Treasure Island (Classic)

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Synopsis:

Jim Hawkins, young boy at a boarding house, ends up with a treasure map. A good friend, a doctor, believes it is real and thus an adventure to recover pirate treasure is started. And pirates come back into the picture before all is said and done!

My Thoughts:

After reading Stevenson’s Black Arrow last year and being sorely disappointed, I was hoping this would redeem him. It certainly did.

It started out very fast paced and suspenseful. Jim at the inn with an old drunk who turns out to be a pirate, who other pirates are after, makes for a good time. An attack on the inn, Jim fleeing, taking refuge with the doctor, it was a good beginning.

Then you have the sailing to the island and all the whoop de whoo with just about all the crew being former pirates. The adventure ON the island after the mutiny and whole working out of justice as the pirates fall prey to their own piratical nature.

And through it all, Jim the scamp, the wonder hero, the all round British boyo, is central to everything.

This is very much a boys adventure fantasy. I enjoyed it quite a bit and can see why so many spinoffs [Disney’s Treasure Planet and the Muppet Treasure Island being the most recent in my mind] exist. It is simply a great story.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Robert Stevenson

Treasure Island