Book info

• Title Treasure Island
• Author Robert Louis Stevenson
• Year 1882
• Genre Adventure

From the moment young Jim Hawkins first encounters the sinister Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn until the climactic battle for treasure on a tropic isle, the novel creates scenes and characters that have fired the imaginations of generations of readers. Written by a superb prose stylist, a master of both action and atmosphere, the story centers upon the conflict between good and evil - but in this case a particularly engaging form of evil. It is the villainy of that most ambiguous rogue Long John Silver that sets the tempo of this tale of treachery, greed, and daring.

Thoughts

I have attempted to read this, perhaps once before, and never got past the first few pages. This time round, it still took me a few repeated attempts to get past the first chapter.

Once I got going, it was okay, but I must admit I never found the book riveting. Having read up a bit about it afterwards, I didn’t realise it was the forerunner to all the pirate stereotypes that we know and love today: treasure maps, x marks the spot, parrots, peg-legs, mutinies and being left ashore on an island.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by Johnny Depp but I could have easily put this down halfway through and never picked it up again. I persevered, and it was worth reading, but I can’t say that I loved it.

Rating: 1 / 5