHHHAAAaaaa….omg, that's exhausting.

قصة رائعة قرأتها منذ سنوات طويلة
انها كلاسيكية وجميلة ورائعة

Review to follow.

Last year I read Kidnapped and I was truly amazed by the fact that I ignored the existence of such a good novel, so I decided that I definitively have to read more Stevenson. Treasure Island was the second novel I ever read. Then I was too young and I realized I didn’t remember neither the plot nor the characters nor anything. Truth be told I remember it was a novel about a treasure in a desert island and someone (a pirate?) called John Silver. Even though I had completely forgotten what Treasure Island was about (besides the treasure and the island), I was absolutely certain that I really enjoyed reading it and that it was a great book. So after the great experience of reading kidnapped I decided that I had to read Treasure Island one more time. I recently found it in a bookstore and for a moment doubted about buying it: I was afraid it might be a children’s tale or that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first time.
Well, I bought I read it and NO REGRETS. Actually I was sorry I waited so long for reading it again, this is simply a marvellous tale.
The nautical terms and the pirate slang made reading a little slow at first but then I got used to it. The rest is awesome. You can read what this book is about in Wikipedia so I won’t bother you with the “Young Jim Hawkins meets captain Flint, blah blah blah” I will say this though: Yes, it’s a coming of age book, and no, it is not a "tale for children". If you read this book when you were young and kind of remember liking it, read it again. If, on the other hand, you kind of remember not liking it, then read it again, chances are you were too young to grasp all the beauty of this book. #JustSaying.
Treasure Island is the result of a very talented author who puts in one place all the elements to create a classic of literature: A great plot, amazing descriptions, and incredibly well developed characters. The prose is magnificent: the pace is excellent with more than one cliff-hanger and a couple of twist that make you put the book down for a moment until you realise what just happened and then eagerly resume reading to know what will happen next.

TL;DR: Read this book if you haven’t. Read it again if you read it when you were young. Because it’s awesome, that’s why.

This review was also posted in my blog

[13th book of 2021. Artist for this review is American illustrator Howard Pyle.]

My younger brother triggered a long-forgotten movie that we had watched and enjoyed as children, Disney’s Treasure Planet; the pirates were animal, cyborg/robots, the ships flew in space rather than on water… I don’t remember much more about it, only that we both enjoyed it. It is, of course, a science-fiction retelling of Stevenson’s story “for boys”.

Children love pirates, for whatever reason: perhaps because they have big ships, they have swords and guns and parrots, and their life is one giant nomadic adventures on the seas. This book, published in 1883, is probably just exciting to a child as it was back then. I’ve always felt somewhat guilty for never having read it, though I am certainly about 20 years too late. I prefer my novels to be heavier, pensive, and with far less action. In a way, I enjoyed this as much as I would enjoy an action-movie, though I don’t watch action movies on the whole. This is a fairly short book and not difficult to read but I found I could only manage a chapter here and there before putting it down again and wanting to read something with more depth. It is fun and fast-paced with nothing to chew on, exactly how Stevenson wanted it, I imagine.


"So the Treasure was Divided"—1905

Had I read this as a boy, I am sure my brother and I would have played Treasure Island together, arguing over who was going to be Jim Hawkins. The Prime Minister of the time, William Gladstone, is said to have stayed up all night reading the book to find out what happened. Though, I didn’t react in quite the same way, I do love that anecdote and respect Stevenson’s work as a classic adventure story.