Treasure Island (Hardcover)

by Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), N.C. Wyeth (Illustrator) "SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning..." (more)
Key Phrases: Ben Gunn, Long John, Captain Smollett (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Climb aboard for the swashbuckling adventure of a lifetime. Treasure Islandhas enthralled (and caused slight seasickness) for decades. The names Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins are destined to remain pieces of folklore for as long as children want to read Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains, it seems unlikely that children will ever say no to this timeless classic. --Naomi Gesinger --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-10-- The striking jacket of this new edition of an old classic promises more than it delivers. Thirty-one plates, full-color but predominantly in earth-tone hues, are dropped into the text, sometimes mindlessly. For example, the cover art, a pirate digging in sand among pieces of eight, reappears on page 61, facing text that sketches the lives of pirates, "gentlemen of fortune." The text never relates to the art. Ingpen's style is impressionistic but evocative of N. C. Wyeth's illustrations for the same title (Scribners, 1911, reissued by Time Warner, 1992); his plate of Blind Pow shows the subject in much the same pose. In some paintings, Ingpen uses angle and perspective effectively; interest is added by superimposing people upon background, or vice-versa. Spot line drawings, some used more than once, accent many pages. Unfortunately, in some cases, a subject is not recognizable from one page to the next, and the hazy impressionistic style makes it difficult to interpret some pictures. Although superficially handsome, this title has stiff competition from many other editions of Treasure Island , the Wyeth edition, especially. --Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; Deluxe edition (September 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684171600
• ISBN-13: 978-0684171609
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (261 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #126,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yow!!!, August 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Treasure Island (Tor Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

How can you even review the ultimate pirate book of all time? I read it when I was 9 and loved it. I read it again when I was 34 and loved it again! (Actually, I read it several times between, as well.) Long John Silver is arguably one of the most Macchiavellian characters you will ever find between the covers of a book. (I'm mainly reviewing it to raise the average rating. Anyone who thinks this book is boring has to have a screw loose!) From the arrival of the mysterious Billy Bones, to the attack on the inn, to the sea voyage, to the mutiny, to the battle for the island, to the treasure hunt, even to the final fate of John Silver, this book is a stunning rollercoaster of suspense and adventure! I'd give it ten stars if I could.

Here's a bit of information you other readers might enjoy: the meaning of the pirates' song--

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

The real-life pirate, Edward Teach (Blackbeard the Pirate) once marooned 15 of his men on a small island named Dead Man's Chest. He put them ashore with no weapons, equipment or supplies--just a bottle of rum.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventure! Mutiny! Pirates! Treasure!, January 28, 2007

By	K. Fontenot "Prairie Cajun" (The Bayou State) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Treasure Island (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

All four things mentioned above can be found at your fingertips with Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." Before Johnny Depp stumbled off of the Black Pearl, before Errol Flynn took us on swashbuckling journeys, and even before "Lucky" Jack Aubrey took to the water, Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins thrilled fans of high-seas adventure. "Treasure Island" tells the story of one young Jim Hawkins. It starts off in the simple setting of a family-owned inn where we are introduced to Billy Bones, an old seadog who has a secret. After a couple of visits from some strange characters, a confrontation occurs and a treasure map lands into the hands of Hawkins. From there, we set sail on the Hispaniola with Hawkins, the squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, the sea cook Silver, and a whole slew of pirates and scoundrels in general. All are after the treasure of Captain Flint, who graciously marked his treasure map with an "X" to show the way to the riches.

This is a wonderful tale of intrigue, double-crossing, greed, and swordplay. Promoted as a children's book, I'm sure that any adult will find this story captivating as well. Robert Louis Stevenson is a literary legend and deserves that honor based on this book alone. However, if you read this book and are interested to read more of Stevenson's work, check out "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Kidnapped," and "The Black Arrow." He also wrote a number of traveling books which are also fun to read.

Highly recommended.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tops the Stiffest Yarn to Nothing!, August 14, 2005

By	Christopher S. Loucks "piano macabre" (Colorado Front Range) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Treasure Island (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

I had already tried reading my copy of this book when I was far younger, but I was not as avid a reader as I am these days. Recently, parted from my copy, I picked up an old nondescript hardcover of Treasure Island at the library to complete the book in its entirety.

I found the first half of the book highly enjoyable, one that I recalled warmly as I re-read it. But as the book progressed, I was astounded at how difficult the reading was becoming; the pirate slang and their use of strange metaphors obviously grew proportionate to the amount of pirates in the scene. In one of the few moments of humor, the hero Hawkins even says, "`Well,' I said, `I don't understand one word that you've been saying. But that's neither here nor there[...].'" The dialects makes the book that much more realistic; in my mind, however, I wonder if children reading this book fully comprehend it, or were they simply smarter in the 19th century? After spoiling myself with easy modern thrillers, I had to hunker down and really concentrate my efforts in trying to understand the subtext. The rough slang slowed my reading down greatly, but increased my enjoyment. And, of course, having finally completed the book and knowing the true story, my re-read in a few years will be thrice as good!

In 1881, while vacationing in Scotland, Stevenson painted an island with his stepson which became the inspiration for the novel. He soon wrote 15 chapters, and completed the rest in Switzerland at the rate of one chapter a day. It was finally published as an entire novel in 1883.

Stevenson throws together goods that have become legendary in pirate lore: Pirates with fantastic names, like Captain Flint, Billy Bones, Black Dog, Pew, Israel Hands (based on the real-life member of Blackbeard's crew), and the now-infamous Long John Silver, himself with a parrot on his shoulder; a single treasure map that has three red crosses (designating two piles of treasure, one pile of arms); a beautiful schooner that's put through its paces; a 23 member crew (excluding Jim Hawkins, Doctor Livesey, and Squire Trelawney), most of whom become gentlemen of fortune; mutiny; double-crosses; the shanty "15 men on a Dead Man's chest/Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum"; the notorious Jolly Roger; spirits, superstition, and lore; and even a skeleton or two.

Treasure Island actually refers to the fictitious Skeleton Island---perhaps an inspiration for the children's book The Secret of Skeleton Island (1966)---, a sweltering jungle in the day and eerily submerged in mists in the early mornings. A strange coincidence I found led me to some interesting finds. Stevenson named an anchorage point after the pirate Captain Kidd. In 1935, Harold T. Wilkins published a book entitled "New Facts about Mysterious Captain Kidd and his Skeleton Island Chests," in which can be found one of Kidd's treasure maps. Two years after Wilkins's book was published a treasure hunter found an uncanny resemblance between this "Skeleton Island" and Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Oak Island's impervious Water Pit is purportedly where Captain Kidd buried part of his treasure before being hanged in 1701 (the Pit is also the main inspiration for the 1998 novel Riptide). In a twist worthy of Robinson himself, despite Kidd's map uncovering some of Oak Island's mysteries, Wilkins eventually stepped forward to admit his maps were fabricated. But was Stevenson alluding to Kidd's connection with Oak Island?

Treasure Island is an adventurous classic I heartily recommend anyone to read. I personally advocate reading the book if you're older, or re-reading it, to fully enjoy the environment created through the striking language. A fantastic aid in understanding pirate slang is the online Encyclopaedia Piratica. While you're at it, go to any map engine and plug in the latitude and longitude found at the end of Chapter 6, "The Captain's Papers," to see where Billy Bones claimed booty!