Treasure Island is one of those stories that is so famous you already know it prior to reading the book.

It’s the tale of teenage Jim Hawkins who discovers a treasure map and sets sail as a cabin boy along with Long John Silver and the rest of the crew as they embark on their quest for treasure.

The book is predominantly narrated by the teen which is the perfect entry point for younger readers.
I liked that the story was split over five parts, a great way to dip in and out of the story over multiple days.

The story can be a little slow by today’s standards, but it’s a testament to how many elements introduced my Stevenson have become common tropes in all pirate stories!

I’ve come to the conclusion that the 1880s were a great decade for exciting classics. We got the introduction of such famous characters as Sherlock Holmes (in a Study of Scarlett) and Alan Quartermain, (in King Solomon’s Mines) but also Long John Silver and young Jim Hawkins. Of the three stories I mentioned above, Treasure Island is to my mind the far most entertaining (though personally I like some of the later Sherlock stories better… but that is beside the point).

I won't bother with a plot description. You all know the story; it has been parodied, homage, and adapted into films, cartoons, television episodes, video games, radio plays and more countless times. The number of alternate takes to this story are just mind-boggling. It is an entertaining tale, and the adaptations both good and bad, are in a way about the biggest praise that can be shown for it, as it is a tale that every generation wants to put their own spin on. Personally I think the Muppets did it best.



Personally I found the most interesting thing about the novel, especially given the time period of the writing, is that the two most intimidating character both have physical disabilities. Pew is blind and Silver has only one leg… despite these aspects they both come off as strong and far more menacing than any of the other pirates presented in the book. Stevenson presents them as threatening, capable, and frankly badass pirates… and that is rather refreshing.

For the most part, I have very little to complain about on this one. While I don't find it to be a perfect book by any means, it is one I found myself smiling at constantly. My criticisms would all come off as nitpicks. It is what it is, and it is very entertaining. The only issue I would even mention is that the section titled “My Sea Adventure” was a bit too slow. It could possibly be very exciting for those with a great love of descriptions of ships and waves, but I found it a bit dull… there was also a distinct lack of Silver in it.

Now let’s go ahead and cover this; Long John Silver makes this book. Yes, he is iconic for a reason. Silver is disloyal, greedy, a constant liar and seemingly quite often devoid of human empathy (save maybe for Jim)…, he is also charismatic and constantly entertaining. He is the obvious inspiration for pretty much every charming (but amoral) buccaneer in pop culture.

In closing: this book is a classic for good reason. While some may consider it a young adult novel (and indeed it was publish initially in a publication for children) it is still a wonderful adventure and a great read. A well deserved 4/5 stars.

My first time to read this book. The reason why I read this book now is that my favorite author, Frank McCourt mentioned in his memoir Teacher Man that Robert Louis Stevenson was his favorite author when he was a young boy in Ireland. When he moved to New York and during the first year of schooling, he submitted Treasure Island as his home-reading book and his literature teacher was impressed because his American classmates submitted books of contemporary (now forgotten) authors. After reading this book, I agree with McCourt's teacher. This classic children's book is a readable as the day it first came out in 1883. Truly a proof of Stevenson's excellence in writing. Treasure Island is really the ultimate "young boy's book".

I have not seen the movie or TV adaptations of this book but I now remember, when we were little, hearing my eldest brother singing this song that, according to Wiki, is entitled Sea Shanty:

n  "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest -
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of run!"n

Stated in the Wiki entries for Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) that this novel was dismissed by critics to be juvenile and they considered Stevenson as flippant to be taken seriously. However, more than 100 years after its first publication, the book is still being read by people of all ages and from all walks of life. Who knows? Maybe the people who criticize Harry Potter, The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games or even The Song of Ice and Fire will also eat their words 100 years from now.

It tells the story of Jim Hawkings who assists in the running of their inn in England during the 18th century. Their inn is not very busy because it is far from the crowded area so scrupulous (translation: people hiding from something) individuals become their clients. One of these is Billy Bones who has a secret: he used to be part of the crew of Captain Flint, a notorious pirate. One day, Bones is visited by a former fellow crew, Pew who gives him a treasure map. When Bones opens the map, he saw a "Black Spot" that foretells bad luck and he drops dead of stroke. Jim and his mother opens his chest to get the amount due for Bones's board and lodging but before they could get the money, pirates arrive searching for the treasure map. The rest of the story is about the treasure hunt complete with lots of swashbucking actions (that reminded me very much of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean) and the flight to the DeadChest island, an island near the Norman Island located in British Virgin Island.

So before Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Deep), there was Long John Silver and the other pirates of Treasure Island. The movie series has many similarities with the book so, if you haven't read this and you are a Pirates' fan, you may want to consider reading the book first before seeing the third part of the series, On Stranger Tides. I saw it today and oh it was so good! Of course, still starring Johnny Depp:

Oh, I am just desperate to get your votes!n

So much is said about "Treasure Island". That this was the book that established all the now-familiar elements of the well-worn genre of swashbuckling adventures with pirates and also laid down the groundwork for countless and equally rehashed tales of hunting buried treasure on an isolated island in an uncharted sea. And there are also so many who call it dotty, predictable (it seems "predictable" only because because we have done the same story to death) and even overrated. Well, what then makes me give it the highest rating possible?

The answer to that is not merely that "Treasure Island" still holds up as an exhilarating, exciting and "swashbuckling" adventure even today and that is no small achievement. While most of our classic adventures might seem quaint and only merely pleasing and passably entertaining to a modern reading mindset, for instance "Around The World In Eighty Days" which can be savoured more as an enjoyable colonial-era travelogue and less of a thrilling race against time to win a high-stakes wager, here's a rip-roaring, rousing adventure that grips the reader right from the first page, introducing him or her to a fascinating, intriguing cast of slimy buccaneers, dignified scoundrels and dainty heroes and then tugging us all along to a ride riotous with sights, sounds, thrills and spills that never, for once, lets one up.

What further makes the book such a delirious delight to read, however, is an unexpected shade of darkness and menace that marks many a page in the narrative. This is due to the man at the helm of this tale - Robert Louis Stevenson, that perceptive, dexterously skilled storyteller with a penchant not only for exciting, suspenseful plotting but, most crucially, a flair at portraying moral complexity which was still a rare sight in most popular adventures of his time. And so, even as we seem to be clear about who are the heroes and who are the villains in this adventure, Stevenson's brilliant staging of the mayhem on the titular island reveals his deception and after that, as the book approaches a startling climax, we are no longer sure as to where our loyalties lie. And whether that lovably malicious Long John Silver can be trusted too.

This much, however, one is sure: "Treasure Island", packed with action, excitement, dangerous suspense, moments of triumph and also of defeat and also a chocolate-rich flavour of darkness, is truly unforgettable.

Treasures, tropical islands, and rum soaked trope creating overkills

Amazingly good, dense, and complex writing for its time
I don´t want to say that professional college course creative writing is what makes US and UK authors so outstanding, but well, which other countries produce so many amazing fictional works? Before, there were a few classic pearls by authors that weren´t just able to write good stories, but understood the most important ingredient of compelling art

Mixing character and plot
From the beginning, there are more and more unfolding open questions, mysteries, Chekhovs, and MacGuffins that are always fused with character motivation. This today totally normal thing was outstanding in the old days and is a reason why many classics are average, boring, or just simply bad. Take the terrible other island classics like Robinson Crusoe
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
or Lord of the Flies
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
They both don´t just suck at being mind blowing, but have stupid messages and ideologies integrated the authors want to get into the readers' brains. In contrast,

Stephenson understood that there should be just a high and good entertainment level
He creates a complex crew of characters, always throws them in a small territory they can´t escape from, ships, forts, a treasure hunt, and slowly escalates the whole thing. Because I´m a fan of epigenetics and the sociocultural evolution of fictional concepts, I could already search, find, and see the progress of a once spread trope idea in

So many other works inspired by it
Be it horror, fantasy, or my favorite genre to rule them all, sci fi, they all developed new ideas about how to find the magic stone, the skull of the necromantic god emperor, or the alien artifact. And what leaves me stunned in even more awe is that, in the other time direction, a few thousand years ago the first ancient storytellers were inspired by the totally forgotten tales of primitive starving stone age artists. Who probably invented the idea of a hero's journey to find the fattest and most delicious mammoth.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

I loved this as a kid was pirate obsessed for a few weeks. However i soon went off it and was never interested in it again. I tried a reread a few years later but i don’t think i even finished it on that occasion.

Pirates are just one of those aesthetics which seem to come and go for me. Having said that i guess i’m back in the mood because this was just great.
It moves at such a quick clip, far quicker than in my memory and it all makes sense, even the bits of luck and often terrible decisions by our protagonist, it all just works.

Even the little bits and pieces we get, like his nightmares about the one-legged man and his mistreatment of the new boy, brief as it is. All the characters are pretty memorable and it manages to maintain a high amount of excitement throughout.

I really can’t think of any flaws that would allow me to give it less than 5-stars.

I remember reading this when I was young (probably 10) and reading it again resonated like a true adventure story should. It took me back to when I was young and first became an avid reader. The English is a little difficult to follow. Pirate-speech almost like a distinct language will do that to you, but the plot is great. Language is all about following the idiomatic expressions and unless there is a shared culture some of the idioms will fall flat. The story will not appear original, because it’s been borrowed from so liberally. (Practically EVERY pirate movie has swiped elements of this particular story.) Still great with scary dangerous parts. The characters are larger than life and might be read as caricatures by a modern audience. (Very Pirates of the Caribbean for instance.) I loved it back then. Love it even more now. Truly a classic because it meets the three criteria of longevity (more than 50 years of greatness), exceptional (5 stars, duh), and paradigm creating (meaning it is the standard emulated and flat out copied.)

n  Pezzi da otto! Pezzi da otto!n
Ho letto, come tutti, credo, il libro da bambino, nella sua versione illustrata. Ho poi visto il film della Disney con Charlton Heston, ho ammirato i disegni del libro di Pratt; più di recente, mi sono divertito e intrigato con la versione di Radice e Turconi su Topolino, l’ho infine riletto nell’edizione degli Oscar.
Sono stato indaffarato con Jim Hawkins all’Ammiraglio Benbow, nella botte delle mele, sulla coffa di maestra, a Bristol, alla locanda di Long John Silver, ed in ogni altro angolo e recesso ove si sia svolta questa meravigliosa avventura.
Chi, fortunato mortale, avesse vissuto sino ad ora senza sapere cos’è un Pezzo da otto, ha ancora l’opportunità di poter vivere una formidabile avventura in compagnia di pirati, gentiluomini e casse di … real de a ocho!

Avventura, incoscienza e fortuna allo stato puro!

C'è molta azione, ma anche tanti dialoghi (molto british sia per l'ironia che per la formalità di alcuni personaggi), le descrizioni dei posti e delle atmosfere che si creano sono molto belle e dettagliate.

Interessante il minisaggio di Citati, tratto da Il male assoluto.

Първата ми книга за пирати!

This has to be one of my most favourite childhood classics, read and reread over and over, I loved it. Blind Pew and the black spot, used to scare me to death as 8, 9 or 10 year old, under the covers with my torch, reading until my eyes were sore. Could never put it down, what a fabulous read for a small boy.

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.