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December Book of the Month Club - Treasure Island by RL Stevenson

• Message 1. 

  Posted by Rwth of the Cornovii (U2570790) on Thursday, 15th December 2011

  15th December : ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson (Rwth of Cornovii)
  
  This is the most beautiful story of boyish adventure. 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", 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. ( intro from Herb Robert via a long river)
  
  To my mind, it would be a mistake to be carried away by the fripperies of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The beginning of the book with the tapping of the stick on the Inn door and the implied thread of the Black Spot is really very frightening. In the period of candlelight and oil lamps the terror aspect is very real. The adventure of Jim Hawkins taken to the West Indies by the Squire and Captain Smollett is one that his mother is not altogether happy about, but he is too young to be much use in the inn, and she feels that he is marginally safer with them than exposed to violence and mayhem in the inn.
  
  Jim meets the awful Long John Silver, who while being fairly scary, is apparently benevolent. His parrot Cap'n Flint may know a deep secret - or may not. Jim falls in love with his first hero. As ever, very unsuitable, but by being unsafe is thereby more attractive. This is a very frightening adventure, and Jim is in deadly danger for at least a third of it. There are fatalities on both sides. There is a lot of violence. It is a true ancestor of "Pirates of the Caribbean" which while being funny and a p***take, is still very violent and frightening. Bits of it bear comparison with the extremely savage fight in the Round house from another of Stevenson's books "Kidnapped".
  
  In these days of piracy in the Persian Gulf, it bears re-reading and reconsidering.
  
  OK, so I haven't read it for years, but I'll go and read it again now, and make more sense in my next post. I thought it would be 21st, like every other month. I'm sorry it's late, but it is still 15th December today.

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  Posted by Bette (U2222559) on Thursday, 15th December 2011

  Thanks for your introduction, Rwth.
  
  For more information about the Book of the Month Club - links to past discussions, or if you would like to introduce a book in 2012, please go to this thread:
  
  
  I'll be back tomorrow with my own comments.

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  Posted by Prabhakari (U14687536) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  I have always wondered about the Apple Barrel.
  
  How many ships of that time carried fruit for the crew to eat?

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  Posted by dean volecape (U1477030) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  
  I'm glad you're having to re-read it, because it's giving me time to read it for the first time. I love Stevenson, but got put off T I by having it pushed on me when I was too young.
  
  I'm loving it, and will return to the discussion later. I'm already struck by the typical RSL explorations of the abgiguities and subtleties of character.
  
  Not sure about the apple barrel, but apples are a very storable and portable food, so it seems quite possible.

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  Posted by Alsdouble (U524298) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  Mmm very tempted to nip in the library and get Treasure Island...if they have one...............
  
  Ahaarrr
  
  
  jim..
  
  
  
  lard.....
  
  (Yes, then I can read and do 'the voice'...............)

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  Posted by Prabhakari (U14687536) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  It can be downloaded for free. I have it on my e-reader.
  If anyone does not know, there is Adobe software for e-books.

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  Posted by Alsdouble (U524298) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  Just been down the libarary, which has all changed to self service..which is highly confusing but easy when you get your head round it. Treasure Island in the kiddies department, so down on your knees searching and will read it when I've done in Wee Free Men, which I have a,ready read once so why on earth I've stuck with it for a second time I really don't know.
  
  Suppose it's easy reading.............(but it is a bit rubbish.)
  
  Another first today, taking the car in for a ejar valve job and walking and getting the bus..It felt like an expedition up everest.....First time I've used my free bus pass.

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  Posted by Bette (U2222559) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  OK, so I haven't read it for years, but I'll go and read it again now 
  
  Well, Rwth, I'll be interested to hear how you feel about it on re-reading. I must have read it when I was about 9-10, and remember it being scary, and that I enjoyed the book.
  
  50 years on, I enjoyed the first bit (at the inn) but when they set sail, I started to lose interest. I found there were a lot of (archaic) terms that I didn't understand, and sometimes the writing just wasn't clear. Actually, I had /totally/ forgotten the story, so it was as if I was reading it for the first time. I was surprised that there wasn't more about the actual treasure (which seemed to be almost an afterthought after all the fighting - which seemed to take up most of the second half of the book! I also remembered there being far more 'pieces of eight' mentioned, and more about the parrot than is actually the case.
  
  Compared to other children's classics, I don't think that 'Treasure Island' has stood the test of time, tbh. I'm glad I read it, but won't be keeping it (except that my copy has illustrations by Mervyn Peake).

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• Message 9

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  Posted by Rusters (U11225963) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  I hadn't read Treasure Island for years but, having had it read to me when little, then reading it myself a few years later, plus seeing/hearing adaptations later, really stuck with me, as well as the catch phrases everyone seems to remember: Jim Lad, Pieces of Eight, etc., etc.!
  
  What struck me was that Stevenson didn't talk down to his young readership, or pull his punches, really. I particularly liked the last few paragraphs, telling us how everyone had a share of the treasure "....and used it wisely or foolishly, according to our natures".
  
  Rusty
  
  

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  Posted by Fourteenbore (U2227836) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  I reread it from time to time. Definitely a favourite. There was a Ö÷²¥´óÐã production some time ago in which Silver was played as the devious cunning character he was, rather than the Robert Newton version. Interesting that he was married to "a woman of colour", Stevenson can't have introduced that without some intention. I doubt such marriages were common at the time.
  Reading it when young introduced me to muskets and cannon, probably leading me to owning and shooting muzzle loaders. Haven't got a cannon yet, though. Jim stuck up the mast with Israel Hands ( based on one of Blackbeard's crew) approaching, and finding his powder damp, a nightmare scenario.
  I suppose the apple barrel would be a means of ensuring there was a source of Vit. C available.
  Alas, poor Allardyce, used as a pointer.
  Must drag the book out again.

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  Posted by Prabhakari (U14687536) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  I have only just read Treasure Island again, last week. I really enjoyed the story. There is so much imagination in the mind of the writer. I find it to be an inspiration.
  
  I feel rather sorry for the pirates. They really came off worse.
  What about Long John Silver? His leg was amputated right up to the thigh. He must have suffered terrible pain.
  I know that he was a evil villian, but I still like him.
  
  What cheese would have travelled well onboard a damp, cold sailing ship? Would they have kept in a water-tight tin?

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  Posted by Rwth of the Cornovii (U2570790) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  Prabhakari, I'd say any of the Dutch cheeses wrapped in wax. Once cut, they would wrap it in muslin and keep it in a cage up high in the rigging, along with the bacon and ham and maybe the salt beef. They would take a couple of sheep and some chickens for fresh meet and fresh eggs. I remember when going on holiday in a railway carriage at Abergele, North Wales, my mother packed a lot of apples in straw in a barrel because there were going to be a lot of us, about 10 children and 5 adults. That was around 1951 when my Mother needed a good rest so we were all taken away. (Us four, and assorted cousins)
  
  I was looking at a collection of small books on my shelf and realised the 6 R L Stevensons included Treasure Island so I was able to start at once, though it took a bit of dusting first. It includes a foreword by the author who said he worked on it for a few weeks, with his father creating one of the characters - Billy Bones I think, until he had written about half of it, then had writer's block for nearly a year, then went away for a while when suddenly it all poured out, and he just wrote and wrote hardly having to edit it at all. I liked the encounter between Dr Livesey and Billy Bones who had terrified all the visitors to the Captain Benbow for weeks with his story, when the Doctor put the pirate in his place by force of character. I'm not sure yet where the inn actually is. I had assumed it was near Bristol, but it could just as easily be anywhere on the South Coast. Reading on ... ...

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  Posted by Bette (U2222559) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  I am clearly swimming up-stream here. I read it (having begun with a very positive attitude) but became increasingly disillusioned during the read. I then read many reviews/comments that were positive, overall.
  
  I just didn't find the standard of the writing that good. I felt involved in the book at the beginning, and towards the end (when Jack got back on-board), but a lot of the stuff that happened during the voyage and on arrival at the island didn't capture my interest. I shall now have to (re) read other novels by RLS to compare!

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  Posted by jennet_device (U8197637) on Friday, 16th December 2011

  I love the book. One thing that strikes me is that all the pirates are past their best - Flint is dead, Billy Bones has high blood pressure, Pew is blind, Long John has lost a leg - and they all go on nostalgically about what seems to have been a golden age of piracy. I don't know what conclusion to draw from this. The death toll in the book is pretty horrid, too.
  
  One of my ex-colleagues, Denis Judd, wrote a coupled of pretty good sequels, involving Long John (of course); one is called 'Return to Treasure Island', and I forget the other. I must hunt them out.
  
  Patrick O'Brien probably has the edge, but Stevenson is much more concentrated.

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  Posted by Alsdouble (U524298) on Thursday, 22nd December 2011

  It's just great. Bright, snappy writing, you wouldn't believe it wasn't written last week.
  
  Fast charcaterisations, story unfolding beautifully, great language and vocabu;lary, without going round the house.
  
  5 chapters in and enjoying it as a bed book.
  
  Whole load of tragedy so far....

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  Posted by Alsdouble (U524298) on Tuesday, 3rd January 2012

  Mmm, not much discussion on this is there?
  
  Last chapter. Quite enjoyed it. The language is very adult and sometimes phrases which are not totally understandable.
  
  Get the drift though.
  
  Thanks to Robert Newton 'shiver MY timbers' can be modified in the mind, to something more user friendly.
  
  Great book!

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  Posted by Fourteenbore (U2227836) on Tuesday, 3rd January 2012

  For a so called children's book, it introduces death and fear in a descriptive manner, and is none the worse for it. Also the treatment of Silver, the baddie but shown to change sides when to his advantage and finally escaping justice. I'm not sure a modern writer would have such a conclusion. Nowadays the baddie either gets their just desserts or reappears in umpteen sequels.

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  Posted by Rwth of the Cornovii (U2570790) on Friday, 6th January 2012

  I've finally finished it. I was interested in some of the issues. Jim Hawkins hates the island with a passion - Hispaniola, is it Haiti? Yet he disembarks on it. He observes very discreetly for so young a boy, about 14. He is trapped in the apple barrel, but keeps still and listens not giving himself away. It seems to me that it is all about self discipline. He is lucky, it's true, but because he doesn't drink and keeps his mind on what he is doing, when people try to trap him, he doesn't lose sight of the bigger picture. He pretends to go away to get wine on the ship for Israel Hands, but comes back quietly to see what he does, so sees him arm himself with a knife. Although he forgets to reload the pistols, as soon as opportunity presents itself, he loads them so is in a position to shoot when he needs to. When luck strikes, good or bad, he is in a position to take advantage of it.
  
  The hands mostly given the chance to gain an advantage, throw it away by cooking all the provisions and throwing away what they can't eat. They drink themselves into insensibility not thinking that Long John Silver can threaten them because they outnumber him, but in many ways, even lacking one leg, he outnumbers them. In the end, he gets bored with their stupidity and self indulgence, so changes sides - probably more to be rid of them. He drinks too, but never loses his grip on awareness of what is going on. Although he is unscrupulous, he has a sense of what he can get away with and what he can't. By changing sides, he has a chance at an amnesty which he takes and is not heard of again in this story.
  
  The Squire isn't all that bright, even if he is a good shot and is on the right side, but the Doctor is good at making the most of his situation. He uses his visits to the Pirate Camp to carry out observations, that Silver is undeceived by but the other men are oblivious to.
  
  Smollett, the Captain is intelligent, but a bit overkeen on control so loses some of it. He survives by sticking to what he knows he can do. Ben Gunn is reasonably bright, but has no discipline. He digs up the treasure and hides it away, and fakes the voice of Captain Flint, but when he gets his reward, he spends the lot in 20 days.
  
  I suspect that this book could never have been written by an Englishman. It takes a Scot to take so firm a grasp of the essentials and while writing a ripping yarn about treasure and getting drunk and murdering people, he never loses sight of the power of brainwork. He wrote the introduction and then got writer's block for nearly a year, then he went off to live in a cabin on the estate of a friend and wrote the rest of it over a period of a few weeks. His father had more than a hand in it and was the model for Doctor Livesey I think, though that was in the early stages.
  
  I think this book deserves its classic status as there is a whole lot more going on under the surface than is obvious. It is more than the sum of its parts.

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  Posted by Fourteenbore (U2227836) on Friday, 6th January 2012

  There is certainly an undercurrent of discipline going on. Silver saying he would have the pirates wait until the treasure was on board and the ship nearly home before striking, thus avoiding the problem of getting back without a proper navigator. No hiding the casual violence of the pirates. However he recognises that the pirates haven't the patience or discipline to wait that long. The result is one of the reasons for their downfall. I like the bit where Jim has doubts as to whether Ben Gunn is sane, and the Doctor says if there is any doubt then he is. Lots of little touches. I'm going on memory, as I haven't read it for at least 20 years. Must hook it off the shelf.

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