The quintessential adventure story that first
established pirates in the popular imagination, Robert
Louis Stevenson's ''Treasure Island'' is edited with an
introduction by John Seelye in ''Penguin Classics''.
When a mysterious sailor dies in sinister circumstances
at the Admiral Benbow inn, young Jim Hawkins stumbles
across a treasure map among the dead man's possessions.
But Jim soon becomes only too aware that he is not the
only one who knows of the map's existence, and his
bravery and cunning are tested to the full when, with
his friends Squire Trelawney and Dr Livesey, he sets
sail in the Hispaniola to track down the treasure. With
its swift-moving plot and memorably drawn characters -
Blind Pew and Black Dog, the castaway Ben Gunn and the
charming but dangerous Long John Silver - Stevenson's
tale of pirates, treachery and heroism was an immediate
success when it was first published in 1883 and has
retained its place as one of the greatest of all
adventure stories. In his introduction John Seelye
examines Stevenson's life and influences and the novel's
place within adventure fiction. This edition also
includes Stevenson's essay on the composition of
''Treasure Island''.Robert Louis Stevenson (1[zasłonięte]850-18)
was born in Edinburgh, the son of a prosperous civil
engineer. Although he began his career as an essayist
and travel writer, the success of ''Treasure Island''
(1883) and ''Kidnapped'' (1886) established his
reputation as a writer of tales of action and adventure.
Stevenson's Calvinist upbringing lent him a
preoccupation with predestination and a fascination with
the presence of evil, themes he explored in ''The
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' (1886), and
''The Master of Ballantrae'' (1893). If you enjoyed
''Treasure Island'', you might like Daniel Defoe's
''Robinson Crusoe'', also available in ''Penguin
Classics''. |
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