Treasure Island
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' 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 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.
 |
Map created by Robert Lewis 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.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Ewart 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".
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.
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 idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-life friend
William 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 [Henley was crippled], ruling and dreaded by the sound [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.
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.
*Jim Hawkins
*Billy Bones
*Squire John Trelawney
*Dr. Livesey
*Captain Alexander Smollet
*
Long John Silver*Israel Hands
*Ben Gunn
|
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
18th century. In
1761, an old and menacing sea captain named Billy Bones appears one day, but dies of a
stroke in the inn after being presented with "
The Black Spot", a secret pirate message which officially pronounced a verdict of guilt and promised a death sentence for the recipient. Hastily, Jim and his mother unlock Billy's sea chest (under pretense of payment for his inn tab), finding a logbook and map inside. Hearing steps outside, they quickly leave with the documents before Billy's pursuers ransack the inn looking for the same.
Jim realizes that the contents he has snatched from the sea chest must be valuable, so he takes the documents he has found to some local aristocratic acquaintances, Dr. Livesey and
Squire John Trelawney. Excited, they recognize it as a map leading to the fabled treasure of the infamous pirate
Captain Flint buried on Skeleton Island in the
West Indies. 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, is trustworthy, but Trelawney has fallen under the charismatic spell of Silver and believes him to be the better man. The ship sets sail for Skeleton Island with nothing amiss, 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 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 this merely leads to a shouting match. The pirates attack the stockade the next day, and the captain is wounded. 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, but Israel turns against him in a fight in the rigging. Jim is wounded but kills Israel.
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 for captain!" and "
Barbecue forever!"
The next day Silver leads Jim and the men 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 angered and ready to kill Silver and Jim once and for all. At that moment Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, Ben Gunn, and the others appear from the bushes and fire on the pirate band, killing some 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 |
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 then returning them home to the
gallows, 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. Ben Gunn spends all of his money within a fortnight and soon falls back upon begging. However, he is given a small pension by the Squire and quieted down, "...despite being quite a butt among the village boys, he is now a regular attendant and a notable singer at church on Sundays."
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 arms are still where Flint buried them...but oxen and
wain ropes would not be able to drag me back to that accursed island...and sometimes I still awaken at night in a cold sweat, with the shill voice of Captain Flint (Silver's talking parrot) ringing in my ears, "
Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!""
Treasure Island has hundreds of cultural derivatives from movies, plays, comic books, radio shows, inns to even whole islands. This section describes some of the most notable.
There are a number of islands which claim to have been 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.
[*'Where's Where' (1974) (Eyre Methuen, London} ISBN 0413322904 - Norman Island.] Other contenders are the small islands in Queen Street Gardens in
Edinburgh, opposite from where Stevenson was brought up.
["Brilliance of 'World's Child' will come alive at storytelling event" - "He 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," (Scotsman, 20 October 2005).] However, Stevenson (and his family) left a clear record that the inspiration for
Treasure Island was entirely of his own imagination and there is no factual evidence that says otherwise.
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.
The Pirate's House in
Savannah, Georgia is where Captain Flint is supposed to have spent his last days, and his ghost still haunts the property.
[The Pirates House history, Ghost of Captain Flint]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.
The novel
Peter Pan (1911) pays homage to
Treasure Island, where it is said that
Captain Hook is the only man the old Sea-Cook (
Long John Silver) ever feared; Captain Flint and the
Walrus are also referenced. Author
J. M. Barrie was a boyhood school friend of Stevenson's.
There have been over
50 movie versions made. Some of the notable ones include a 1920 silent version starring
Shirley Mason; a
1934 version starring
Jackie Cooper; a lavish 1950
Walt Disney version starring
Robert Newton; a
1972 version starring
Orson Welles; a 1990 version starring
Charlton Heston; 1996's
Muppet Treasure Island; and a 2002
Walt Disney animated science fiction version called
Treasure Planet.
The
BBC alone has produced at least three television adaptations.There are also a number of
Return to Treasure Island sequels produced: a 1953 film starring
Robert Newton, a 1986
Disney mini-series, a 1992 animation version, and a 1996 and 1998 tv version.
There are also two
anime adaptations. One, a feature-length film directed by
Hiroshi Ikeda and written by famous Japanese animator
Hayao Miyazaki with
Takashi Iijima and
Hiroshi Ikeda replaced several of the human characters with animal counterparts. The other adaptation was directed by
Osamu Dezaki and was quite dark for a children's TV series.
The story has been adapted to the stage many times. For a time, in London there was an annual production at the
Mermaid Theatre, originally under the direction of the late
Bernard Miles, who played
Long John Silver, a part he also played in a television version. The late comedian
Spike Milligan would often play
Ben Gunn in these productions.
Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation via
Mercury Theater on July 1938; half in England, half on the Island; omits "My Sea Adventure"; music by
Bernard Herrmann;
Available online.
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.
*A date for this novel is not given. However:
**A pirate whistles "
Lillibullero". (1689)
**Three real life pirates mentioned are
William Kidd 1696-1701;
Blackbeard 1716-1718;
Edward England 1717-1720.
**Doctor Livesey was at the
Battle of Fontenoy. (1745)
**John Flint gave Billy Bones the map 20 July 1754.
**Squire Trelawney remarks about "Admiral Hawke"; possibly
Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke 1747.
**Hawkins writes the story in "
17__"
Classic, famous island/seafaring novels for children
*
Robinson Crusoe (1719), by
Daniel Defoe*
The Swiss Family Robinson (1812), by
Johann David Wyss*Cordingly, David (1995).
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0679425608
*Letley, Emma, ed. (1998).
Treasure Island (Oxford World's Classics). ISBN 0192833804 - contains notes and introduction material.
*Watson, Harold (1969).
Coasts of Treasure Island;: A study of the backgrounds and sources for Robert Louis Stevenson's romance of the sea. ISBN 0811102823
*
Free ebook of Treasure Island at
Project Gutenberg*
Treasure Island, with an Introduction and notes by Franklin T Baker (Columbia University, 1909). Fully annotated online.
*
Treasure Island, HTML version, includes illustrations by
N. C. Wyeth*
Treasure Island in HTML format
*
A study guide for "Treasure Island" from
TheBestNotes.com*
Treasure Island, audiobook from
Librivox*
"Stevenson's 'Treasure Island': Still Avast Delight", by
Jonathan Yardley of the
Washington Post, Monday, April 17, 2006; C01
