Treasure Island

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

• ISBN13: 9780140437683
• ISBN10: 0140437681
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Originally designed as a story for boys, Stevenson's novel is narrated by the teenage Jim Hawkins, who outwits a gang of murderous pirates led by that unforgettable avatar of amorality, Long John Silver. But Treasure Island has also had great appeal for adult readers and was admired by Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and (reluctantly) Henry James. The story has a dreamlike quality of a fairy tale and has worked its way into the collective imagination of more than five generations of readers, gaining the power of myth.

Author Biography

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh. In the brief span of forty-four years, dogged by poor health, he made an enormous contribution to English literature with his novels, poetry, and essays. The son of upper-middle-class parents, he was the victim of lung trouble from birth, and spent a sheltered childhood surrounded by constant care. The balance of his life was taken up with his unremitting devotion to work, and a search for a cure to his illness that took him all over the world. His travel essays were publihsed widely, and his short fiction was gathered in many volumes. His first full-length work of fiction, Treasure Island, was published in 1883 and brought him great fame, which only increased with the publication of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). He followed with the Scottish romances Kidnapped (1886) and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). In 1888 he set out with his family for the South Seas, traveling to the leper colony at Molokai, and finally settling in Samoa, where he died.

John Seelye is a graduate research professor of American literature at the University of Florida. He is the author of The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain at the Movies, Prophetic Waters: The River in Early American Literature, Beautiful Machine: Rivers and the Early Republic, Memory's Nation: The Place of Plymouth Rock, and War Games: Richard Harding Davis and the New Imperialism. He is also the consulting editor for Penguin Classics in American literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Suggestions for Further Reading	xxvii
TREASURE ISLAND
PART I The Old Buccaneer
The Old Sea Dog at the ``Admiral Benbow''	3	(6)
Black Dog Appears and Disappears	9	(6)
The Black Spot	15	(5)
The Sea-Chest	20	(5)
The Last of the Blind Man	25	(5)
The Captain's Papers	30	(7)
PART II The Sea Cook
I Go to Bristol	37	(5)
At the Sign of the ``Spy-glass''	42	(5)
Powder and Arms	47	(5)
The Voyage	52	(5)
What I Heard in the Apple Barrel	57	(5)
Council of War	62	(7)
PART III My Shore Adventure
How My Shore Adventure Began	69	(5)
The First Blow	74	(5)
The Man of the Island	79	(8)
PART IV The Stockade
Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship Was Abandoned	87	(4)
Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat's Last Trip	91	(4)
Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day's Fighting	95	(4)
Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade	99	(5)
Silver's Embassy	104	(5)
The Attack	109	(8)
PART V My Sea Adventure
How My Sea Adventure Began	117	(5)
The Ebb-tide Runs	122	(4)
The Cruise of the Coracle	126	(5)
I Strike the Jolly Roger	131	(5)
Israel Hands	136	(7)
``Pieces of Eight''	143	(8)
PART VI Captain Silver
In the Enemy's Camp	151	(7)
The Black Spot Again	158	(6)
On Parole	164	(6)
The Treasure Hunt---Flint's Pointer	170	(6)
The Treasure Hunt---The Voice among the Trees	176	(5)
The Fall of a Chieftain	181	(5)
And Last	186	(5)
Appendix A: ``My First Book'' (1894)	191	(10)
Appendix B: Tales of a Traveller	201