“Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

3.5 stars

This book started many well-known sayings, nods and tributes towards pirates and the sea life - the love pirates have of rum, Long John Silver, treasure maps with the X marking the spot, the bird on the shoulder of the pirate, some of the songs...it all had to start somewhere, and apparently Treasure Island hit the spot.

It's filled with well-rounded, enjoyable characters - Jim as the main, a mere child, was easy to enjoy as he led most of the story through his viewpoint. Long John Silver was twisted but fascinating and, having not read the story before, I was surprised with some of the faces he showed. Yes, I've been living under a rock in that regard.

Stevenson is a good writer - his words make a smooth sailing experience, talented and pretty but keeping on point to hold up pacing.

Despite perks, the story itself is only average to me since I wanted a full fledged adventure and felt more could have been included. Skeleton Island had a personality we didn't get to fully explore, and most of what happened was predictable with little surprise. Sure, I didn't see some of the small twists, but overall the surprises weren't strong.

The book shines brightest at the beginning at the inn, but I thought it would keep going strong when they set sail. Instead sea travel is abbreviated and the rest of the book focuses mainly on the internal fighting of the men. While this was interesting, I'd like to see other things thrown in to shake things up. Keeping it a little basic makes it clear to me he was writing this more with young readers in mind.

Overall it was a book that started much and deserves its place as a classic treasure. The writing is well done, the characters rich, although the story is a little bare bones.

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.

A true treasure of classic literature. Treasure Island was the first classic I can remember reading. Even as A little boy I knew there was something different about the writing; I could not articulate what was different, but now I know it was the quality of the writing. So many versions of this story have permeated almost every society; a truly iconic work.

Fifteen men after a dead man’s chest
Yo, ho, and a bucket of blood

What do pirates do? They drink one bottle of rum after another. They kill each other and anyone else they desire. They are also greedy and will steal the shirt off your back and the gold in your teeth.
They are vulgar in speech but forget the sex, because they are too busy drinking themselves to death. And they say that this is a children’s book.

I tried reading this book way over two years ago, and while I loved the beginning chapters, those at the Admiral Benbow Inn. After Jim and company arrived at Treasure Island and there was a mutiny, I put the book down. I hate battle scenes. Yet, I never forgot the scenes at the
Inn, which I thought contained the best writing of any author. I wanted to read it again, because it kept nagging at me to do so. This time I decided that I had to finish the book, battles and all.

It began with an old captain dragging a chest into the Admiral Benbow Inn, placing it in his room and hiding its key. The Inn was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins with the help of their young son, Jim. The captain asked Jim to keep an eye out for a one-legged man and to let him know immediately if he sees him. Next, the captain is creeping around, trying to see who is at the Inn at any given time. And he is eating large amounts of food and drinking rum, enough to fill a large barrel. You know, you have seen them at wineries, only those are not filled with rum. And what is it with rum? I thought that it was only good for making Rum Balls, those rum cookies that they make at Christmas, the ones that can also make you drunk. Or, perhaps, rum is used in fruit cakes to make them taste great. Of course, you add the rum after the cake is baked, and of course, and you do not bake the cookies at all.

This time around, I am not reading this book, instead I am listening to it on my BARD app, and the narrator is great. His name is Erik Sandvold and not the same narrator as who you get on Audible. on. He sounds like a pirate when speaking those parts, I should say, what people imagine pirates to sound like. I found myself almost as fascinated with his different voices as I did with the book. Not really. And what is more, I could see the Inn, the island, and the skeletons, even the buckets of blood. I could even almost hear the captain singing “Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest, Yo, ho, and a bottle of rum.” Well, now that I think of it, it was sung aloud by the narrator. Last of all, I even saw the ships shelves with bottles of rum and wanted to grab a few to make Rum Balls.

So now, you know that I have read the battles on the island, and I learned its secrets, but if I tell you anymore, you will have the story spoiled for you. So, I will leave you with this recipe:

No Bake Rum Balls

1 cup finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup, rum, bourbon or brandy
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Mix all in a bowl and shape into balls. Store in an air tight container. Makes 3 dozen.

Shiver me timbers! It’s The Jolly Roger!

By thunder, if you don’t like this book, you might have to walk the plank!

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text – $8.99 from Amazon (Penguin Classic)
Audiobook – Free through Libby

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Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a solid gold classic about 140 years old. This pirate story is one book that many of us were exposed to in our childhood,

For me, I don’t remember reading the book although I had a great comic book about it, watched a movie about the story and there were cartoon shows.

The characters are very interesting and memorable. We might remember the evil Captain Flint, John Silver with his peg leg, and parrot. Also minor characters like
Billy Bones, Black Dog, Pew and Israel Hands—all great names.

It is a great novel that keeps its fast pace throughout. Lots of action flows from the beginning like mutiny and cruel punishments.

Stevenson crafts his story with colorful details like peg legs, parrots, grubby dress and vivid settings. This book set the path for all the pirate stories thereafter.

The amazing “Treasure Island” which is the longest-living pirate adventure story seems fresh still.

I highly recommend

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".

"Dooty is dooty, to be sure."

When I first picked up this book, I immediately liked it, for it offered a mix of mystery, adventure and combat, but unfortunately for me, that feeling got lost somewhere in the middle. To be specific, it was during Jim's ship maneuvering part that I found the story to drift away from the pace it maintained up to that. For me, the story hardly made up for it in the latter half of the book. By no means this is a poor story, for it offers quite a long story in a considerably shorter narrative, but I found the certain sections were over-described, resulting in a break in the flow of story.

Of course I had read it in school time. But I wanted to read it again! Because it is such a nice story, I think, that everyone had heard it, watched a movie or had read it.
If you ever think about treasure or pirates

قصة رائعة قرأتها منذ سنوات طويلة
انها كلاسيكية وجميلة ورائعة

جزيرة الكنز

كان بورخيس يعد ستيفنسون أحد كتابه المفضلين، وروبرت لويس ستيفنسون هو صاحب الروايتين المشهورتين جدا ً (جزيرة الكنز) و(الحالة الغريبة للدكتور جيكل والمستر هايد)، الرواية الأولى مشهورة جدا ً عربيا ً، ويعود ذلك إلى أن الرواية حولت على يد المخرج الياباني (أوسامو ديزاكي) إلى مسلسل رسومي مبهر بعنوان (Takarajima)، دبلج هذا المسلسل إلى اللغة العربية وعرض في الثمانينات، وكان أحد أجمل المسلسلات التي تابعتها في طفولتي، وأظن أنه أثر وأمتع جيل كامل قبل أن تفقد الأفلام الرسومية القصة والإنسان، وتصبح مجرد صراعات بين كائنات خارقة ذات تكوينات غريبة، المسلسل أبرز الرواية بقوة، وخاصة شخصية (جون سيلفر) المحورية، كما منح شخصيات أخرى دورا ً أوسع من دورها الحقيقي في الرواية مثل شخصية (جراي) التي كانت شخصيتي المفضلة مع سيلفر.

الرواية اعتمدت أحد الموضوعات المحببة، وهو موضوع القراصنة والكنز المفقود، ولكني أقدر أن ما أثرى الرواية ومنحها جمالها، شخصية جون سيلفر المتقلب، والتي أبدع اليابانيون في تصويرها.

أتمنى لو كنت أمتلك براءة تكفي، أعود بها لأشاهد ذلكم المسلسل الجميل.

Motivations to read Treasure Island have been pinging me all my life. Most recently I read Henry James's famous essay “The Art of Fiction,” in which he says “I have just been reading . . . the delightful story of Treasure Island, by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson.” That got me recalling all the favorable mentions of Stevenson in good old Jorge Luis Borges' Selected Non-Fictions. More recently, while streaming Blade Runner 2049, I decided to throw in the towel when Rick Deckerd says to Officer K “'You mightn’t happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now?'” which is an allusion to Treasure Island's desperate Ben Gunn. Thus, was I finally sent regressing. Well, not really; I’d never read it as a boy. And neither, says James, is it a book solely for boys. It’s a book for all ages, rather like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Read it. It’s pure narrative pleasure—a treasure in itself.

A great joy is the suspense, but also the description of passing across the landscape. This is a gift all the great novelists share—Gabriel García-Márquez, Thomas Hardy, Edith Wharton, V.S. Naipaul spring to mind. Here’s a favorite passage as the search for the treasure finally begins:

Heavy, miry ground and a matted, marish vegetation, greatly delayed our progress; but by little and little the hill began to steepen and become stony under foot. It was, indeed, a most pleasant portion of the island that we were now approaching. A heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place of grass. Thickets of green nutmeg trees were dotted here and there with the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines; and the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the others. The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and this, under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment of our senses. (p. 166)