Treasure Island

What a timeless tale for young adults and those young at heart! Robert Louis Stevenson was a great author and could certainly weave a story full of adventure and suspense. The character of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver are colorful and lively and the development of Jim's character from a young adolescent to an young adult is interesting and instructive.

I failed to double-check my order when Kidnapped arrived. I thought it was my mistake, but now I see that in fact, I was sent the wrong book. This is a first, and I don't know what I should have done, or could do now. The edition of Kidnapped is fine, just not what I expected or wanterd.

Its a hard read. The language if from 1865 Scotland I think and so many words are not the same as todays English. I just have to guess as what a lot of them mean. This is really a kids book, my Mother gave me this book 55 years ago and I did not read it because of the words that I did not understand. But I thought I had better read it before I died.

Young Jim Hawkins helps his mother tend to their inn where they see all sorts of unsavory people coming and going. In particular, the worst is the drunken pirates. After the death of a particularly desired pirate in the inn Jim gets caught up with a secret map leading to treasure. He joins a ship with Captain Smollett and Long John Silver to find the fortune. Unfortunately, all is not what it seems and Jim overhears some shipmates privately plan a mutiny.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. After trying to read another classic (like Moby Dick) I feared this one was going to share the DNF(Did Not Finish) pile. Or share the pile with most of the classic I read, which is one or two stars out of five. Thankfully this is one I thought was lovely. Most classics are written differently because they from another time in the world and the way language was written(and maybe said) is just divergent. I did not remember the many movies that were made of this. Even the muppet one is a blur in my mind. So I was coming at this almost a blank slate. I did catch many references that are now in The Pirates Of The Caribbean movies and Disney ride. It was fun, sometimes a little dark but it was a good voyage.

As for the downside of Treasure Island...um well it has been a few days since I finished and for the life of me, I can not remember the ending. I feel like maybe the end was abrupt and could have gone on. Or maybe it is because I have a sequel in my pile that I am looking forward to reading. Of course, the sequel book, Silver by Andrew Motion, is newish it came out in 2013 and not written by Robert Lewis Stevenson because he’s been dead since 1894.

So other than a not so memorable ending. It was good. Not great good but good. Some lovely descriptive moments. This does make me curious to see the Muppet Treasure Island movie again because remember it being terrible. Maybe as an adult, I will see it with different eyes like I did the book.

Thirteen-year-old Jim Hawkins works at an inn that his parents own. When a shady seaman takes up residence in the inn, bad things start to happen, and Jim soon finds himself in the middle of a sticky situation. With a treasure map in hand, Jim, with the help of Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey gather a crew to find these riches, teaming up with the one person they should never has trusted: Long John Silver. This decision may wind up getting them killed.

I'll admit, at first, it was really hard not to picture Long John Silver as a cyborg, Dr. Livesey as a dog-looking doctor, and Ben as a strange robot thing. Treasure Planet, anyone? But, alas, they were all just plain, human beings. And they were sailing the ocean, not flying through space. Treasure Island grew on me, though. A lot of it was plot, scene description, and inner monologue on Jim's part. But finally, finally, about halfway through, we get to the good stuff. Yep, the three M's: mutiny, murder, and maliciousness. Then I couldn't put the thing down! I just wanted to know what happened to everybody. There were a lot of deaths.

The story is told in first-person POV from Jim's perspective, with a slight shift in narration for a couple chapters in the middle where the doctor interjects. There are 6 parts to the novel, each describing a different leg of Jim's adventure from his English hometown village to a deserted Treasure Island. It got boring from time to time, but the action in the middle is worth it.

I didn't really find myself too attached to anyone in this novel. It's more about the adventure than the characters or their arcs. Obviously I had a soft spot for Jim, and even for the doctor, so I guess I was rooting for them the whole time. My girlfriend really likes Silver; she even wrote a paper on him in college for our adaptation class. She likes bad guys, I guess. I, myself, wasn't a big fan of that shady pirate. I didn't trust him and he was obviously only acting in his best interest. I wish there would have been more emotion, but I can see how that wouldn't really fit in this novel, let alone the genre. I can definitely see the appeal this novel had on young boys in the 1800s.

Robert Louis Stevenson had a way with words. He was a master at setting the scene and describing the imagery. He was excellent at keeping the suspense. I hated all the pirate-talk, though. I mean, I get it, that's totally how they talked, but reading it is such a hassle. I think that's why it took me so long to push through this book. The dialogue took some time, some thinking. Overall, though, I really did enjoy this novel.

Probably one of the most iconic pirate novels of all time and considered a classic piece of literature. The story is fine and the plot moves along although the flow definitely felt a bit more jilted than what current literature is. The characters tend to make the book with the main character and Long John Silver as the two preeminent ones; although there are other enjoyable ones. Honestly, I would have enjoyed the book more if there were more pirates and the story told more in their camp. Overall, a good book. However, I will commit literature heresy and say that it's not a great book. Final Grade - C+

Not all the reviews for this classic apply to the edition at the top of the list when I searched in the store. That edition ISBN 1505297400 was made on CreateSpace, the store's self-publishing platform. Such books normally are not up to professional standards when it comes to layout and design. If you use the "Look Inside" feature you will see that this edition is an example of that: smaller than usual margins, new chapters that start in the middle of the page, paragraphs too close together: all attempts to save money (the self-publisher is charged production costs based on the number of pages) and, indeed, this edition is only 122 pages while the Treasure Island (Everyman's Library Children's Classics) is 320 pages and includes illustrations.

Having recently re-read Kidnapped after many many years and found it good but not as good as I remembered I approached Treasure Island expecting disappointment. But this is one fantastic novel, with excitement and drama leaping out from every page.

Jim Hawkins is as brave and resolute as I remember and of course, Long John Silver is as devious and sublime a character as you are likely to encounter. The story has hardly a slow moment, with plenty of twists and surprises. The action scenes are wonderfully depicted and Stevenson is a master of detail and impact. Of course it is a wonderful adventure story but it is also a tale of courage, tragedy, horror and betrayal. It is emotionally engaging and at times breathtaking. The struggle it depicts between good and evil and the ambiguity of these, remains striking today. Treasure Island rightly holds its place as one of the finest adventure stories ever written.

I liked the book Treasure Island! I thought that it was a very good adventure story about Jim Hawkins and how he grows up throughout a very intense at times situation. I think at points the dialogue was a little bit hard to understanding when the pirates were talking. That may make it hard for children to understand it but I could understand most of it. The pirates and their antics created a conflict against the pure doctor and Jim. I think the book was suspenseful and quite entertaining. It was definitely a classic with the plot being based on a kid trying to find buried treasure. All in all I think that the book was was a great classic to check off my reading list!

Very entertaining story. Hard to put down once begun. The only thing that bogged me down was the manner in which Stevenson spoke and the many nautical terms. A book with a guide or notes would be great.

The book, Treasure Island, is coming of age book about young Jim Hawkins and his adventures with finding treasure and dealing with pirates. Jim starts out in the beginning of the book as a scared young boy but grows up into a confident young man. Throughout the book we watch Jim deal with multiple tough situations and how he deals with them. We also see him form his own identify while helping others survive.

This book is filled with cliché... But that is because it invented them. Buried treasure...bloodthirsty pirates...mysterious islands...it ALL here. You just have to read it and try to see it as a child first reading it.