One of literature's best-loved adventure stories, Treasure Island's timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps, mutiny and derring-do has appealed to generations of readers ever since Robert Louis Stevenson penned it for his stepson in 1881 with the claim, "If this don't fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day." Children of all ages, not to mention their parents, delight in cabin boy Jim Hawkins and the treasure hunt he undertakes in this rollicking narrative of cliff-hanging adventure.
But more than a children's classic, the novel lays claim to being one of the greatest feats of storytelling in the English language, with characters such as the unforgettable Long John Silver becoming part of the cultural consciousness. Stevenson's most famous and enduringly popular work, Treasure Island is a coming-of-age story that will captivate both adults and children for as long as stories are told.
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'Over Treasure Island I let my fire die in winter without knowing I was freezing.'
J.M. Barrie
'From my very childhood Robert Louis Stevenson was an incarnation of happiness for me.'
Jorge Luis Borges
'Treasure Island will surely become – it must already have become, and will remain – in its way a classic, thanks to this indescribable mixture of the prodigious and the human, of surprising coincidences and familiar feelings. The language which Mr Stevenson has chosen to tell his story is an admirable vehicle for these feelings; with its humorous braveries and quaintnesses, its echoes of old ballads and yarns, it touches all kinds of sympathetic chords.'
Henry James
'The best of boys’ books, and a book to make one feel a boy again.'
George Meredith
'The book that haunted my childhood and has the power to haunt me still is Treasure Island… If anyone wants to grow up to be a writer they should get to this work by a master storyteller as soon as possible.'
John Mortimer
'What Stevenson’s book has, besides great characters and a terrific plot, is an understanding of the child’s instinctive desire to make things up.'
The Observer
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Read an excerpt from
Treasure Island
