Stevenson was paid 34 pounds seven shillings and sixpence for the serialization and 100 pounds for the book. Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote "I think Stevenson shows more genius in a page than Sir Walter Scott in a volume". ![]() American novelist Henry James praised it as "perfect as a well-played boy's game". The Prime Minister, Gladstone, was reported to have stayed up until two in the morning to finish it. Concerned about a deadline they travelled in October to Davos, Switzerland where the break from work and clean mountain air did him wonders, and he was able to continue at the rate of a chapter a day and soon finished the storyline.ĭuring its initial run in Young Folks from October 1881 to January 1882, Treasure Island failed to attract attention or even increase the sales of the magazine, but when sold as a book in 1883 it soon became very popular. He turned to the proofs, corrected them, took morning walks alone, and read other novels.Īs autumn came to Scotland, the Stevensons left their summer holiday retreat for London, and Stevenson was troubled with a life-long chronic bronchial condition. He had never earned his keep by age thirty-one, and was desperate to finish the book. Stevenson wrote at the rate of a chapter a day for fifteen days straight, then ran dry of words, partly due to his health. Alexander Japp, brought the early chapters to the editor of Young Folks magazine who agreed to publish each chapter weekly. Stevenson's father took a child-like delight in the story and spent a day writing out the exact contents of Billy Bones's sea-chest, which Stevenson adopted word-for-word and his father suggested the scene where Jim Hawkins hides in the apple barrel. Lloyd insisted there be no women in the story which was largely held to with the exception of Jim Hawkins' mother at the beginning of the book. 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. Young Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson, passed the rainy days painting with watercolours. It was a cold and rainy late-summer and Stevenson was with five family members on holiday in a cottage. The first fifteen chapters were written at Braemar in the Scottish Highlands in 1881. Stevenson was 30 years old when he started to write Treasure Island, and it would be his first success as a novelist. 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. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels. Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, Treasure Island is an adventure tale known for its 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. Barrie drew inspiration from it for the pirates in his own story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, and even referred to the character of Captain Flint by name in Peter and Wendy. Barrie was a fan of the book, and later became a penpal with Stevenson. ![]() First published as a book in 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881-82 under the title The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island. Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold".
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