Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
1883
An
Alexandrine Couplet About Treasure Island
A poor kid is given a pirate treasure
map,
goes on an adventure—Arr, arr, arr, arr,
arr, ARRRRRR!
Oh, Treasure Island.
It’s a kid’s story.
It’s a coming of age story.
It’s an adventure story.
Except, honestly, even the most adventurous
books from 1883 don’t often come off as “adventures”, and kid and coming of age
stories are usually written for . . . well . . . kids and people who are coming
of age. I don’t know any kids who’d make it through this. My version is about
350 pages long, and the writing isn’t “kid friendly” in the modern context.
That being said, it’s really fun, and Robert
did intend adults to read it, too. Also, it’s the original pirate adventure
story in our popular culture. Check it:
This book invented treasure maps marked
with Xs, peg-legged pirates, and pirates with parrots on their shoulders. In
history, no pirate ever drew a map with an X, if a guy had a bird on a pirate
ship someone would have eaten it, and while many seamen in the 1700s had
missing legs or hands, we wouldn’t care without Long John Silver clomping
around on his wooden stump. Robert is the reason that’s part of our collective
image of piracy.
Also, we wouldn’t have the Disney
attraction Pirates Of The Caribbean
if it weren’t for this book. So that might make it the most important book in
the history of Western Literature. Yeah, I just said that.
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The dog is cute, after all.
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Anyway, the book’s about a poor kids
named Jim who leaves home to go on a treasure hunt. He hangs out with and later
fights pirates, and is even tempted to become one (because really, who isn’t?).
Actually, a big part of Treasure Island revolves around the moral
ambiguity of Long John Silver, the chief pirate, who befriends John and is not
nearly as evil as pirates are supposed to be.
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Parents were probably pissed that their
kids were reading about fun pirates.
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John comes of age on the high seas, has
to choose between siding with the fun, rum swilling pirates or the respectable
captain and doctor, knifes a guy, finds a vast treasure, and returns home safe.
So, that sounds more fun than the average school trip, and way more fun than my
eighth grade school trip to Washington DC. Not that seeing Congress in action
wasn’t totally fun for an eighth grader . . .
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. . . But this would be a lot more fun
if pirates were involved.
Everyone in this picture agrees.
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So, Treasure Island is a very good
book for 1883. It’s exciting, readable, doesn’t overdo the scenery descriptions
as many books then did, and has an interesting narrative with good asides and
plenty of twists and turns. Still, it’s not like the action/adventure novels of
today. Put it this way: if Jason Bourne were on the island, he’d kill all the
pirates and take the treasure in half the number of pages. But it really is a
good book and if you’re into pirates it’s worth a read. If you’re not into
pirates . . . well, maybe just watch one of the movie versions. Because there’s
over 50.
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Including this one, about pirates in
space.
And as awesome as
SPACE PIRATES
are, you could probably skip it.
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Oh, and since this is an English
Language blog, this:
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| I think “arr” has won, at least in common parlance |
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