Treasure Island, a wonderfully crafted edition of Stevenson’s classic adventure story, is known for its great plot, immortal characters and vivid images. Its captivating story, that holds the readers’ interest throughout, relates of a great treasure buried in a small island.
A mysterious old pirate dies at Admiral Benbow Inn on the West coast of England, which is run by Jim’s mother. Jim, the innocent boy, finds in the dead man’s chest the treasure map of the notorious pirate Captain Flint. Adventure and troubles follow in quick succession. The dead man’s former mates are after the map; but Jim outwits them and hands over the map to Squire Trelawney.
Soon Jim sails out for the alluring island in search of treasure along with Squire Trelawney, and Dr. Livesay without knowing that the crew were former pirates who had planned to kill the Squire’s people on board, and soon he, along with the few other honest men on board, become victims of a mutny. Will they find the treasure or even survive at all?
The strange man marooned in this strange island, adds to the suspense of the story which, with its thrills of shocks and surprises, keeps the readers of all ages breathless to the end.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh to his engineer father Thomas Stevenson, and joined the Edinburgh University in 1867 to study engineering, and switched over to the study of law. But he preferred writing instead of practicing law, and continued to write prolifically till he passed away at just forty-four. Although chronically sick since his childhood due to respiratory illness, Stevenson was a great traveler, who was continuously on the move in search of better climates, and finally in the late 1880s came to settle in Samoa in the South Seas.
Stevenson earned recognition and fame with Treasure Island, which was begun with a map to amuse a boy, the author’s stepson, and has continued to fascinate readers since its first publication in 1883. It is a story of piracy on the tropical seas, of murder, treachery, greed, as well as of daring adventure, treasure-hunt, imaginative depiction of wild places and wilder life. It is told in the simplest style, and yet shows mastery of craftsmanship. The range of characters encompasses honest goodness to extreme evil and merry unscrupulousness.
A mysterious old pirate dies at Admiral Benbow Inn on the West coast of England, which is run by Jim’s mother. Jim, the innocent boy, finds in the dead man’s chest the treasure map of the notorious pirate Captain Flint. Adventure and troubles follow in quick succession. The dead man’s former mates, people of shady and terrible antecedents, are after the map; but Jim outwits them and hands over the map to Squire Trelawney.
Soon Jim sets out for the alluring island along with Squire Trelawney, and his friend Dr Livesay in a schooner named Hispaniola. But before long, while they are already out in the sea, Jim realizes that the bulk of the crew, recruited by the cook of the ship were former pirates, and so was the cook himself. Their plan was to take over the ship and kill the Squire’s people on board. These desperate greedy and sinister people were ready to do anything for gold. So, for Jim and the few good people survival itself becomes the issue at one point. After a series of thrilling sequences the latter succeeds in defeating the former and secure the treasure in which the marooned pirate Ben Gunn helps them.
Treasure Island is a very simple and exciting and imaginative story which has stood the test of time. To put it in the words of David Daiches: “Robert Louis Stevenson transformed the Victorian boys’ adventure into a classic of its kind.”
Stevenson was a very popular story-teller of his times. Among his other famous and popular works are Kidnapped (1886), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). Among his non-fiction the best known is “A Humble Remonstrance” (1884) which was written in response to Henry James’s “The Art of Fiction” and resulted in an enduring friendship between the two authors. After settling down at Samoa he wrote The Beach of Falsea (1893) and The Ebb-Tide (1894) which criticized European imperialism. His last work was Weir of Hermiston (1896) when Stevenson unexpectedly died of cerebral attack while at the peak of creative power and success.
