Treasure Island

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For other uses, see Treasure Island (disambiguation).
Treasure Island

Cover illustration by Frank Godwin (1925).
Author Robert Louis Stevenson
Country Scotland
Language English
Genre(s) Adventure,
Young Adult Literature
Publisher Cassell & Company Ltd
Publication date 1883
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 292 pp
ISBN NA

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book in 1883, it was originally serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881-82 under the title The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island.

Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, it is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perception of pirates is vast, including treasure maps with an 'X', schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders.

Contents

[edit] History

Stevenson was 30 years old when he started to write Treasure Island, and it would be his first success as a novelist. The first fifteen chapters were written at Braemar in the Scottish Highlands in 1881. It was a cold and rainy late-summer and Stevenson was with five family members on holiday in a cottage. Young Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson, passed the rainy days painting with watercolours. Remembering the time, Lloyd wrote:

“ ... busy with a box of paints I happened to be tinting a map of an island I had drawn. Stevenson came in as I was finishing it, and with his affectionate interest in everything I was doing, leaned over my shoulder, and was soon elaborating the map and naming it. I shall never forget the thrill of Skeleton Island, Spyglass Hill, nor the heart-stirring climax of the three red crosses! And the greater climax still when he wrote down the words "Treasure Island" at the top right-hand corner! And he seemed to know so much about it too —— the pirates, the buried treasure, the man who had been marooned on the island ... . "Oh, for a story about it", I exclaimed, in a heaven of enchantment ... .[1] ”

Within three days of drawing the map for Lloyd, Stevenson had written the first three chapters, reading each aloud to his family who added suggestions. Lloyd insisted there be no women in the story which was largely held to with the exception of Jim Hawkins' mother at the beginning of the book. Stevenson's father took a child-like delight in the story and spent a day writing out the exact contents of Billy Bones's sea-chest, which Stevenson adopted word-for-word; and his father suggested the scene where Jim Hawkins hides in the apple barrel. Two weeks later a friend, Dr. Alexander Japp, brought the early chapters to the editor of Young Folks magazine who agreed to publish each chapter weekly. Stevenson wrote at the rate of a chapter a day for fifteen days straight, then ran dry of words. His health was a non-factor in this. He was near despondency, having never earned his keep by age thirty-one, and fearing he would not finish this book either. He turned to the proofs, corrected them, took morning walks alone, and read other novels.

As autumn came to Scotland, the Stevensons left their summer holiday retreat for London, and Stevenson was troubled with a life-long chronic bronchial condition. Concerned about a deadline they travelled in October to Davos, Switzerland where the break from work and clean mountain air did him wonders, and he was able to continue at the rate of a chapter a day and soon finish the story.

Map created by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Map created by Robert Louis Stevenson.

During its initial run in Young Folks from October 1881 to January 1882, Treasure Island failed to attract any attention or even increase the sales of the magazine, but when sold as a book in 1883 it soon became very popular.[2] Prime Minister Gladstone was reported to have stayed up until two in the morning to finish it. Critics widely praised it. American novelist Henry James praised it as "..perfect as a well-played boys game".[3] Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote "I think Stevenson shows more genius in a page than Sir Walter Scott in a volume".

"The effect of Treasure Island on our perception of pirates cannot be overestimated. Stevenson linked pirates forever with maps, black schooners, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders. The treasure map with an X marking the location of the buried treasure is one of the most familiar pirate props",[4] yet it is entirely a fictional invention which owes its origin to Stevenson's original map. The term "Treasure Island" has passed into the language as a common phrase, and is often used as a title for games, rides, places, etc.

Thanks to Stevenson's letters and essays, we know a great deal about his sources and inspirations. The initial catalyst was the island map, which was essentially the whole plot to him as author, he said. He mailed the map with his manuscript to the book publisher and was later told the map had been lost. He had no copy and was devastated. In the days before copy machines, he had to construct another map tediously from scratch, making sure it matched the storyline this time. The new map lacked the charm of the first and was never really Treasure Island to Stevenson, though. He also drew from memories of works by Daniel Defoe, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold-Bug", and Washington Irving's "Wolfert Webber", of which Stevenson said, "It is my debt to Washington Irving that exercises my conscience, and justly so, for I believe plagiarism was rarely carried farther.. the whole inner spirit and a good deal of the material detail of my first chapters.. were the property of Washington Irving."[5] Stevenson says the novel At Last by Charles Kingsley was also a key inspiration. The idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-life friend William Henley, a writer and editor, who had lost his lower leg to tuberculosis of the bone. Lloyd Osbourne described him as "..a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet". In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island, Stevenson wrote "I will now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver...the idea of the maimed man [ed. Henley was crippled], ruling and dreaded by the sound [ed. voice alone], was entirely taken from you". Other books that resemble Treasure Island include Robert Michael Ballantyne's Coral Island (1871) and Captain Marryat's The Pirate (1836). H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885), the first of the "Lost World" literary genre, was the product of a bet between Rider Haggard and his brother that he could write a better novel than Treasure Island.

Stevenson had never encountered any real pirates in his life. However, his descriptions of sailing and seamen and sea life are very convincing. His father and grandfather were both lighthouse engineers and frequently voyaged around Scotland inspecting lighthouses, taking the young Robert along. Two years before writing Treasure Island he had crossed the Atlantic Ocean. So authentic were his descriptions that in 1890 William Butler Yeats told Stevenson that Treasure Island was the only book from which his seafaring grandfather had ever taken any pleasure.[6]

Critically, the novel can be seen as a bildungsroman, dealing, as it does, with the development and coming-of-age of its narrator, Jim Hawkins.

Stevenson was paid 34 pounds seven shillings and sixpence for the serialization and 100 pounds for the book.

[edit] Plot summary

Jim Hawkins sitting in the apple-barrel, listening to the pirates
Jim Hawkins sitting in the apple-barrel, listening to the pirates

Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents’ sleepy sea-side inn, the Admiral Benbow, near Bristol, England, in the mid-18th century. One day, an old and menacing sea captain referred to as Billy Bones appears and takes a room at the inn. The captain, paying "three or four gold pieces" in advance, stays for "month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted". One day, an equally menacing figure named Black Dog arrives at the Inn looking for Bill. When the two pirates meet, Jim overhears them arguing in the parlour, and finally the two begin fighting. Billy wounds Black Dog, but immediately afterwards falls to the ground from a stroke. Bill tells Jim that Black Dog was "a bad 'un" and "mind you, it's my sea chest they're after". He mutters incoherently to Jim about a man named Captain Flint and something he was given the day Flint died at Savannah. Jim's father soon dies, and the day after his funeral a blind pirate, Pew, appears at the inn where he presents the captain with "The Black Spot", a secret pirate message which in this case gives Bones with an ultimatum to be met by ten o'clock that night, on pain of death. The captain dies minutes later of a stroke. Hastily, Jim and his mother unlock Billy’s sea chest (to collect payment for his inn tab; Mrs. Hawkins is determined to take neither more nor less than her due), finding money and a sealed packet inside. Hearing steps outside, they quickly leave with such money as Mrs. Hawkins has managed to count, and Jim snatches the packet as a make-weight since the count is short. They hide while Billy’s pursuers ransack the inn looking for "Flint's fist", but are interrupted: Jim and his Mother had informed the local hamlet of the threat to the inn, and though none of the inhabitants dared come with them, they have sent for help. Soon four or five Revenuers arrive, and Pew is crushed beneath a horse's hooves as his accomplices flee. Most of the other pirates escape in a lugger.

Jim realizes that the contents he has snatched from the sea chest must be valuable, so he takes the packet he has found to some local gentry acquaintances, Dr. Livesey and Squire John Trelawney. They find an account book and a map, which they excitedly recognize as a map leading to the fabled treasure of Captain Flint. Trelawney immediately starts planning an expedition. Naïve in his negotiations to outfit his ship, the Hispaniola, Trelawney is tricked into hiring one of Flint’s former mates, Long John Silver as a cook, as well as many of Flint’s old crew. Only the Captain (Smollett), Dr. Livesey and Trelawney's servants -- Hunter, Joyce and Redruth -- are completely trustworthy, but Trelawney has fallen under the charismatic spell of Silver and believes him to be the better man. Smollett expresses grave misgivings about the voyage declaring that voyages looking for treasure mean trouble. Trelawney has 'blabbed' about the purpose of the voyage to everyone except the Smollett who rightly feels aggreieved. In the beginning there is tension between Smollett and Trelawney. The ship sets sail for the treasure island with nothing amiss except the seemingly-accidental loss of Mr Arrow, Smollett's first mate, who had no authority over the crew and appeared to be an alcoholic; until Jim overhears Silver’s plans for mutiny while hiding in an apple barrel. Jim tells the captain about Silver and the rest of the rebellious crew. Captain Smollett is vindicated in the eyes of the others, particularly Trelwaney and becomes the leader of the "faithful crew".

Landing at the island, Captain Smollett devises a plan to get most of the mutineers off the ship, allowing them leisure time on shore. Without telling his companions, Jim sneaks into the pirates’ boat and goes ashore with them. Frightened of the pirates, Jim runs off alone into the forest. From a hiding place, he witnesses Silver’s murder of a sailor who refuses to join the mutiny. Jim flees deeper into the heart of the island, where he encounters a half-crazed man named Ben Gunn. Ben had once served in Flint’s crew but was marooned alone on the island three years earlier.

Jim Hawkins meeting Ben Gunn
Jim Hawkins meeting Ben Gunn

Meanwhile, after persuading would-be mutineer Abraham Gray to change sides, Smollett and his men have gone ashore and taken shelter in a stockade that Flint had built years earlier. Jim returns to the stockade and tells of his encounter with Ben. Silver visits under a white flag of truce and attempts a negotiation with the captain, but Smollett deliberately goads him into a shouting match, knowing that a pirate attack is likely sooner or later and that it may as well be sooner, while it is expected. The pirates attack the stockade within the hour, and are driven off with serious losses, but the captain is wounded and Joyce and Hunter are killed. Eager to take action, Jim follows another whim and deserts his companions, sneaking off to hunt for Ben’s handmade coracle hidden in the woods.

After finding Ben’s boat, Jim sails out to the anchored ship with the intention of cutting it adrift, thereby depriving the pirates of a means of escape. He cuts the rope, but he realizes his small boat has drifted near the pirates’ camp and fears he will be discovered. By chance, the pirates do not spot Jim, and he floats around the island until he catches sight of the ship drifting wildly. Struggling aboard, he discovers that watchman Israel Hands has killed the other watchman in a drunken fit and is seriously injured. Jim takes control of the ship while Hands feigns helplessness, but Hands then tries to kill him. A fight ensues in which Jim's nimbleness saves him from the wounded pirate, and though Jim is wounded he manages to kill Hands.

Jim returns to the stockade at night not realizing it has since been occupied by the pirates. Silver takes Jim hostage, telling the boy that the captain has given the pirates the treasure map, provisions, and the use of the stockade in exchange for their lives. Silver is having trouble managing his men, who accuse him of treachery. Silver proposes to Jim that they help each other survive by pretending Jim is a hostage. However, the men present Silver with a black spot and inform him that he has been deposed as their commander. In a skilled attempt to gain control of his crew, Silver slyly shows them the treasure map to appease them, narrowly saving Jim's life (and Silver's) from the fickle pirates. Silver is unanimously re-elected as captain, to cries of "Silver!" and "Barbecue forever! Barbecue for cap'n!"

The next day Silver leads Jim and the last five pirates to the treasure site, but they are shocked to find it already excavated and the treasure removed except for a few stray coins. The pirates are enraged and ready to kill Silver and Jim once and for all. At that moment Dr. Livesey, Ben Gunn, and Abraham Gray appear from the bushes and fire on the pirate band, killing two and scattering three others throughout the island. Silver at this point has switched sides yet again, and because he saved Jim's life earlier, is accepted warily back into the group.

Jim Hawkins and the treasure of Treasure Island. In the background, the moored Hispaniola is incorrectly depicted as a brig; the text states her to be a schooner.
Jim Hawkins and the treasure of Treasure Island. In the background, the moored Hispaniola is incorrectly depicted as a brig; the text states her to be a schooner.

After spending three days carrying the loot from Ben's cave to the ship, the men prepare to set sail for home. There is a debate about the fate of the remaining mutineers. Despite the three pirates’ pleas, they are left marooned on the island, perhaps a kinder fate than returning them home to the gibbet, and much to the glee of Ben Gunn. Silver is allowed to join the voyage to a nearby Spanish American port, where he sneaks off the ship one night with the help of Ben Gunn carrying a small portion of the treasure and is never heard of again. The voyage home is uneventful.

Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesey resume their business as usual, despite being thousands of pounds richer. Captain Smollett retires from the sea on his share and lives peacefully in the country. Abraham Gray wisely decides to invest his share in building a career as an honest seaman, and applies himself so well to his trade that he is master and part-owner of a ship of his own by the time Hawkins begins his memoirs. Ben Gunn spends all of his money within nineteen days and soon falls back upon begging. However, he is given a small pension and a lodge to keep by the Squire (exactly the fate he had claimed to detest while still a maroon) and settles into village life, apparently as the local buffoon but generally liked.

Jim Hawkins is able to run the Admiral Benbow on his own, but suffers in a deeper way from his time on the island and is haunted by memories. "The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint buried them ... [but] oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island; and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts or start upright in bed with the sharp voice of Captain Flint [Silver's talking parrot] still ringing in my ears: 'Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!'"

[edit] Captain Flint backstory

Treasure Island contains numerous references to fictional past events, gradually revealed throughout the story and yielding a backstory that sheds light upon the events of the main plot.

The bulk of this backstory concerns the pirate Captain J. Flint, "the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that ever lived", who never appears, being dead before the main story opens. Flint was captain of the Walrus, with a long career (possibly as much as 25 years), operating chiefly in the West Indies and the coasts of the southern American colonies. His crew included the following characters who also appear in the main story: Flint's first mate, William (Billy) Bones; his quartermaster John Silver; his gunner Israel Hands; and among his other sailors, Ben Gunn, Tom Morgan, Pew, "Black Dog", and Allardyce (who becomes Flint's "pointer" toward the treasure). Many other former members of Flint's crew were on the cruise of the Hispaniola, though it is not always possible to identify which were Flint's men and which later agreed to join the mutiny — such as the boatswain Job Anderson and a mutineer "John", killed at the rifled treasure cache.

Flint and his crew were successful, ruthless, feared ("the roughest crew afloat"), and rich, if they could keep their hands on the money they stole. Flint made by his piracy -- 700,000 pounds' worth of gold, silver bars and a cache of armaments -- was, however, buried on a remote Caribbean island. Flint brought the treasure ashore from the Walrus with six of his sailors, also building a stockade on the island for defence. When they had buried it, Flint returned to the Walrus alone -- having murdered all of the other six. A map to the location of the treasure he kept to himself until his dying moments. The whereabouts of Flint and his crew are obscure immediately thereafter, but they ended up in the town of Savannah, Province of Georgia. Flint was then ill, and his sickness was not helped by his immoderate consumption of rum. On his sickbed, he was remembered for singing the chantey "Fifteen Men" and ceaselessly calling for more rum, with his face turning blue. His last living words were "Darby M'Graw! Darby M'Graw!", and then, following some profanity, "Fetch aft the rum, Darby!". Just before he died, he passed on the treasure map to the mate of the Walrus, Billy Bones (or so Bones always maintained).

After Flint's death, the crew split up, most of them returning to England. They disposed of their shares of the unburied treasure diversely. John Silver held on to 2,000 pounds, putting it away safe in banks-and became a waterfront tavern keeper in Bristol, England. Pew spent 1,200 pounds in a single year and for the next two years afterwards begged and starved. Ben Gunn returned to the treasure island to try to find the treasure without the map, and as efforts to find it immediately failed, his crew mates marooned him on the island and left. Bones, knowing himself to be a marked man for his possession of the map (as soon as the other members of Flint's crew should desire to recover the treasure), looked for refuge in a remote part of England. His travels took him to the rural West Country seaside village of Black Hill Cove which turns out to be Admiral Benbow.

[edit] Main characters

  • Jim Hawkins: the young man who finds the treasure map, he is the protagonist and chief narrator. His parents are the owners of 'The Admiral Benbow Inn'.
  • Billy Bones: Ex-mate of Captain Flint's ship and possessor of the map of Treasure Island. Dies of a stroke brought on by a combination of alcoholism and fear when 'tipped' the Black Spot(if you get the black spot then you have little time until your time is up).
  • Squire John Trelawney: a skilled marksman, he is naïve and hires the crew almost entirely on Long John Silver's advice. He has some sea going experience and sometimes stands watch in calm weather.
  • Neil Oakman: an admirer of the pirates.
  • Dr. Livesey: a doctor, magistrate, former soldier (having served under the Duke of Cumberland) and friend of Trelawney who goes on the journey and for a short while narrates the story.
  • Captain Alexander Smollett: the stubborn captain of the Hispaniola
  • Long John Silver: Formerly Flint's quartermaster (navigator), later leader of the Hispaniola's mutineers. Engaged as the ship's cook, and at one time was the cook on Flint's ship, becase his nickname is Barbecue. Seemingly respectable in the beginning, he is landlord of 'The Spyglass' public house. He is one of the only characters in literature where it is never really understood by the reader if Long John is truly good or bad.
  • Israel Hands: ship's coxswain and Flint's ex-gunner.
  • Tom Morgan: an ex-pirate from Flint's old crew; ends up being marooned on the Island
  • Job Anderson: ship's boatswain and one of the leaders of the mutiny who is killed while trying to storm the blockhouse; possibly one of Flint's old pirate hands
  • Ben Gunn: an half-insane and marooned ex-pirate, who becomes a lodge keeper after losing his share of the treasure; speaks in a "rusty voice' and craves toasted cheese.
  • Blind Pew: a blind ex-pirate, now beggar and killer, who dies when he is trampled by horses. With Pew and Long John Silver, Stevenson has avoided predictability, the novelist's bane. The two most dangerous characters in Treasure Island are a blind man and a crippled amputee. Stevenson also introduced a dangerous blind man in Kidnapped, though he is not as frightening as Pew.
  • Captain Flint: a feared pirate captain who dies in Savannah; also Long John's parrot's name.

[edit] Allusions and references

[edit] Actual geography

Deadchest island as viewed from Deadman's Bay, Peter Island
Deadchest island as viewed from Deadman's Bay, Peter Island
Map of Unst Island
Map of Unst Island

There are a number of islands which could be the real-life inspiration for Treasure Island. One story goes that a mariner uncle had told the young Stevenson tales of his travels to Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, thus this could mean Norman Island was an indirect inspiration for the book.[7] Nearby Norman Island is a Dead Man's Chest Island, which Stevenson found in a book by Charles Kingsley. Stevenson said "Treasure Island came out of Kingsley's At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies (1871); where I got the 'Dead Man's Chest' - that was the seed".[8][9] If it was "the seed" for Skeleton Island, the phrase "dead man's chest", the novel in general, or all, remains unclear. Other contenders are the small islands in Queen Street Gardens in Edinburgh, as "Robert Louis Stevenson lived in Heriot Row and it is thought that the wee pond he could see from his bedroom window in Queen Street Gardens provided the inspiration for Treasure Island".[10]

There are a number of Inns which claim to have been the inspiration for places in the book. The Admiral Benbow pub is supposed to be based on the Llandoger Trow in Bristol, although it cannot be proven.[11] The Pirate's House in Savannah, Georgia is where Captain Flint is supposed to have spent his last days,[12] and his ghost still haunts the property.[13]

In 1883 Stevenson had also published The Silverado Squatters, a travel narrative of his honeymoon in 1880 in Napa Valley, California. His experiences at Silverado were kept in a journal called "Silverado Sketches", and many of his notes of the scenery around him in Napa Valley provided much of the descriptive detail for Treasure Island.

In May 1888 Stevenson spent about a month in Brielle, New Jersey along the Manasquan River. On the river is a small wooded island, then commonly known as "Osborn Island". One day Stevenson visited the island and was so impressed he whimsically re-christened it "Treasure Island" and carved his initials into a bulkhead. This took place five years after he had completed the novel. To this day, many still refer to the island as such. It is now officially named Nienstedt Island, honouring the family who donated it to the borough.[14][15]

The map of the island bears a close resemblance to that of the island of Unst in Shetland. It is thought that Stevenson may have drawn the map as a child when visiting his uncle David and father Thomas Stevenson who were building the lighthouse at Muckle Flugga, off Unst.[16]

[edit] Actual history

  • A pirate whistles "Lillibullero" (1689).
  • The Admiral Benbow inn where Jim and his mother live is named after the real life Admiral John Benbow (1653-1702).
  • Five real-life pirates mentioned are William Kidd (active 1696-1699), Howell Davis (1718-1719), Blackbeard (1716-1718), Edward England (1717-1720), and Bartholomew Roberts (1718-1722).
  • The unusual name "Israel Hands" was taken from that of a real pirate in Blackbeard's crew, whom Blackbeard maimed (by shooting him in the knee) simply to assure that his crew remained in terror of him. Allegedly Hands was taken ashore to be treated for his injury and was not at Blackbeard's last fight (the incident is depicted in Tim Powers' novel 'On Stranger Tides'); this alone saved him from the gallows; supposedly he later became a beggar in England.
  • Silver refers to a ship's surgeon from Roberts' crew who amputated his leg and was later hanged at Cape Corso Castle, a British fortification on the Gold Coast of Africa. The records of the trial of Roberts' men list one Peter Scudamore as the chief surgeon of Roberts' ship Royal Fortune, who was found guilty of willingly serving with Roberts' pirates and various related criminal acts, as well as attempting to lead a rebellion to escape once he had been apprehended. He was, as Silver relates, hanged.
  • Stevenson appears to refer to the "Viceroy of the Indies" as a ship sailing from Goa, India (then a Portuguese colony) which was taken by Edward England off Malabar, while John Silver was serving aboard England's ship the Cassandra. No such exploit of England's is known, nor any ship by the name of the Viceroy of the Indies. However, in April 1721 the captain of the Cassandra, John Taylor (originally England's second in command who had deposed him for being insufficiently ruthless), captured the ship Nostra Senhora de Cabo near Réunion island in the Indian Ocean. This Portuguese ship was returning from Goa to Lisbon with the Conde da Ericeira, the recently retired Viceroy of Portuguese India, aboard; as the Viceroy had much of his treasure with him, this capture produced one of the richest pirate hauls ever. This is likely the event that Stevenson referred to, though his (or Silver's) memory of the event seems to be slightly confused. The Cassandra is last heard of in 1723 at Portobelo, Panama, a place that also briefly figures in Treasure Island as "Portobello".
  • The preceding two references are inconsistent, as the Cassandra (and presumably Silver) was in the Indian Ocean during the entire time that Scudamore was surgeon on board the Royal Fortune, in the Gulf of Guinea.
  • Captain Flint dies in the town of Savannah, founded in 1733.
  • Doctor Livesey was at the Battle of Fontenoy (1745).
  • Squire Trelawney and Long John Silver both mention "Admiral Hawke", i.e. Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke 1747.
  • The novel refers to Bow Street Runners (1749).
  • A Joseph Livesey was a famous 19th-century temperance advocate, founder of the tee-total "Preston Pledge" -- and thus perhaps one inspiration for Stevenson's character, who warns the drunkard Billy Bones that "the name of rum for you is death." [17]
  • An Edward Trelawney was Governor of Jamaica 1738-1752.
  • One actual pirate who buried treasure on an island was William Kidd on Gardiners Island. The booty was recovered by authorities soon afterwards.
  • The Swiss Walter Hurni beliefs to have proofs that Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island himself, found the hidden Treasure of Lima on Upolu (today called Tafahi)around 1890. The inquiries of Hurni were published by the Swiss author Alex Capus in his Book Reisen im Licht der Sterne (2005).

[edit] Historical time frame

Stevenson deliberately leaves the exact date of the novel obscure, Hawkins writing that he takes up his pen "in the year of grace 17--." However, some of the action can be connected with dates, although it is unclear if Stevenson had an exact chronology in mind. The first date is 1745, as established both by Dr. Livesey's service at Fontenoy and a date appearing in Billy Bones's log. Admiral Hawke is a household name, placing a possible marker on the date 1747, as Hawke would not likely have been known to the characters before the Battle of Cape Finisterre, and indeed was not promoted Admiral until that year. Silver claims to be fifty years old, which places his birth date no earlier than 1696. Silver sailed "First with England, then with Flint", which pushes the beginning of his career to before 1720, the date of Captain Edward England's death. He also says that the surgeon who amputated his leg was hanged with Roberts' crew at Corso Castle: this would mean he has been disabled at least since 1722, more than twenty years (which would account for his considerable skill with his crutch). Both Silver and Israel Hands, who had been in Flint's crew together, claim to have had experience on the sea (presumably as pirates) for thirty years prior to their arrival at Treasure Island.

Another hint, though obscure, as to the date is provided by Squire Trelawney's letter from Bristol in Chapter VII, where he indicates his wish to acquire a sufficient number of sailors to deal with "natives, buccaneers, or the odious French". This expression suggests that Great Britain was, at that time, at war with France. If consistency with the dates above is assumed, the adventure must have taken place before the conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1748, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession; Great Britain did not find itself at war with France again until 1756, too late for complete consistency with the above dates.

On balance, the evidence of the text itself suggests that Billy Bones came to the Admiral Benbow in late 1747; he died in January 1748; and the expedition to the island took place in March 1748. Silver would then have been born 1697-1698, and have commenced his career as a pirate around 1718, shortly before England's death, when Silver was about twenty. The broadside that took Silver's leg and Pew's eyes could have been any time between 1720 and 1722. Captain Flint's piracy seems to have lasted from about 1720 to 1745, an unusually long career for a pirate. Flint's death at Savannah must have come around 1745, with Ben Gunn present; Gunn would be marooned on the Island shortly after, not to be rescued for another three years. These dates are of course uncertain, but perhaps provide a better fit to the narrative than alternatives.

However, these dates are wholly at variance with those provided on Stevenson's map of Treasure Island, which includes the annotations Treasure Island Aug 1 1750 J.F. and Given by above J.F. to Mr W. Bones Maste of ye Walrus Savannah this twenty July 1754 W B. The first of these two dates is likely the date at which Flint left his treasure at the island; the second, just prior to Flint's death. As Flint is reliably reported to have died three years, at least, before the events of the novel, it cannot take place earlier than 1757 and still be consistent with the map.

Many of the dates reconstructed from the novel depend on the accuracy of the story that the less-than-trustworthy Long John Silver tells Dick while Jim Hawkins listens in the apple barrel. As noted under Actual history, some of the people and events Silver claims to have witnessed were on opposite sides of Africa at the same time, and Silver's assignments of names and places are not entirely accurate. Silver's stories, then, may be no more reliable than his claim to have lost his leg while serving under Admiral Hawke, and containing inconsistencies which his audience were too ignorant to notice. If Silver is lying when he claims to have served with England, or lying about his age, then much of the above chronology fails.

An alternative chronology would place the events of the story during the Seven Years' War, (1756-1763), with 1757 as the earliest possible year for the voyage of the Hispaniola. The dates in Bones's account book, and Doctor Livesey's history, are not disturbed by this change; however, Silver must either be closer to sixty than fifty, or his stories of the pirates England and Roberts are fabrications, retellings of stories he had heard from other pirates, into which he has inserted himself — which would account for their inconsistencies.

The era of piracy in the Caribbean reaches from roughly 1560 to 1720. Pirates mostly came to the Caribbean after the War of Spanish Succession. Most of them started out as buccaneers, who were mostly farmers and hunters, but this was a very tough life. The pressure of constant Spanish raids, and of making a living, proved too difficult, so they resorted to much more severe tactics: piracy. This is reflected in Treasure Island by the fact that most of the mutineers or pirates were referred to as buccaneers. The Treasure Island buccaneers were on the ship originally searching for Captain Flint’s treasure, which reflects that they needed money. Also the real pirates of the Caribbean were mostly Dutch, English, or French. This is true also of the pirates in the book because all of the mutineers were English or Dutch; the same with Jim and his friends.

[edit] In other works

  • The fast food chain "Long John Silver's" was named after the main villain of the novel. It specializes in providing seafood.
  • In the novel Peter Pan (1911) by J. M. Barrie, it is said that Captain Hook is the only man the old Sea-Cook ever feared. Captain Flint and the Walrus are also referenced.
  • Author A. D. Howden Smith wrote a prequel, Porto Bello Gold (1924), that tells the origin of the buried treasure, recasts many of Stevenson's pirates in their younger years, and gives the hidden treasure some Jacobite antecedents not mentioned in the original.
  • Author H. A. Calahan wrote a sequel Back to Treasure Island in 1935. Calahan wrote an introduction in which he argued that Robert Lewis Stevenson wanted to write a continuation of the story.
  • Author R. F. Delderfield wrote The Adventures of Ben Gunn (1956) which follows Ben Gunn from Parson's Son to Pirate and is narrated by Jim Hawkins in Gunn's words.
  • Mr. Magoo's Treasure Island, a 2 part episode of the cartoon series Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo (1964) was based on the novel, with Mr. Magoo in the role of Long John Silver.
  • Author Leonard Wibberley wrote a sequel, Flint's Island (1972).
  • Alan Coren wrote an article in Punch, entitled A Life on the Rolling Mane, parodying Treasure Island to adapt it to the National Hairdressers' Association's campaign to stamp out "pirate barbers". Notable lines are Bald Pew's "Remember the days of the old clippers?" and Hawkins' memories of the "boom of the scurf".
  • Author Denis Judd wrote a sequel, Return to Treasure Island (1978).
  • German metal band Running Wild, who are known for their lyrics on piracy, wrote an 11 minute epic on the story on their 1992 album Pile of Skulls.
  • Author Bjorn Larsson wrote a sequel, Long John Silver (1999).
  • Spike Milligan wrote a parody of the novel, Treasure Island According to Spike Milligan (2000).
  • Author Frank Delaney wrote a sequel, The Curse of Treasure Island (2001) using the pseudonym 'Francis Bryan'.
  • Author Roger L Johnson wrote a sequel, Dead Man's Chest:The Sequel to Treasure Island (2001).
  • According to the screenwriters' commentary on the DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the captain killed by an East India Trading Company official early in the movie is Jim Hawkins' lost father. This is, however, contrary to the original book: Jim Hawkins' father died at the Admiral Benbow Inn, in the company of Jim and his mother, in chapter three.
  • In LucasArts' The Curse of Monkey Island, the main character Guybrush Threepwood sings a commercial jingle about 'Silver's Long Johns' (they breathe!) in an attempt to be the fourth member of a barbershop quartet.
  • Avi, author of The 'True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle,' wrote the forward to the 2000 edition of Treasure Island from Alladin Classics.
  • This novel currently holds the ranking of 9 on the Bart Simpson scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] Film and TV

There have been over 50 movie and TV versions made.[18] Some of the notable ones include:

Film

TV

There are also a number of Return to Treasure Island sequels produced:a 1986 Disney mini-series, a 1992 animation version, and a 1996 and 1998 TV version.

[edit] Theatre and radio

There have been over 24 major stage and radio adaptations made.[19] The number of minor adaptations remains countless.

[edit] Music

The Ben Gunn Society album released in 2003 presents the story centered around the character of Ben Gunn, based primarily on Chapter XV "Man of the Island" and other relevant parts of the book.

The Libertines feature a song called "Time For Heroes" which in the chorus mentions Bill Bones.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Letley, pp.vii - viii (Stevenson, however, claims it was his map, not Lloyd's, that prompted the book).
  2. ^ Jonathan Yardley, Stevenson's 'Treasure Island': Still Avast Delight, Washington Post, April 17, 2006
  3. ^ Guga Books at Octavia & Co. Press
  4. ^ Cordingly, David (1995). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Page 7
  5. ^ Paine, Ralph Delahaye. The book of buried treasure; being a true history of the gold, jewels, and plate of pirates, galleons, etc., which are sought for to this day. New York : Macmillan, 1911. via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ Cordingly, David (1995). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Page 6-7.
  7. ^ "Where's Where" (1974) (Eyre Methuen, London} ISBN 0-413-32290-4, Norman Island.
  8. ^ David Cordingly. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0679425608.
  9. ^ Robert Louis Stevenson. "To Sidney Colvin. Late May 1884", in Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. Page 263.
  10. ^ "Brilliance of 'World's Child' will come alive at storytelling event", (Scotsman, 20 October 2005).
  11. ^ The Llandoger Trow - Bristol - 1982 at "The History of Old Inns & Pubs of Bristol"
  12. ^ The Pirates House history
  13. ^ Ghost of Captain Flint
  14. ^ Richard Harding Davis (1916). Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis. See page 5 from Project Gutenberg.
  15. ^ History of Brielle, accessed September 5, 2006
  16. ^ Unst island website
  17. ^ Reed, Thomas L. (2006). The Transforming Draught: Jekyll and Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Victorian Alcohol Debate. Pages 72-73.
  18. ^ Dury, Richard. Film adaptations of Treasure Island.
  19. ^ Dury, Richard. Stage and Radio adaptations of Treasure Island.

[edit] References

  • Cordingly, David (1995). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0-679-42560-8
  • Letley, Emma, ed. (1998). Treasure Island (Oxford World's Classics). ISBN 0-19-283380-4
  • Reed, Thomas L. (2006). The Transforming Draught: Jekyll and Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Victorian Alcohol Debate. ISBN 0-7864-2648-9
  • Watson, Harold (1969). Coasts of Treasure Island;: A study of the backgrounds and sources for Robert Louis Stevenson's romance of the sea. ISBN 0-8111-0282-3

[edit] External links

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Resources

v • d • e
Works by Robert Louis Stevenson
Novels:

Treasure Island (1883) • Prince Otto (1885) • Kidnapped (1886) • The Black Arrow (1888) • The Master of Ballantrae (1889) • The Wrong Box (1889) • The Wrecker (1892) • Catriona (1893) • The Ebb-Tide (1894) • Weir of Hermiston (1896) • St. Ives (1897)
Short story
collections:
Short stories:
Other works:

An Inland Voyage (1878) • Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) • The Silverado Squatters (1883) • Memories and Portraits (1887) • Across the Plains (1892) • The Amateur Emigrant (1895)
Poetry:

A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) • Underwoods (1887) • Ballads (1890) • Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896)