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!

La isla del tesoro

La novela de aventuras sobre piratas de toda la vida de la que siempre hemos oído hablar. Además, es para todos los públicos, aunque siempre ha gustado mucho al juvenil al ser el protagonista el chico Jim Hawkins.

Quizás en estos tiempos de hoy en día este tipo de aventuras está desplazada por otra literatura más decantada hacia la fantasía donde se puede unir aventura con seres fantásticos, acción y violencia.

Antes las grandes aventuras estaban influenciadas por gente de carne y hueso que había existido de verdad.

Con una isla y su tesoro era suficiente para imaginar una historia como esta. Solo había que añadir el pirata con pata de palo y su mapa del tesoro (y el loro).

Esta es otra novela en la que los recuerdos están influenciados por series o películas sobre ella. Cuando la vuelves a leer, el desarrollo te sorprende porque no lo recuerdas bien.

Magnífica e inmortal obra de Robert Louis Stevenson, qué más se puede decir.

My god that ending…sad and yet so true. Not the kind of ending you would expect in a book about buried treasure, and adventure on the high seas but…maybe it should be.

I’ve sailed the seas and seen good and bad, better and worse, fair weather and foul, provisions running out, knives going, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views—amen, so be it.

I don’t care about pirates. So it came as a genuine surprise that I enjoyed Treasure Island as much as I did. It was the perfect book for my current mood.

Backstabbing island adventures. Honorable liars. Conspiracy and collusion. A dose of malaria. The shanking of innocence. What fun!

In our current landscape of book bans I find it hilarious that books like this were written for children. Today a book that uses a specific term risks being banned. You should read all books, banned or not. But please cherish the books like Treasure Island that feature children watching in terror as a man is stabbed to death.

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!

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

Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Pirate Adventure; Action
Publication Year: 1882

Review: One of the problems with reading classics is that they don't change, but the reader does, so our perceptions change with our age, education, and our social circles. I remember loving this as a kid, but I had more difficulty with the novel as an adult. It was fascinating to me that pirate-speak has become an actual, useful pidgin language of "Argh, me Mateys!", "Blimey!", and "Shiver me timbers!"

There were also Scottish bastardized euphemisms that complicated matters, but anyone that has watched enough pirate movies will be able to detect the genus of such a patois. Essentially, we have the story of a boy, Jim Hawkins, who has determined that making his way in the world will require him to set sail on the Hispaniola. Little does he realize that there will be dangers beyond measure: mutiny, murder, and maelstrom. And of course, Captain Long John Silver.

There's also this thing about maps, x marks the spot, and buried treasure which will all sound very old to most post modernist readers. Consider this though: Stevenson popularized the concept of the adventure novel with pirate main characters via this novel. Something to consider before rating this novel over-harshly.

Unforgettable Classic..

This is the story of a boy 'Jim Hawkins'. His adventure from a simple innocent boy to a mature experienced one is all this story about. I have always been fantasized by the Pirates stories, but reading ‘Treasure Island’ once, had been a long awaiting quench. These was a daring and courageous boy inside the innocent face of Jim. His innocence was his key to success. Even when the pirates of various kinds, good and bad and even worst, are there but still Jim dealt with them like they were just neighbors. From ‘Billy’ to ‘Long John’, he managed to find solution with everyone out there. Dr. Livesey, his neighbor and Magistrate, along with Squire Trelawney, supported him throughout the adventure, to & fro by Hispaniola.
Captain Flint’s Treasure was living in the mind of Jim, Dr., Squire, John, Billy, and all rest crew of the Hispaniola and relevant persons. ‘Black Dog’& blind ‘Pew’ were also the part of the same search party.
I liked the rhythm of;
“Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
Most interesting chapter was the first one, that not only created craze and curiosity to read further but also the plot was way better than the other chapters in the whole story. I really enjoyed the plot at ‘Admiral Benbow’. Next to it was the last one. The way Author chose his cast and use them in his plot on Island is exemplary. ‘Ben Gunn’ added as wild card proved his worth at last. His support to Jim even when he had whole treasure, shown his good character and mental health even though he was left alone on the Island with no one around. To be stable in such a condition is quite not expected. Trusting anyone in that situation was tough for Jim but he somehow made his way out.
This whole adventure with all interesting cast made this work more memorable and enjoyable. Though it dips in between while the changing of the narration from Jim to Dr. Livesey bit the again it gained strength and finally the last chapter held grip like the first one. This whole sailing adventure created by ‘Stevenson’ will always be the most enchanting one of all the Pirates’ Stories ever. However, I wish this 300+ Pages of story could be more full of content to it than just the chit-chat between characters in-between.

For me its 4.0/5.0

Long ago I was chatting with a colleague and put it to him that we could send out to all the people who had particularly annoyed us at work an envelope containing a single sheet of paper, entirely blank, save for a large black spot. My colleague, despite his unnecessary youthfulness, was sagacious beyond his years, and pointed out that most of the people who had really got our goats had probably never read Treasure Island. Acquainted as we were with their varying degrees of semi-literacy I had to concede that he was right. I did propose that we follow the black spot with a second envelope containing a copy of the book, though sensing we might need to follow that with adult reading classes I'd have been best off getting straight to the point and making use of The Black Arrow instead.

Occasionally in a moment of clarity I might see how odd something familiar is, in this case a children's book, because what have we here - amorality, ill-gotten gains, not simply sinister disabled persons but actually savage ones though if you are blind perhaps you prefer Blind Pew to the milk and white bread goodie two-shoes out of All the Light you cannot see. The problem is my assumption of children's literature as needing to be didactic and purposive and worthy, this rather like in the later Peter Pan and Narnia goes nowhere good at all  unless you very strictly hold to life as a vale of tears through which one ought to scurry with the eyes firmly closed in a race to get to that fine and private place where none, I think, do there embrace, instead Stevenson offers up rich ooze from the imagination.

A joy in reading a few books by one author is getting a sense of the soup of their mind, the ingredients that get ladled out in varying proportions in one book after another. While in The Black Arrow we had a wicked uncle dressed up as a sinister leper, here we get the same ingredient in a less refined form - the hideous blind man and one legged man, their physical disabilities seem to make them even more powerful, Pew has a fearful speed and powerful grip, Silver is more adroit than a South-African athlete, with a crutch that doubles as a javelin when required.

I was going to say that there is something childlike in seeing disabled people as inherently sinister but then I recalled the court case in which a young woman used her crutch as a weapon and the old woman who tried to run me down with her disability scooter, luckily I was able to leap up onto the town hall steps while she drove off cackling into the evening fog that children can often be remarkably indifferent to difference accepting it at face value while adults, when one watches the evening news, can be apparently obsessed with it.

Along which lines I was worried to read the Squire's letter I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance, I know of my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is a woman of colour, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the health, that sends him back to roving (p39)  Treasure Islands has more on the links between contemporary piracy and banking . Ah, Jim lad, I thought, do you really want to be a cabin boy to a pair of old confirmed bachelors like that who have no comprehension of why a man might want to live together with a woman - look at the racist attitudes you could end up learning from themQuite aside from the attitude to property - who does all that gold belong to? One could say to those it was stolen from, or one might value the labour put in by the pirates in seizing the treasure and fairly ascribe it to the survivors of Flint's crew, but of anybody the Squire has the least reasonable claim - its a bit like How to Read Donald Duck which shows the same attitude present in the cartoon - if you have wealth you can use it to acquire more while if you don't have wealth you have no right to keep your gold from others - as we see here in the fate of Ben Gunn who trades a cave full of gold for the promise of some cheeseBen Gunn is sorry figure - all those goats about him and never no cheese... had he been Robinson Crusoe he'd have domesticated the goats, been clad in the finest homespun goat's wool, feasted on roast kid and had a cave full of goat's cheese.

I'm also interested just as in Kidnapped the child has the more adult behaviours than the grown ups - the pirates are rather like Stevenson's Highlanders, full of feeling but aside from Silver, showing little sense and about as much patience as a child at Christmas  or similar present related festivity. So it is the boy Hawkins who runs rings round them demonstrating loyalty, cunning, and a taste for one-liners One more step, Mr. Hands...and I'll blow your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you know (p142).

The thing about Treasure Island is that the whole adventure is for the sake of adventure. Ok, Ben Gunn gets a job, Silver gets three hundred guineas and hopefully gets back to Bristol so that he and his wife can enjoy one another and start the ground work for International Talk like a Pirate Day. Do the Squire and the Doctor need the money? Does Jim Hawkins get anything? Perhaps Widow Hawkins gets her son back, now a killer and hardened brandy boozer, to sit in her tavern, bullying the regulars with tales of piracy and bloodshed while still barely twelve years old or how ever old he is .

„Безкрайната балада най-после беше свършила и малкото хора около огъня бяха подели в хор добре познатата ми песен:
„Петнайсет души във ковчега на мъртвеца, йо-хо-хо, и бутилка ром! А дявола и спирта другите довърши! Йо-хо-хо, и бутилка ром!“


С голямо удоволствие си препрочетох „Островът на съкровищата“. Тази незабравима приключенска книга определено е непреходна история, която притежава силни послания за хора на всякаква възраст! Пренасяйки се в приказната атмосфера на романа, читателите могат да се поучат от грешките на абсолютно всички персонажи - от младия авантюрист Джим Хокинс, до стария пияница Били Бонс; от честните златотърсачи, до страховитите пирати... Бен Гън винаги ми е бил любимият герой от страхотната творба на Робърт Стивънсън, като при този прочит ми стана още по-симпатичен. Не съм почитател на Джон Силвър, но и не го осъждам твърде строго... той е изключително сложен и колоритен образ, та съвсем логично се е превърнал в най-популярния литературен „джентълмен на сполуката“.





„Поведението на хората, което ме тревожеше в лодката, стана наистина застрашително, когато се върнаха на кораба. Те лежаха на групички по палубата и си мърмореха нещо. И най-незначителната заповед се приемаше с недоволство и се изпълняваше неохотно и небрежно. Дори и честните хора, изглежда се бяха заразили от лошото настроение. По всичко личеше, че над главите ни като буреносен облак е надвиснал бунт.“


„Щом Бен Гън видя знамето, той спря, хвана ме за ръката и седна.
— Сигурно — каза той — твоите приятели са там.
— Много по-вероятно е да са пиратите — отговорих аз.
— Тъй ли? — извика той. — На остров като този, дето не стъпва никой друг, освен джентълмените на сполуката, Силвър щеше да развее черното пиратско знаме, няма защо да се съмняваш. Не, това са твоите хора. Навярно е имало бой и твоите приятели са надвили и ето на, настанили са се в старата крепост, която Флинт изгради преди много години. А-а, умна глава беше Флинт! Да не беше пиянството, нямаше да има друг като него.“


„— Ще запомня — каза Силвър с такъв странен тон, че за нищо на света не бих могъл да кажа дали той се подиграваше на молбата ми, или моята смелост му хареса.“

Treasure Island was a swash-buckling adventure where the stakes were high and the Gentlemen of Fortune weren't so gentle when seeking their fortune. I absolutely loved this book. Having never read it before, I picked it up because it looked to be a quick read, and I had books on route to my house and not much time before they got here, I thought I'd get another quick read off my list of classics. Immediately upon reading I wanted to get on a boat and search for buried treasure, but settled for playing in the sandbox in the backyard.

Stevenson brings to life characters in a new and frightening way that held me captivated, in which Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde failed to do. He writes in such a way in this novel, that the characters come to life vividly and with great detail in my mind as I read, even though, when I later went back to re-read parts, the characters weren't defined nearly as minutely as I thought they were. I don't attribute this to my own imagination though. I think Stevenson's brilliance lies in the meticulous vagueness of his descriptions, allowing the reader to take the direction of their choosing with the character's appearance.

A perfect example of this is in Ben Gunn. My husband and I were watching Treasure Island with Eddie Izzard, and he commented on the age of Gunn, saying he'd seen another movie where he was old, opposed to this one, in which he was younger in age. So then I thought back to the book and wondered, what age was he? So I looked it up, and really, it could be interpreted in so many ways:

"...unlike any man I had ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran..." - As an animal or from old age?

"...his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. I could now see he was a white man like myself, and that his features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed, was burnt by the sun; even his lips were black; and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar men I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness." - Old? Young?

"...I was a civil, pious, boy..." - Speaking of when he was young, makes me see him as older.

"You're a good lad, Jim..." - He calls Hawkins a lad, which makes him seem older to me, but then, how old is old? For the time it was and the longevity of life span, especially for the pirates with so hazardous a life, they didn't live long. So maybe in his thirties?

Besides the wonderful characters, the chapters were breathtaking, causing me to sit at the edge of my seat with each page turn. What a wonderfully suspenseful tale with such colorful inhabitants! Even the slang was picturesque, with nicknames like "Barbeque" for Silver, and "Long John's Earrings" for the ropes strung across the ships decks that allowed our favorite character to pass easily from port to starboard with his one leg. And even though the movie I saw gave a satisfying death to the despicable Trelawney, I'm rather glad that the book left him alive at the end. It wasn't what I expected and it was more true to life. The abhorrent man, who puts himself off as one of the good guys, never seems to be the one with a bad run of luck. And although Muppet Treasure Island was not exactly true to the original story, (the Captain a frog?), it was still surprisingly accurate in most aspects of the novel, which is something I've always enjoyed about the Muppets, especially in The Christmas Carol.

Overall, it was a superb book and an intoxicating adventure. A natural classic, with a huge following, underlying themes, and above all, a great deal of the Magic Factor, it's a story that will live through the ages and continue to be adapted in many ways and various forms for years to come. Treasure Island is a beloved tale for both young and older readers alike. I highly recommend it.

ClassicsDefined.com

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:

—So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

I honestly don’t remember if I ever actually read Treasure Island as a kid. Between various movies (Muppet and otherwise), it’s a story that’s just part of popular culture. Practically every pirate stereotype comes from this novel. Buried treasure, and a map to that treasure where X literally marks the spot. Mutiny. Drunk pirates. Peg legs. A talking parrot on the shoulder. “Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly wrote this book for his 12-year-old son, and I don’t consider it an insult to say that it reads that way. The protagonist, Jim Hawkins, is a young man caught between the mutinous pirates, led by the charismatic Long John Silver, and the smaller band of honest men, led by honest Captain Smollet. The book is full of action sequences, narrow escapes, crosses and double-crosses. It’s not subtle, and outside of Long John Silver—whose complexity is the only real wrinkle to the story—the characters are exactly who they seem to be.

As an adult, I preferred reading  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is a much more serious story exploring the duality of human nature and the struggle within each of us between good and evil. But Treasure Island is every bit as timeless and influential; it’s simply written for a younger audience. The fact that one person created both of these classics is remarkable. If you’ve never read it before, or are looking for a classic action-adventure tale, it’s recommended.