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 an adventure tale known for its
superb atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature then
and now. 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.
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 foorget 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; Stevenson's father came up with the contents of
Billy Bones's sea-chest, and 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.
As autumn came to Scotland, the Stevensons left their summer holiday retreat for London, but Stevenson was troubled with a
life-long chronic bronchial condition that put an end to his work on the novel at about chapter fifteen. Concerned about a
deadline they travelled in October to Davos, Switzerland
where the clean mountain air did him wonders and he was able to continue, and, at a chapter a day, soon finished the story.
Map created by Robert Louis Stevenson.
During its initial run in Young Folks from October 1881 to January 1882 it 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 treasure map, but 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 which resemble Treasure Island include Robert Michael
Ballantyne's Coral Island (1871), 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.
Plot summary
Jim Hawkins is listening to the pirates sitting in the apple-barrel
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, and 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 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. The ship sets sail for the treasure island with nothing amiss except the
seemingly-accidental loss of Mr Arrow, Smollett's first mate, until Jim overhears Silver’s plans for mutiny. Jim tells the captain about Silver and the rest of the rebellious crew. Captain Smollett is vindicated in
the eyes of the others 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
Meanwhile, Smollett and his men have gone ashore after persuading one of the would-be mutineers, Abraham Gray, to change
sides, and taken shelter in a stockade they found which 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 one of the two watchmen left aboard, Israel Hands, has killed the other
watchman in a drunken fit and is seriously injured himself. 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.
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. "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!'"
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. The bulk of the treasure 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 death.
The whereabouts of Flint and his crew thereafter are obscure immediately thereafter, but they ended up in the town of
Savannah, in colonial 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.
Main characters
- Jim Hawkins: the young man who finds the treasure map, he is the protagonist and chief
narrator.
- Billy Bones: Ex-mate of Captain Flint's ship and possessor of the map of Treasure
Island. Dies of a stroke brought on by alcoholism and the Black Spot.
- Squire John Trelawney: a skilled marksman, he is naïve and hires the crew almost entirely on
Long John Silver's advice.
- Dr. Livesey: a doctor 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, later leader of the
Hispaniola's mutineers.
- Israel Hands: ship's coxswain and an ex-pirate.
- 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.
- Pew: a blind ex-pirate, now beggar and killer, who dies when he is trampled by horses
- Captain Flint: a feared pirate captain who dies in Savannah; also Long John's parrot's name.
Allusions and references
Actual geography
There are a number of islands which could be the real-life inspiration for Skeleton 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 can't 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 drew 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]
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.
- 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. {However the booty was recovered by authorities soon afterwards}.
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.
In other works
- Seafood restaurant named "Long John Silvers"
- 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. Barrie was a boyhood school friend of
Stevenson's.
- 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).
- 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.
Adaptations
Film and TV
There have been over 50 movie and TV versions made.[18] Some of the notable ones include:
Film
- 1920- silent version starring Shirley Mason.
- 1934- Treasure Island- starring
Jackie Cooper, Wallace Beery. An MGM production, the first sound film version.
- 1937- Treasure Island- a loose Soviet adaptation starring Osip
Abdulov and Nikolai Cherkasov, with a score by Nikita
Bogoslovsky
- 1950- Treasure Island- starring
Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton. Notable for being
Disney's first completely live action film. A sequel to this version was made in 1954, called
Long John Silver.
- 1971- Treasure Island - a Soviet (Lithuanian) film starring Boris
Andreyev, with a score by Alexei Rybnikov.
- 1971- Animal Treasure Island. An anime film directed by
Hiroshi Ikeda and written by Takeshi Iijima and
Hiroshi Ikeda with story consultation by famous animator Hayao Miyazaki. This version
replaced several of the human characters with animal counterparts.
- 1972- Treasure Island- starring
Orson Welles.
- 1987- L Isola del tesoro- Italian / German SF adaptation
AKA Treasure Island in Outer Space starring Anthony Quinn as Long John Silver.
- 1988- Treasure Island (1988 animated
film)- a critically acclaimed Soviet animation film in two parts
- 1996- Muppet Treasure Island.
- 1999- Treasure Island- starring Kevin Zegers,
Jack Palance
- 2002- Treasure Planet. Disney animated version set in space, with Long John Silver as a cyborg.
- 2007- L'Île aux Trésors. A loosely adapted version, in French, starring French actors,
of the original novel.
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.
Theatre and radio
There have been over 24 major stage and radio adaptations made.[19] The number of minor adaptations remains countless.
Footnotes
- ^ Letley, pp.vii - viii (Stevenson, however, claims it was his map,
not Lloyd's, that prompted the book).
- ^ Jonathan Yardley, Stevenson's 'Treasure Island': Still Avast Delight, Washington
Post, April 17, 2006
- ^ Guga Books at Octavia & Co. Press
- ^ Cordingly, David (1995).
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Page 7
- ^ 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.
- ^ Cordingly, David (1995). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality
of Life Among the Pirates. Page 6-7.
- ^ "Where's Where" (1974) (Eyre Methuen, London} ISBN 0-413-32290-4, Norman
Island.
- ^ David Cordingly. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of
Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0679425608.
- ^ Robert Louis Stevenson. "To Sidney Colvin. Late May 1884", in Selected
Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. Page 263.
- ^ "Brilliance of 'World's Child' will come alive at storytelling event", (Scotsman, 20 October 2005).
- ^ The Llandoger Trow - Bristol - 1982 at "The History of Old Inns & Pubs of Bristol"
- ^ The Pirates House history
- ^ Ghost of Captain Flint
- ^ Richard Harding Davis
(1916). Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis. See page 5 from Project Gutenberg.
- ^ History of Brielle, accessed September 5, 2006
- ^ Unst
island website
- ^ Reed, Thomas L. (2006). The Transforming Draught: Jekyll and Hyde,
Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Victorian Alcohol Debate. Pages 72-73.
- ^ Dury, Richard. Film adaptations of Treasure Island.
- ^ Dury, Richard. Stage and Radio adaptations of Treasure Island.
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
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Editions
Resources
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
