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Treasure Island (1881)

Them that die'll be the lucky ones.
-Treasure Island

The last few pirate movies (Hook and Cutthroat Island among them) have bombed so disastrously at the box office that it's hard to tell whether it was simply because they weren't very good or whether kids have abandoned the genre. I certainly hope it's the former, I'd hate to think that kids today are missing out on all the great pirate tales that we used to thrill too. Foremost of these was, of course, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I may well be wrong here, but it seems to me that Stevenson pioneered one of the central techniques of children's literature ; placing a child at the center of what might otherwise be a typical adult adventure novel. This simple but ingenious idea gives kids a character to identify with and allows the author to write from the child's perspective.

In the case of Treasure Island, young Jim Hawkins narrates the story of how he and Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the enigmatic Long John Silver ended up on board the Hispaniola, looking for the lost treasure of the notorious pirate Captain John Flint. Packed with betrayals, battles, mutinies, and even a parrot squawking "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!", the book is the source for many of the enduring and beloved clichés of the genre.

This is a classic that each generation should discover anew. Heck, if enough kids start reading it again, maybe Hollywood will even take another crack at a pirate movie, this time a decent one.

(Reviewed:06-Sep-01)

Grade: (A+)

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Treasure Island (1881)

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