Customer Reviews

The Coral Island (Puffin Classics)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read "The Coral Island" after reading Lord of the Flies. William Golding used Coral Island as the foundation for his book. The common elements are a desert island, boys named Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin (who he renamed Simon \biblical/). It then goes in a completely different direction by having the boys in LOTF decend into man's terrible nature (Golding's view). I am intrigued by Golding's view given his religious background, but that is a subject for a different review. Knowing that Golding "updated" Coral Island I read it to see the comparisons. What a delightful surprise! The Coral Island is a great read (I've had two sons and two daughters read it since). Some people seem to be bothered by its religous undertones. I think some people are offended by the mere mention of anything christian in the public square. The abridged editions take out some of the Christian teachings - I wished they hadn't, it would only add to the flavor of the story. Most people reading it will not see it as a religious story, rather, just a fun and fast paced action story with a good sense of morality. Golding apparently read this book as a child and when he wanted to restate the human condition used the original story to show how boys would really react if stranded on an island - I like Ballantyne's view better!

I didn't realize this at the time, but it's abridged. Unabridged prints of this book are no longer available. In order to get such a copy, you will need to buy it used!

I am unhappy to learn that the Penquin paperback edition of The Coral Island turns out to be an ABRIDGED edition.

Amazon.com's description of this book does not mention this important detail. I only learned this fact by reading the book's back cover (and comparing it to the etext downloadable edition).

Sadly, had I first looked up this book on Barnes & Noble.com I would have been told the book is abridged. Their description states: [BARNES & NOBLE.COM description]

The Coral Island ---

R.M. Ballantyne

Retail Price: $3.99 --- Our Price: $3.59 --- You Save: $0.40 (10%) --- In Stock:Ships within 24 hours

Format: Paperback, 296pp. --- ISBN: 0140367616 --- Publisher: Penguin USA --- Pub. Date: July 1995

Edition Desc: Abridged --- Recommend Age Range: 12 and up --- [End of description]

Although the paperpack book is only $3.59, this little problem becomes a big issue -- how many of amazon's book offerings are less than the real thing?

As you read other reviews keep in mind that this book was written in the 1800's, and has it's rightful place in classic literature for young people. This version is part of the Puffin Classic "Essential Collection". In the story three young boys, (ages 15, 18, and 13), are shipwrecked alone on an island, and are actually making the best of it. They are learning about nature, and building forts, swimming and making the most of their new situation. Their manner of interacting reminds me of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. But the island paradise has a darker side when the cannibals arrive. And if that's not enough, pirates move in next. There goes the neighborhood.

By the way, if you have a child or adult that wants to be able to better grasp the sailing terminology in many of the sea tales (what's a mizzen for example), or simply wants to read more books like this one, try one of the books in my recommendations list at Amazon that has definitions and pictures for these terms, my list listmania is titeld "Seafaring and Pirate books for young people", or try one of the following books:
"A Sea of Words", or "Traditions of the Navy", "Manual of Seamanship for Boys and Seamen of the Royal Navy", and "Sailing Ships at a Glance".

This is a story about a young 'wannabe' sailor called Ralph, who is suddenly thrown into survival mode, after he and two of his shipmates are the only survivors of a shipwreak in the South Seas. They are washed up with little more than the clothes on their back.

This, however, is not a story of extreme hardship you might have expected. The three teenagers, seeing that they have been given the opportunity to live a once in a lifetime experience - and they tend to expoit it!

With many adventures of discovery, bloodly battles, pirates and a cat! - it's clear from the start that this book is a book of fresh air from the usual run-of-the-mill survival stories.

I'll not spoil the ending, but I do suggest you give this book a try - you won't regret it!!

Let the reader be reminded that this book is 150 years old and that certain things written in the book were considered standard at the time such as the converting of indegenous people to Christianity in order to 'civilise' them. How times have changed!! Also the analysis in Lord of the Flies must be borne by the fact that a larger number of boys existed in that novel and both books were written 100 years apart.
Robert Ballantyne warns readers in the introduction that if they wish to be melancholy and morose, they not bother reading the book. I'm sure that the novel was not intended to be written for analysis 150 years later!

However this novel is a creative and educational story of three shipwrecked boys on a Coral Island and how they learn to survive in the wilderness and encouter natives and pirates. Captured by pirates, Ralph escapes back to the island and returns to Fiji with Jack and Peterkin to try and sort out family problems with some of the natives they met. This makes for an intersting conclusion...

Im only 12 and havent read too many books but this one cuts the cake! I especially like Jack Martin, even though hes not the main charactor. Peterkin is cool too!

I wonder how many people now alive were changed by Peterkin? Although I remember reading books by the ton when I was of an age, it was this book, above all, that made me understand the power of language in the hands of imagination. Perhaps some 32 years later, my mind still finds Peterkin when it stretches for its greatest fancy. It is not just the power of the book itself that is a wonder to me, but rather its power to make people into evangelists for reading. I am firmly convinced that is is a consciousness-changing experience to dwell a month on that island.

I read this book when I was about 13 years old
I am now 51. This book turned me from a bored
young teenager to a world traveler (thru reading), and a dedicated reader.

R.M.Ballantyne never visited the Pacific but the colorful fiction he wrote in England circa 1843 became a major influence on children's literature. Young Robert Louis Stevenson was a great admirer of R.M.Ballantyne. "Lord of the Flies" was a 20th Century response to the 19th Century genre of altruistic boy's adventure stories that followed Ballantyne's highly successful novel "The Coral Island".

Where did Ballantyne get his information? Relatively few Europeans had visited the area he clearly described between Fiji & Samoa prior to the 1840s. Perhaps he got specific detailed accounts from an earlier book or from missionaries, whalers or members of the Wilkes or Belcher expeditions who may have visited the Lau Islands and then England prior to 1843 (please, does anyone know?).

Much of the action in Ballantyne's novel takes place on an island called "Mango" inhabited by fierce natives. That was apparently Mago Island in the Northern Lau Group in Fiji whose native population was displaced in the 1860s when Europeans moved in. Coincidentally it was three adventuresome young brothers who purchased Mago and landed there in their own boat a couple of decades after "The Coral Island" was written. Had they read Ballantyne's novel?? They made a fortune growing sea island cotton during the American Civil War. Mago Island and the plantation pioneered by the young Ryder brothers is today owned by the Tokyu Corporation of Japan and is practically uninhabited.