Treasure Island

Treasure Island is a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in one volume in 1883, though it had previously been serialized in a children's magazine; the original title was The Sea Cook or Treasure Island. It is an adventure tale intended for children but has been enjoyed by adults just as much. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels, and its influence on popular lore about pirates can not be overestimated.

History

Stevenson was 30 years old when he first 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 mountains in 1881. It was a cold and rainy August-September and Stevenson was with five family members on holiday in a cottage. Young Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's step-son, would pass the rainy days painting with water colors. Remembering the time, Llyod wrote:

Related Topics:
Braemar - Scottish

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:..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 nameing 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, and somehow conscious of his own enthusiasm in the idea.{{fn|1}}

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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 Bone'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.

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As fall came to Scotland, the Stevenson's 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 traveled 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.

Related Topics:
Davos - Switzerland

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During its first 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. The Prime Minister Gladstone was reported to have stayed up until two in the morning to finish it. Critics widely praised it. Henry James praised it as "..perfect as a well-played boys game". Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote "I think Stevenson shows more genius in a page than Sir Walter Scott in a volume".

Related Topics:
Prime Minister - Gladstone - Henry James - Gerard Manley Hopkins - Sir Walter Scott

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The impact of the book on perceptions of pirates can not 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, 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.

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Thanks to Stevenson's letters and essays, we know a lot 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 and Washington Irving. Stevenson says that the novel At Last by Charles Kingsley was a key inspiration. The concept of Long John Silver was his friend W. E. Henley, a writer and editor. 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, ruling and dreaded by the sound, 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). Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885), the first of the "Lost World" literary genre, was actually inspired by and found its genesis in Treasure Island.

Related Topics:
Daniel Defoe - Edgar Allan Poe - Washington Irving - At Last - Charles Kingsley - Robert Michael Ballantyne - Captain Marryat - Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines - Lost World

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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 keepers and frequently voyaged around Scotland inspecting lighthouses, taking the young Robert along. Two years before writing Treasure Island he had crossed the Atlantic. So authentic were his descriptions that in 1890 W. B. Yeats told Stevenson that Treasure Island was the only book his seafaring grandfather had ever taken any pleasure.

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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.

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Stevenson was paid 34.7.6p for the serialization and 100 pounds for the book.

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