Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson
1883

Introduction

Treasure Island is considered one of the first adventure stories written specifically for adolescents without an obvious emphasis on teaching morals. This is not to say that Robert Louis Stevenson's novel about a young boy is without lessons but rather that its emphasis is a coming-of-age story filled with challenges, fears, and triumphs like any exciting and fun-filled journey of exploration. The lessons are learned through the characters' decisions and mistakes, which makes them more lifelike and less didactic.

Stevenson has stated that the story was inspired by a detailed map he drew from his imagination. This map, Stevenson wrote in an essay called "Treasure Island," "was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully coloured; the shape of it took my fancy beyond expression; it contained harbours that pleased me like sonnets; and with the unconsciousness of the predestined, I ticketed my performance 'Treasure Island.'"

The more Stevenson studied this map of his creation, the more his imagination expanded. First, he could see the vegetation of the island. Then the island became peopled in his mind's eye, and their stories began to appear. "It was to be a story for boys," Stevenson wrote; and with excitement and ease, he produced the first fifteen chapters in as many days. But then the inspiration disappeared—the author claims that he was at a very low point in his life at this time. He was thirty-one and had yet to make a salary on his own. He was supported by his father, and he wanted to write something that not only would make money but would please his father. Much of his writing up to this point Stevenson referred to as a failure; he was afraid that this current story he was working on would become one too.

Stevenson took a break from his work and went on a short vacation. Upon arriving at his destination, he sat down at a desk, determined to free himself from his despair. With great discipline, he started writing again. "And in a second tide of delighted industry," Stevenson wrote, "I finished 'Treasure Island.'" The book turned out to be a huge success for Stevenson, bringing both money and fame. It was published first as a magazine serial before being produced as a book in 1883. But that is not the end of the story. When Stevenson sent his manuscript to his publisher, the map, which had inspired the pirate story, was missing. It was never found. Stevenson had to create another map, "but somehow it was never 'Treasure Island' to me," Stevenson wrote.

Author Biography

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the only son of a famed engineer and inventor. Stevenson's grandfather was also an engineer, known around the world for the many beautiful lighthouses he designed. The family expected the young Stevenson to follow in his grandfather's and his father's footsteps. But in his earliest years, Stevenson suffered from a lung disease and spent much time in bed. To pass the time, he made up stories. Some of the earliest literary influences, authors he tried to mimic, included Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, 1719), Edgar Allan Poe ("The Raven," 1845), and Nathaniel Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter, 1850).

When it came time to go to university, Stevenson enrolled in engineering classes but later changed his mind. He was more interested in literature. Stevenson's father did not approve of his son's writing, however, and insisted that Stevenson gain a more respected and more practical degree. So Stevenson studied law and passed the bar in 1875, but he never practiced. Instead, he began to write in earnest, publishing several short stories, essays, and travel sketches, which were only modestly successful and did not provide him with enough money to pay all his bills. So his father continued to support him well through his twenties.

Stevenson's travel sketches were the byproduct of his hopes of finding a climate that would prove more beneficial for his health. While he was

in Paris, where he found some relief in the warmer climate, he also found the woman who would later become his wife. Fanny Osbourne, an American, was older than Stevenson, was married and the mother of three children, and was apparently the inspiration of Stevenson's life and literary career. In 1879, three years after they met, Osbourne obtained a divorce, and she and Stevenson were married. He was twenty-nine; she was forty.

The couple traveled throughout Europe and the United States, still looking for a place that suited Stevenson's frail health. But it was during a visit to Scotland that Stevenson wrote Treasure Island, which first appeared in serialized form in a magazine between 1881 and 1882, before it was published as a book. Treasure Island finally made a name for Stevenson and provided him with a livable wage. The book also won the approval of Stevenson's father, who finally accepted his son's chosen vocation.

After living in Scotland for a short time, Stevenson and his wife moved to London. This move proved beneficial for Stevenson's career, as it was during this time that he made friends with the author Henry James and other literary figures. While in London, Stevenson wrote two more texts, which, together with Treasure Island became his most famous works. They were The StrangeCase of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886).

Two years later, the Stevensons discovered the island of Samoa, which provided a tropical setting that suited Stevenson's health and the place in which he produced a very large collection of poems, short stories, essays, and novels before his early death. On December 3, 1894, while helping his wife fix dinner, Stevenson died of a brain hemorrhage. When his neighbors in Samoa heard the tragic news, they grabbed axes and machetes and cut a trail up the mountainside behind his house so as to honor Stevenson's final wish to be buried at the top of Mount Vaea.

Plot Summary

Part 1—The Old Buccaneer

Treasure Island is narrated by Jim Hawkins, the son of the owners of the inn, the Admiral Benbow. In the first pages, Billy Bones, a mysterious and ragged old seaman, appears at the doorstep of the inn, dragging a large sea chest. Bones decides to stay at the inn and asks Hawkins to warn him if he ever sees a one-legged man.

One day, while visiting Hawkins' father whose health has deteriorated, Dr. Livesey, local doctor and magistrate, inadvertently disregards Bones' demand for silence in the inn. Despite Bones' physical threats, Dr. Livesey calmly stands up to the old seafarer and even threatens to put him out of town if he hears of any more disturbances.

Bones dies by the end of this section; Hawkins discovers the map of buried treasure in Bones' sea chest and shares it with Livesey; and the two men, along with Squire Trelawney, begin their search for the buried treasure.

Part 2—The Sea Cook

Hawkins meets Livesey and Trelawney in Bristol, where a ship, the Hispaniola, has been purchased. Here Hawkins meets Long John Silver, a seaman with just one leg. Although Hawkins remembers Billy Bones' warning, Hawkins finds himself unconcerned about Silver, who puts on a show of gentlemanly manners, poise, and confidence.

Silver is hired as the sea cook for the Hispaniola; and once the voyage gets under way the majority of the pirate sea hands look to Silver as their leader. There is little trouble on the ship as it makes its way toward Treasure Island. However, one night, while Hawkins climbs into a huge apple barrel to retrieve a fruit, he happens to overhear Silver talking to some of the men. It is upon this conversation that the story takes a major turn. Before this point, Silver has been painted as a reliable, intelligent, and fair-minded man. But after overhearing Silver, Hawkins has a new perception of this man, who is proving to be dishonest, cunning, and possibly murderous. Hawkins discovers that Silver is planning a mutiny. Hawkins tells Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, and Captain Smollot about Silver's plans. The group makes counter plans as the ship heads toward the island.

Part 3—My Shore Adventure

A depressive mood descends upon the crew once the ship is anchored in the harbor of Treasure Island. In order to ease this mood, the captain tells the crew that they can go ashore. The captain hopes this will keep them preoccupied so they do not mutiny prematurely, catching the captain and his cohorts off guard. Hawkins, aware that he is unneeded on board and overly excited about exploring the island, slips off the ship and heads toward land in a small dingy without waiting for his companions.

The first sign of trouble is the sound of a gun being shot. Upon hearing it, Hawkins, who hides in the bush, sees Silver kill one of his own men. Having witnessed the murder, Hawkins starts running. In his desperate need to put distance between himself and Silver, Hawkins runs into Ben Gunn, a sailor who has been marooned on the island for three years. He was left there by a Captain Flint, the pirate who hid the treasure on this island to begin with. Gunn had been a mate on Flint's ship, along with Billy Bones and Long John Silver. Gunn tells Hawkins about his experiences and about the treasure and a hidden boat that Gunn has made. He tries to tell Hawkins more but a volley of cannon balls is hurled at the island, and both men run for their lives.

Part 4—The Stockade

In the beginning of this section, the narration is taken over by Dr. Livesey. Livesey relates the events that were happening on his part of the island while young Hawkins was experiencing his own. As Livesey and the trusted members of the crew are about to leave the Hispaniola, Livesey learns that Hawkins has already left the ship. He fears for Hawkins' safety. Upon arriving on the island, Livesey finds an old stockade, a six-foot-high structure made of logs. Inside he discovers a fresh water spring. The doctor concludes that this is a good place to make the stand against the pirates.

The doctor and his men return to the Hispaniola and tell the captain the new plan. Then the men load supplies—food, medicine, and guns and ammunition—into several small boats and set their course for the island. Once they land on shore, they carry their crates to the stockade. After several trips, Dr. Livesey returns to the Hispaniola and announces that they have completed their plan, and all but a handful of men leave the ship. The small boats they are using for the last trip are overloaded, and the tide is working against them. In their hurry to prepare for a confrontation with the pirates, they have failed to realize until it is too late, that the only men left aboard are Silver's men. When they look back to the Hispaniola, the captain suggests that they kill Silver's men. Trelawney takes aim. He misses his intended target but wounds another. At this moment, the little boat in which Captain Smollot's men are rowing suddenly sinks. Since they are in only three feet of water, no one drowns, but some of the guns and half the supplies are lost. They have little time to reclaim anything as the pirates on the Hispaniola begin shooting cannon balls at them. The captain's crew barely makes it to the stockade before gunshots are fired and the battle on the ground begins. As the first battle comes to an end, Hawkins returns to the scene.

Hawkins takes over the narration and tells the men about Ben Gunn. They discuss their plans. This section ends with Long John Silver making a surprise visit to the stockade with a white flag in hand. Silver suggests that the captain turn over the treasure map. Then he suggests that the treasure be divided between the two sides. The captain scoffs at these suggestions and tells Silver to have his men come to the stockade and surrender. Silver spits into the fresh water spring in disgust. He leaves and shortly afterward, the next battle begins. In the process, several are killed and the captain is wounded.

Part 5—My Sea Adventure

Once again, Hawkins decides to leave his group without telling anyone. He grabs some food and a gun and heads east toward the shoreline. He finds Ben Gunn's boat, rows it out to the Hispaniola, and frees the anchor, thus setting it adrift. He hears drunken noises from the pirates and climbs aboard to investigate. He finds the men quarreling and quickly returns to his small boat. He is tired, so he lies down and falls asleep. When he awakens, he sees that the waves have increased in size and when he sits up, his boat almost capsizes. In order to stay afloat, he must lie low at the bottom of the boat. He then notices the Hispaniola about one-half mile away from him and makes up his mind to board it again.

The only man conscious onboard the Hispaniola is Israel Hands. Hawkins acts boldly, taking down the pirates' flag and telling Hands to call him captain. Hands is wounded, so Hawkins brings him food and drink in exchange for Hands helping Hawkins navigate the ship to a safe harbor. Once the boat is all but safe, Hands lunges for Hawkins but is thrown overboard by a sudden twist of the ship. However, before falling off the ship, Hands thrusts his knife into Hawkins' shoulder, thus nailing him to the mast. Hawkins is at first mortified, but then he realizes that it is just a superficial wound and frees himself. He then leaves the ship and runs to find the doctor and the captain. He runs to the stockade but is startled to find Long John Silver and his men there.

Part 6—Captain Silver

Silver stands up for Hawkins, although some of his men want to kill him. Hawkins admits everything to Silver, telling him that he was the one who overheard their plan to rebel against the captain. Silver tells Hawkins that the doctor gave the treasure map to him, and he has deserted Hawkins. Of course, Hawkins is confused. Silver's men then turn against Silver because they no longer trust him.

Media Adaptations

• Treasure Island has been produced as a movie several times. There is Paramount Studios' 1920 version; MGM's 1934 production; Disney's 1950 presentation; and the 1972 UK project that starred Orson Wells as Long John Silver. In the 1990s, several animated versions of this story appeared on DVDs. Frank Oz and his muppets even made their version of this classic in 1996.
• Treasure Island was produced by Books on Tape, Inc. in 2002, read by Richard Matthews.

Coincidently the doctor shows up to administer to the wounded pirates. He talks in private to Hawkins and reprimands him for running away. The doctor urges Hawkins to run away with him now, but Hawkins has given his word to Silver and tells the doctor he must remain a prisoner to the pirates. Before the doctor leaves, Hawkins tells him about rescuing the Hispaniola.

The pirates head out to look for the buried treasure. When they finally figure out the map and follow its directions, they come upon an empty pit. Someone has already dug up the treasure. The pirates believe they have been tricked and decide to kill Silver. But the doctor and Ben Gunn, who have been hiding in the bushes, shoot at the pirates. After the pirates run for their lives, the doctor, Hawkins, Silver, and the others retreat to Ben Gunn's storage cave, where the treasure has been hidden. It appears that Silver has been working with the captain. But Hawkins has seen both sides of Silver and suspects that the old pirate chooses any side from which he will benefit.

A few days later, the Hispaniola is set to leave. Silver is in custody, but the captain has guaranteed him a fair trial. They leave food for the three remaining mutineers and sail for the nearest city to get fresh supplies and a new crew. When they anchor in a "Spanish American" city, Silver escapes, and most of the men are relieved. Only five men of the original crew make it back to Bristol, where they share the treasure.

Characters

Mr. Arrow

Mr. Arrow is the first mate on the Hispaniola but not a good one. His weakness is alcohol. He tries to befriend the pirates not so much because he likes them but because he does not know how to separate himself from them and therefore to regulate them. One day, while upon the open seas, he disappears. It is not known if he is thrown overboard or if he falls overboard in a drunken stupor.

Black Dog

Black Dog, whose distinguishing mark is two missing fingers on his left hand, is the first pirate to find Billy Bones. Black Dog fights with Bones and is injured but manages to run away. He is later seen with the blind man Pew who wants to find the treasure map. Later in the story, when Jim Hawkins first meets Long John Silver, Black Dog is sitting in the pub. When Hawkins points him out, Silver denies knowing him. This is Stevenson's first hint that Long John Silver might not be as honest as he pretends.

Billy Bones

Billy Bones appears in the beginning of this story and is the first pirate Jim Hawkins meets. Bones stays at the Hawkins' inn, the Admiral Benbow, scaring all the villagers with his sea stories and his dictatorial meanness. Bones pays Hawkins to watch for a man with one leg, someone who is obviously searching for Bones. Eventually Bones is discovered by a roving band of pirates, who give him the "black spot," a pirate sentence of death. Although the pirates do not kill him, Bones dies of some unknown cause, which the doctor assumes is related to Bones' alcoholism. After his death, young Hawkins finds a treasure map inside Bones' trunk, a map that sets up the premise of the story.

Captain Flint

Captain Flint, a notorious pirate, leaves Ben Gunn on Treasure Island. He never appears in the story but is mentioned by several pirates, who both praise and curse him. Long John Silver also names his parrot Captain Flint.

Ben Gunn

Ben Gunn is discovered on Treasure Island by Jim Hawkins. Gunn has been marooned there for three years and is a bit eccentric by the time Hawkins finds him. Despite his peculiarities, Gunn has figured out how to survive on the island and is instrumental in saving Hawkins and the rest of the crew of the Hispaniola. Gunn has a store of food that he shares with them and has built a crude rowboat, which Hawkins uses to save the Hispaniola. Despite the fact that Gunn has found the buried treasure, what he desires most when rescued is a piece of cheese. In the end, Gunn is given part of the treasure once the ship returns to England, but readers are told that Gunn spends his fortune quickly.

Israel Hands

Israel Hands is one of Long John Silver's men. During the mutiny, Hands is left on the ship. When Jim Hawkins returns to the ship and releases the anchor and climbs aboard, it is with Hands that Hawkins must deal. Hands helps Hawkins navigate the Hispaniola to a safe harbor. Once the ship is anchored, Hands tries to kill Hawkins but is thrown from the ship and drowns when the current abruptly changes. Before that fatal accident, Hands impales Hawkins with his dagger. Hawkins' wound, however, turns out to be superficial.

Jim Hawkins

Jim Hawkins is the young boy who narrates most of this story. He is observant of events that occur around him and of the people with whom he becomes involved. His observations at times get him into trouble but more often than not also save his life and the lives of his companions. He fortunately happens to be in the right place at the right time. The knowledge he gains through his good fortune is put to good use. Hawkins is both lucky and clever.

Hawkins' youthful curiosity leads him into the adventure of his lifetime after he gains possession of a treasure map. With a crew of less than respectable sea hands and a group of professional men at the helm, Hawkins eventually sails off to search for the buried bounty. It is through this treasure-hunt adventure that Hawkins experiences a rite of passage from adolescent to adult, as he learns to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, and all shades in between. The story is told mostly through his eyes.

Mr. Hawkins

Mr. Hawkins is Jim's father. He is sickly and dies early in the story, leaving Jim the only man available to help his mother run the pub.

Mrs. Hawkins

Mrs. Hawkins, mother of Jim Hawkins, is present only in the first chapters of the book, in which Jim helps her run the Admiral Benbow.

Dr. Livesey

Dr. Livesey enters the story when Jim Hawkins' father is dying. He appears again at the Admiral Benbow when Billy Bones falls ill. It is to Dr. Livesey that young Hawkins gives the treasure map once he has discovered it in Bones' trunk. Dr. Livesey understands the importance of the map and helps to organize the ocean trip to find the buried treasure.

Livesey is honest and honor-bound. He is the mirror image of Long John Silver in many ways. While Silver pretends to be honest, sincere, and honor bound, Livesey really is. Livesey is also a humanitarian while Silver cares little for anyone but himself. In contrast, Livesey, even in the midst of the mutiny, treats the wounded pirates with as much care as he treats his own friends. Livesey is cool headed and intelligent and plays out the role of a father figure or older brother for young Hawkins.

Old Man Pew

Old Man Pew is a blind pirate who comes looking for Billy Bones at the Admiral Benbow. Jim Hawkins must personally deal with Old Man Pew and is frightened by the experience. Pew is strong and threatens Hawkins physically so that Hawkins does what Pew tells him. Pew also frightens Billy Bones. Bones sees him as a bad omen. After Bones dies, Old Man Pew is trampled by horses while citizens try to keep order in their village by chasing the pirates away from the town.

Old Redruth

Old Redruth, a friend of the squire's, is loyal to the professional crew on the Hispaniola but is the first to be killed when the pirates mutiny.

Long John Silver

Long John Silver, hired as the cook for the ship Hispaniola, is a chameleon, changing his "colors" depending on the situation. He is working in a pub when first introduced, a place he and his wife own. When Jim Hawkins encounters him, Silver pretends to be a legitimate businessman. In fact, Silver has gained all of his wealth from piracy and, despite the loss of a leg, has a reputation of being a successful pirate. He is an intelligent man and well aware of the psychology of the people around him. Silver uses this knowledge to manipulate the circumstances in which he finds himself, with an intense loyalty to no one but himself.

It is through Silver that the crewmembers, most of whom have histories of piracy, organize a mutiny. They plan to either kill or maroon the legitimate leaders of this expedition and claim the treasure for themselves. Silver, compared to the other pirates, is easily the most conniving. He charms everyone from the lowliest pirate to the captain of the ship. He stresses that all men must display honor and makes a grand show to prove that he is the most respectable of them all. His bright intelligence and quit wit help him turn every situation to his advantage. Given that Stevenson originally wanted the title of this book to be The Sea Cook, readers can be assured that Long John Silver, in many ways, was meant to be the main character.

Captain Smollet

Captain Smollet, the officer in charge of the Hispaniola, is hardworking and understands the power of rank, not for the power but rather for the discipline. He demonstrates his intelligence and understanding of human nature by recognizing Long John Silver's power over the pirates on his ship. He is wounded during a battle on Treasure Island, but Dr. Livesey saves him. Smollet is patriotic and often makes grand statements about his country.

Squire Trelawney

Squire Trelawney's strength is organization. He is the one who arranges the ship, the Hispaniola and its crew. Trelawney is loyal and hard working, but he does have a couple of faults. First, his judgment of people is in question, since he hires a bunch of ruffians to man the boat. Second, he has trouble keeping a secret. Perhaps Trelawney is the person who let it be known that the people who organized the crew of the Hispaniola were sailing in search of treasure.

Themes

Honor

There is much made of the concept of honor in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. Whether it is the honor of gentlemen or the honor of thieves and pirates, this concept is interwoven throughout the story. Even though the pirates in this story steal other people's fortunes, killing many sailors and villagers in the process, they have a code of conduct and are expected to obey that code or lose honor among their peers. For example, when Long John Silver protects young Hawkins, Silver's mates grow suspicious of him. They believe Silver might be in cahoots with Dr. Livesey or Captain Smollet. If this is true, then Silver is a traitor and has committed an act that is contrary to the pirates' code. Likewise, there is a bond of honor between Hawkins and Silver. Hawkins gives his word to the old pirate that he will not run away once Silver holds Hawkins hostage. Silver later praises Hawkins for keeping his word. Dr. Livesey is also an honorable man. He is particularly honorable in reference to his vocation. He cares for the wounds of the pirates despite the fact that the pirates have tried to kill him.

Adventure

This story was written for one of Stevenson's stepsons. So its targeted audience is young. Stevenson wanted to give the young boy something exciting to read; thus this tale filled with high adventure and thrilling challenges in each chapter was born. Throughout the story, the young narrator bears the threats of seafarers like Billy Bones and Long John Silver. At other times he is sneaking around Billy Bones' bedroom to retrieve the treasure map or going against the orders of the ship's captain and devising daring plans of his own. Hawkins has led a simple life before this story begins. But suddenly he finds himself sailing across an ocean in search of treasure and having to defend himself. He faces mutiny, several gun battles, uncouth pirates who try to kill him, and the constant threat of being marooned on an island—all the right ingredients for keeping young readers reading to find out what happens next.

Coming of Age

As the story begins, young Hawkins lives in a small village and works each day in his parents' inn. He is devoted to his parents and at first afraid of the pirate Billy Bones. Hawkins trembles when Bones touches him. Hawkins is also somewhat naïve, trusting other people's interpretations rather than trusting his own. For example, when Hawkins recognizes a pirate in Long John Silver's inn, he believes Silver when he says he has no idea who the man is.

Hawkins' gullibility slowly fades as the adventure progresses and his experiences widen. For instance, when Hawkins climbs into the apple barrel and overhears Silver planning a mutiny, he begins to understand that there is real evil in the world. As the story continues, there are more rites of passage as Hawkins passes through adolescence to adulthood. He sneaks off the ship once it is anchored and takes off on a journey all by himself. He fights in a battle against the pirates and sees many men die. He conjures up a plan to rescue the ship from the pirates. At this point he feels the full strength of his power. He tells the only conscious pirate onboard that he, Hawkins, should be referred to as the captain of the ship. It is as if Hawkins is stating he is a man. He orders the pirate to help him steer the ship through dangerous currents and anchor the boat in a safe harbor. At the end of this scene, Hawkins receives his first wound. It is a superficial cut, but with it Hawkins faces his own mortality.

Conflict

The themes of man against man, man against nature, and man against himself help to structure this novel. For example, Hawkins must overcome his fear of the pirates, beginning with Billy Bones and later with Long John Silver. Hawkins must also face nature, especially when he pulls the anchor on the Hispaniola and is first thrust about in the ocean waves in the small boat of Ben Gunn's and then later in the great ship itself as he tries to navigate the strong currents in the island's narrow harbors. Moreover, Hawkins faces conflict when he must make very difficult choices, such as when he decides to desert his crew. Through conflict and its consequences Hawkins matures. Furthermore, conflict draws in readers, as they attempt to second-guess the outcome of conflicts and read on to discover them.

Style

Serialized Novel

Stevenson's novel Treasure Island was first published in a serialized form. This means that it was published chapter by chapter in separate small units. Serialization imposed its own form on plot design, dictating chapters that practically stand on their own with inconclusive endings. In other words, each chapter is a mini-adventure but designed to leave the reader wondering what will happen next. In Stevenson's book, the stories are collected in parts, and within each part are separate sections. This arrangement intensifies the tension. The first part of the book, for example, is divided into six sections. At the end of the first section, it is hinted that Dr. Livesey and Billy Bones will meet again, and readers are left to wonder how the next confrontation between them will take place. The second section is called "Black Dog Appears and Disappears," which sums up the action. But again, the reader senses at the end of this section that Black Dog will reappear, and when he does, something catastrophic will probably occur. By the end of the first part of the book, the reader has been introduced to most of the major characters. Readers are primed, much like Hawkins himself, and ready for the next part of the journey. The serialized form helps readers experience the excitement in sequence as Hawkins experiences it.

Topics For Further Study

• Investigate modern forms of piracy. What do they have in common with the piracy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? How do they differ? Where does piracy occur other than at sea? Is it committed through the Internet? In the fashion trade? In the stock market?
• Stevenson wrote much poetry. Read some of his more famous works, such as A Child's Garden of Verses (1885). Compare his work to that of modern-day children's poet Shel Silverstein. How do their works differ? What is the tone of their writing? How is the subject matter the same?
• Read Treasure Island and Louis Sachar's Holes (2000), a modern adventure and coming-of-age story. Then write a short story about the main characters, Jim Hawkins and Stanley Yelnats, as if they were friends who were sharing a common adventure. Set the story in any time you choose. Demonstrate through your story how the two young boys are alike and how they differ. Make sure you understand each character's strengths and weaknesses.
• Write a travel piece on Samoa. Include descriptions of the island, the history of its people, and interesting aspects of the culture. Include as much information as you can find on what Stevenson experienced there. Assume your readers want to visit the island because they are fans of Stevenson's. Include a description of Stevenson's house and the reaction of the native people to his being there.
• Stevenson's grandfather was a famous designer of lighthouses. Find out where his lighthouses are located and provide pictures of them and their history.

Point of View

The majority of this story is told by young Hawkins, who tells readers in the first few sentences that he has been asked by Dr. Livesey, the squire, and the rest of the professional crew of the Hispaniola to write this story with all its details. Readers watch the boy's growth as he develops from a naïve teenager to an experienced man. It is clear what Hawkins is thinking, whether he is making bold decisions or stupid mistakes. Stevenson only changes point of view when Dr. Livesey recounts events that young Hawkins does not participate in. Stevenson uses the doctor, for instance, to tell about what happens on the ship when Hawkins is on shore. This shift gives readers a little advantage because they know more than Hawkins, but this gap is quickly closed. Once the doctor and Hawkins are reunited, Hawkins continues the narration of the story.

Historical Context

Piracy

Piracy, which can be loosely defined as lawlessness and usually at sea, has a long history, dating as far back as the Phoenicians (1200 to 800 b.c.) Piracy occurred on almost every body of water from the China Sea to the Mediterranean and eventually along New World's Atlantic shores and in the Caribbean. Pirates were both feared and romanticized as heroes. They thrived on the booty (or stolen wealth) they stole from merchant ships and shoreline villages. Their practice lasted well into the nineteenth century when British and U.S. naval forces eventually overwhelmed them. Nonetheless, some piracy continued throughout the twentieth century and into the early 2000s. Beyond crimes committed on the high sea, the term has been applied to many different types of theft, including the illegal downloading of material from the Internet.

Compare & Contrast

• 1800s: Captain Kidd, a privateer, hired by the British to protect their ships, is accused of piracy and is hanged. He is said to have captured a ship with a British captain and a boatload of jewels. No treasure is ever uncovered.
  1900s: The International Maritime Bureau praises Indian government officials and several ships' crews for helping to recover a hijacked ship (an act of piracy) loaded with aluminum ingot.
  2000s: The term piracy is often used when software, music, or movies are copied illegally.
• 1800s: Rumor has it that $300 million worth of treasure, stolen from mines in Lima, Peru, is buried on the island of Cocos off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. August Gissler buys half of the island and spends nineteen years searching for the missing goods but never finds any of it.
  1900s: In 1988, the treasure of the S.S. Central America, a U.S. mail ship that sank in 1857, is recovered. Its huge shipment of freshly minted gold coins and gold bars, approximately one-third of the accumulated wealth of the gold rush years, is found intact.
  2000s: Civil War era S.S. Republic a paddle-wheel steam ship that sunk off the coast of Georgia in 1865 with a cargo of approximately $180 million of gold coins is located. Plans are underway to salvage the sunken treasure.
• 1800s: Doctors gain a better understanding of tuberculosis and begin to recommend the importance of fresh air and wholesome climates as treatment. Robert Koch discovers the microorganism that causes this disease.
  1900s: Scientists determine that tuberculosis is not hereditary, and the disease can now be detected in its earliest stages through x-rays. By mid-century, antibiotics to combat the disease are in use.
  2000s: Two million people worldwide still die of tuberculosis each year.

One famous pirate is Blackbeard, whose real name was Edward Teach, a British man who scoured the Caribbean and the Atlantic coast of the United States during the eighteenth century. His outpost was on the North Carolina shoreline, where he was eventually hunted down and shot to death in 1718.

Although most stories and movies about pirates feature men, some pirates were female. One of the most notorious female pirates was Anne Bonny, the daughter of a well-to-do lawyer who amassed a fortune in North Carolina. Bonny was disowned by her father when she married a pirate. Bonny grew tired of her husband and eventually slipped away with a more notorious man nicknamed Calico Jack. In 1720, Bonny was caught and imprisoned and after being sentenced to hang, pleaded for her life based on the fact that she was pregnant. She disappeared before her hanging date, and some people believe that her father forgave her and paid handsomely for her release.

Living in Victorian London

Stevenson wrote Treasure Island while living in London. Queen Victoria (1819–1901), for which the age is named, deeply affected the people and culture of this world city with her sense of duty, her belief in moral righteousness, and her patriotism—traits that are mirrored in some of Stevenson's characters. Because Victorian England was involved in the internal affairs of many other countries with its vast empire and the largest navy in the world, the population of London was made up of people from all over the world, and, in the 1880s, London had one of the largest international shipping ports in the world, receiving million of tons of goods each year.

The Houses of Parliament were built between 1840 and 1860, and Big Ben first rang in 1859. Compulsory universal education became law with the passage of the Education Act in 1870 (a secondary school education act passed in 1902). The first underground railway system in London began operation in 1863. However, illness and poverty were rampant. A significant proportion of the population died of tuberculosis each year. (Many people believe that this was the lung disease that Stevenson suffered from.) Child labor was prevalent—a condition that inspired Charles Dickens to write his novel Oliver Twist (1837).

Critical Overview

The publication of Treasure Island marked the beginning of Stevenson's reputation as a writer worth reading. By the end of the nineteenth century, Stevenson enjoyed what William B. Jones Jr. refers to in the preface to Robert Louis Stevenson Reconsidered as the "heights of near idolatry." However, the public fervor and appreciation of Stevenson's life's work would both rise and fall. His contemporaries and fellow British authors, such as Virginia Woolf, often belittled his work, accusing Stevenson of not challenging himself with serious topics. Despite this, Jones writes, "Stevenson actually never lost his popularity with readers, as the countless editions and numerous film versions of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde attest."

Despite many critical statements about the lack of depth of Stevenson's material, Ian Bell, writing in the preface to his book Dreams of Exile: Robert Louis Stevenson, states that nonetheless, Stevenson was able to connect with "public taste" at a "deep level" and marvels at the continued popularity of Stevenson's work. "What was it," Bell asks, "he [Stevenson] did in his 'children's stories,' his 'adventure tales,' his 'romances,' that others failed—fail—to do?" Bell continues, "We can admit that there have been better writers than Stevenson, writers more subtle and ambitious, more tenacious, certainly more profound. Then it is necessary to remind ourselves that many of the names offered have long since faded from the public's memory. Whatever Stevenson had they lacked. The durability and ubiquity of his tales suggest a man touching something basic." As if to bolster Bell's commentary, in a review of a recent edition of Stevenson's novel, Laura Moore, writing in Urbana, concludes that Treasure Island "is perhaps the best adventure story ever written."

CRITICISM

Joyce Hart

Hart has degrees in English and creative writing and is the author of several books. In this essay, Hart studies the concept of money, how it applies to the story, and how it affects the characters.

When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island, he was still financially dependent on his father. So the pressure of writing a good story, one that had public appeal, was not the only concern on his mind as he progressed through this romantic tale of high adventure. Stevenson was out to prove that he could write well that he could support himself through his own publications. He was thirty-one years old, married, and the stepfather of two children. It was time that he earned his title as head of household. Therefore, whether it was a conscious or subconscious act, it is no wonder that the

subject of money is woven through this work. This might be a story of adventure and a tale of a young boy coming of age, but neither of those two elements pushes the story forward. If readers looked closely, they will come to see that the real power that drives this novel is not adventure but money.

No more than five lines into the story, young Jim Hawkins makes reference to money. He has been asked by Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey to write from memory the things that occurred on their treasure-hunt adventure. Hawkins is to give all the particular details of their trip except for the "bearings of the island," because "there is still treasure not yet lifted." With this comment, Stevenson sets up his readers to focus on the money. Readers immediately become alert to the idea that there is still treasure to be found. Like the pirates who have buried their loot on some deserted island, Stevenson has buried the idea of money in his readers' minds. And like the characters themselves who push their way across the ocean, readers plod their way through the story, hoping they too discover in the pages of this story some clue regarding the island's location. If they can uncover that secret, maybe they too can set out on their own adventure and claim the remaining treasure. Having set this tone, Stevenson next introduces his characters, each with his own claims and desires for money.

The first to arrive on the scene is the pirate Billy Bones. One of the interesting and mysterious features of this old seaman is the large chest he drags behind him. Since the title of this novel is Treasure Island and since, according to old myths, it is said that treasures are often buried in old chests, readers, as well as the characters in this story cannot help but wonder what Bones is hiding in that chest. Bones throws a few coins around, promising to pay Hawkins to keep a lookout for a one-legged man and prepaying Hawkins' father for his keep. Readers as well as the affected characters wonder where those coins come from and if there are more to be found at their source. But Bones' payments soon become a point of contention when he often forgets to give young Hawkins his wages. Bones also forgets, or refuses, to pay Hawkins' father for his extended keep. And these omissions come into play later, after Bones has died. That is when young Hawkins and his mother rationalize their rifling through Bones' mysterious chest in search of what they consider is rightfully owed to them. They find what they want or rather what they have justified is theirs. And they discover even more. Hawkins comes upon the map that will take the story into its further development—the search for more money. It is interesting to note, before moving on with the rest of the story, that Hawkins' relationships with Bones and with their fellow villagers, as far as Stevenson portrays it, are all based on money. There is little mention of any emotional involvement either when Bones dies or when Hawkins father dies. The emphasis of the story is on the survival of those left behind, and that survival is based on money. Debts must be paid. The Admiral Benbow Inn must reopen as soon as possible so the flow of money is not interrupted.

The story progresses with Dr. Livesey comprehending the significance of the map that Hawkins shows him. When he concludes that it is a treasure map, plans are immediately made to find the island. Here a medical doctor, upon whom a whole countryside depends, leaves his patients, as does young Hawkins leave his widowed mother, all in the name of gold. It is also in the name of money that the doctor warns his comrades they must be silent. No one must know that the true motivation of their sea journey (like the motivation for writing this story) is money. However, Stevenson knows that the thought of money inspires every man, so he cannot keep it a secret. Money is the driving force; therefore, every character in this story must be energized by it. Thus he must have a character who cannot keep a secret. That character is Squire Trelawney, who spreads the word so far that every man involved in the trip, even before the Hispaniola leaves the dock, knows that the purpose behind the journey is the search for gold. It is the thought of riches in the crew's minds, more than the wind that fills the ship's sails, that drives the Hispaniola across the ocean.

In the midst of the trip, Stevenson does a curious thing. He has Long John Silver, the most respected of pirates, hold a discussion with his men on economics. As Hawkins sits hidden in the depths of an apple barrel, the young boy listens as Silver discusses not only the act of mutiny with the other pirates but also the best ways to make one's money work for oneself. It is not wise to take money one finds (or steals) and squander it on rum or on women, but rather, Silver tells the men, one should invest it. That is just what Silver has done, he explains. He has bought the Spyglass Inn, which he runs (when he is not off on an ocean voyage) with his woman. What Silver has not invested in real estate and small business, he has stashed in several banks. "I laid by nine hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after Flint. That ain't bad for a man before the mast—all safe in the bank." Then he adds: "It's saving does it, you may lay to that." He continues his lecture by warning the men that most pirates throw their money away and then end up begging for food. His men, misunderstanding Silver's lessons, state that money then "ain't such use, after all." But Silver is already one step ahead of his men, as usual. "T ain't much use for fools," he tells them. Then Silver begins a long monologue on what makes the typical "gentlemen of fortune," pirates who win big but lose it completely. "But that's not the course I lay. I puts it all away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by reason of suspicion." He is not only, Silver assures them, a gentleman of fortune. He is also a "gentleman in earnest." So in the midst of mutiny and adventure, Stevenson sneaks in a lesson on how to find money and how to keep it and invest it so it will grow. As proof that this lesson has been learned, at least in the mind of one of the pirates, Stevenson has a young pirate tell Silver, "Well, I tell you now … I didn't half a quarter like the job till I had this talk with you, John; but there's my hand on it now." This youngster has been set straight. One has only to work hard and think of riches to alleviate the pain of the hard labor, and all is set well with the world.

But there is one foolish fellow in this adventure, and that is Ben Gunn. Gunn has been on Treasure Island for three years with more gold than he ever imagined. And yet the one thing he craves even more than money is some English food. Only on Treasure Island is money not worth anything. Gunn could not eat the gold, nor would the treasure help him sail off the island. The true worth of money is as currency, the passing of the gold from one hand to another in exchange for some material that either satisfies one's hunger and thirst or promotes an easier style of living. The cave filled with gold provides none of these for Gunn. His survival depends solely on his own hands and his wit. This man, although his loneliness has made him a bit eccentric, is the only character in the story who is truly independent. For three years, he figures out a way to stay alive without money—the same thing that drives all the other characters nearly crazy. The other men in the story are willing to leave their families, their homes, their patients, their colleagues and risk their lives for the buried treasure. They are willing to maim and kill for it—but not Gunn. For this difference, Stevenson makes Gunn look like a fool.

What Do I Read Next?

• Stevenson's 1886 novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde studies conflicting emotions associated with what society considers good and evil. Stevenson's other 1886 novel, Kidnapped, follows the ordeals of protagonist David Balfour who is left with no money to live on after the death of his father. Like Treasure Island, Kidnapped is a coming-of-age novel.
• Louis Sachar's Holes (2000) is also a comingof-age novel about a young boy who claims he has been cursed. He always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up in a juvenile detention hall somewhere in the middle of a desert. His task is to dig holes each day of his sentence. His journey, however, is to find out why he is digging these holes, and his discovery frees him from his curse.
• Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) inspired Stevenson (especially the marooned Ben Gunn). Defoe's story centers on the life of Crusoe as he is marooned on an island off the coast of South America after suffering conflicts with pirates.
• The Swiss Family Robinson (1812), by Johann David Wyss, tells the story of a Swiss family that is shipwrecked on a deserted island on their way to Australia. The family learns to live by their wits, far from the civilized world that they know.

As the novel comes to a close, Stevenson paints the portrait of Gunn in ridiculous colors. First Gunn helps Silver escape from the Hispaniola, then he allows Silver to take one of the sacks of gold. Thus Silver, the old economics professor, once again finishes in the black—in profit. Then Stevenson writes about how Captain Smollet, because of the found treasure, is able to retire. Another man uses his money to further his education and invest in a ship and then lives happily ever after with a wife and family. But not poor Ben Gunn. The money he is given ("a thousand pounds"), readers find out, Gunn, foolish man that he is, "spent or lost in three weeks." Gunn is reduced to a beggar. Although Stevenson does not dwell on it or praise it, he does write that once again Gunn manages to do fairly well for himself without money. He is given a place to live and becomes "a great favourite, though something of a butt" with the local country people.

In the very last paragraph of the book, young Hawkins reminds the reader that although they brought much treasure back with them, there still lay, somewhere on that Treasure Island, bars of silver, thus enticing the dreams, once again, of all those who believe money will solve their problems and make their lives better. And then, with the final words of the story, Hawkins imagines Captain Flint singing out: "Pieces of eight! pieces of eight!" Or in other words: Money, money, money!

Source: Joyce Hart, Critical Essay on Treasure Island, in Novels for Students, Thomson Gale, 2005.

Catherine Dybiec Holm

Holm is a freelance writer as well as a genre novel and short story author. In this essay, Holm discusses tools of the writing craft that Stevenson uses to make this story engaging and suspenseful.

Stevenson's Treasure Island has the characteristics of a successful suspense novel and an entertaining story. There is a lot in this book that serves as a good example of the craft of fine storytelling. Stevenson's adept use of the tools of good storytelling make this story a good read for adults as well as younger audiences.

Immediately apparent in Treasure Island is Stevenson's economical use of language. The economy, however, does not sacrifice description, observation, or suspense. Sentences are generally short and peppered with sensory description and keen observations about the human psyche and the characters' motivations. Close to the beginning of the book, Stevenson's protagonist describes the mysterious, somewhat frightening pirate who has become a fixture at Jim's family inn.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor next to the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a foghorn; and we … learned to let him be.

In a few short sentences, the reader has learned quite a bit about Billy Bones, including that everyone else is at least slightly leery of the drunken pirate. Blowing a nose "like a foghorn" is a wonderful sensory detail that the reader can easily imagine and will not soon forget. Stevenson's prose is richly loaded with detail—the warmth of a fire, strong rum and water, a brass telescope, cliffs. None of it bogs the reader down, nor interferes with the tight and rapid pace of the story because the details are worked so economically into the narrative.

Throughout the book, there are countless examples of description that do double or triple duty. These descriptions also move the story forward and emphasize a particular clue for the reader, which prepares him for future story twists and turns. Jim describes his dreams of the "seafaring man with one leg," and the reader hears the surf roaring, feels the house shaking, and sees the one-legged man leaping over hedges to pursue the protagonist. The reader hears the drunken pirate singing "yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum" and feels the unease of the boy and the inn patrons. The doctor on the Hispaniola discovers Jim missing and captures the moment with a number of sensory details that also hint at danger on Treasure Island and prepare the reader for foreboding.

We ran on deck. The pitch was bubbling in the seams; the nasty stench of the place turned me sick; if ever a man smelled fever and dysentery, it was in that abominable anchorage.

Not only does this give the reader a clear moment of description and foreboding, it also allows the doctor to share knowledge of possible risk for disease—knowledge that another character would not have.

Stevenson uses foreshadowing throughout Treasure Island as hints to readers to look for certain key characters or situations. Flint's fear of a "seafaring man with one leg" is emphasized by his effort to bribe the boy to watch for such a person. Long John Silver does become quite important in the story later on, and the reader has been prepared. In another example of foreshadowing, Captain Smollett seems to have a superstitious reservation about the voyage for treasure ("all I say is we're not home again, and I don't like this cruise") even though he has taken a "downright fancy" to the ship. Of course, the reader knows that something is going to happen and that it will probably involve struggle or danger otherwise there would not be much of a story. Deft (and not overdone) fore-shadowing prepares the observant reader for complications and gives the added mystery of a superstitious hunch. More foreshadowing is used when the characters on the ship first view Treasure Island. Jim says

Perhaps it was this—perhaps it was the look of the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach—at least, although the sun shone bring and hot, and the shore birds were fishing and crying all around us … my heart sank … into my boots; and from that first look onward, I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.

In a paragraph, the reader feels the danger on Treasure Island and again is given rich sensory detail to experience the first view of the island through the eyes of Jim.

Another method of sustaining suspense in an adventure story is to end a chapter at a crucial moment, which is generally known as a cliffhanger. Stevenson uses a number of these in Treasure Island. The point of such endings is to make the reader want to read further, at any cost. When Jim climbs into the ship's apple barrel and inadvertently hears Long John Silver's first dozen words, he understands "that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended upon me alone." Suddenly the stakes have been raised tremendously. Jim is hiding, is in possible danger of discovery, and most of all, is just becoming aware of a huge personal responsibility for the "honest men" on the ship.

There are many cliffhangers in Treasure Island and they all incorporate good storytelling techniques. At the end of Chapter 32, Silver (with Jim in tow as prisoner) and his band of pirates finally locate the site of the treasure, only to discover that the cache is already missing and all that is left is a hole that has been empty for some time. Up until that point, the reader had no clue about the out-come; no foreshadowing had been provided about the location of the treasure. But that is almost secondary; the reader assumes that the treasure will eventually be found. What is more important is that the missing treasure will create an explosive situation among the band of pirates. The reader has been prepared for this possibility through the protagonist's keen observations of Long John Silver's mercurial and untrustworthy nature. Stevenson does not let the reader down. The face-off between the men gets going right away in the next chapter.

Not every chapter in Treasure Island ends with a cliffhanger, but the ending of chapters can also serve as a powerful place to emphasize a particular character nuance, or important story information. Such is the case when Jim reboards the Hispaniola and takes command. At the end of this chapter, Jim notices the "odd smile" on Hands's face, a "haggard, old man's smile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, and watched me at my work." Again, the reader is being prepared for possible danger from Hands, and the point is given particular emphasis because the author places it at the end of a chapter.

Stevenson also times the revelation of information to the reader, and to the characters, to help create suspense in Treasure Island. This is similar to foreshadowing, but foreshadowing may rely more on implied symbolism or the ambiguous, seemingly illogical statement of a character (a gray island, or the unease of a superstitious captain). The timing of how information is revealed in storytelling is an important consideration in a suspense story. A good example of this in Treasure Island takes place when Hands and Jim are alone on the ship, and Hands asks Jim to go fetch a bottle of wine. There is something strange about the way Hands words his request that clues the reader into feeling that something is not quite right.

I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that there cabin and get me a—well, a—shiver my timbers! I can't hit the name on't; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim—this here brandy's too strong for my head.

An astute reader might immediately notice that something seems slightly unnatural about Hands's manner of speaking. Suddenly, he seems to be hesitating too much, or trying a little too hard. This is confirmed in the next paragraph when Jim has the same suspicions. However, the reader figured this out first and is then free to enjoy watching Jim come to the same realization. It is a well-timed revelation because the reader is prepared for what's coming.

Although Treasure Island is a suspenseful adventure story, it contains wonderful observations about various aspects of the human psyche. These are presented economically and enhance the story rather than bogging it down. Often, these observations give the reader insight into the protagonist. A reader might, for example, be impressed with Jim's ability to notice that Black Dog tries to sound "bold and big." Jim has a number of observations about the lack of help he and his mother get when they seek assistance in defending their inn. "Cowardice is infectious," remarks Jim, noting that none of the neighbors would return to the inn and would only promise ready horses or loaded pistols. This is realistic, which adds to the believability of the story, but it also advances the plot because it raises the stakes for the main characters. If neighbors had gladly come to defend the inn, a real opportunity for excitement and danger would have been lost, and Jim may never have ended up on the voyage to Treasure Island.

Jim gets more chances to comment on human nature when he describes the band of pirates that return to ransack the inn. They have "half an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest stood irresolute on the road." It is a good observation by the protagonist, and it also sets the reader's expectation about the pirates' actions later in the story.

By the time the pirates discover that the treasure is missing, Jim already has a good under-standing of Silver's unethical, changeable character. Still, this does not diminish the power of Jim's observation of Silver at that moment. Stevenson also uses the moment as an opportunity to slip in a little dialogue: "His looks were now quite friendly; and I was so revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering, 'So you've changed sides again.'"

There are other techniques that Stevenson uses to make this story enjoyable, suspenseful, and tightly plotted. The author makes extensive use of lively dialogue, which brings the reader close to the characters and gives the reader the experience of "hearing" pirates and other characters. Stevenson also disposes of characters when they are no longer needed. Billy Bones is killed because he has served his purpose—he has brought his trunk and treasure map to the inn where it will fall into Jim's hands. Pew is killed off after Jim has heard enough to learn what type of danger he may be heading into. Long John Silver lives through the entire book because he is a critical character and is crucial to the plot until the treasure is located. Stevenson uses a number of methods, including rich description, foreshadowing and timing, tight plotting, and economical prose to make Treasure Island an enjoyable adventure story for all ages.

Source: Catherine Dybiec Holm, Critical Essay on Treasure Island, in Novels for Students, Thomson Gale, 2005.

Margot Livesey

In the following essay, the author discusses the influence Stevenson's personal life had on his novels.

My principal qualification for writing about Robert Louis Stevenson is affection. He is the only author of whom I can say that I have been reading him all my life. Kidnapped was the first book I read

that had chapters, and I can still recall the maroon binding and the weight of the book in my hand. At that time I lived with my parents in the valley of Glenalmond, at the edge of the Scottish Highlands. Perhaps Stevenson knew of that place, for Lord Glenalmond plays a role in his last work, Weir of Hermiston. I had only to look out the windows of our house to see the stark hills, the heather, and the bracken, the landscape so bare of hiding places, over which David Balfour and Alan Breck made their way. And in those years of genderless reading it never occurred to me that I could not go with them.

Besides being the first full-length book I read, Kidnapped was the first book whose author's name I knew. Indeed, I hadn't previously known there was such a thing as an author. Books had fallen from the bookshelves like leaves from the trees. I did not question their origins; they were absolute in themselves. But in the case of the maroon book the music of Stevenson's name impressed me. I also owned a copy of A Child's Garden of Verses. "My Shadow," with its mixture of observation and mystery, was one of my favorite poems.

Such early recognition might seem like a good thing for an author's reputation, but it is in fact part of the long process by which Stevenson's work has been devalued. That I and so many others came to his work so young has made us consider him a children's author from whom we have little to learn as adults. This opinion is one that his contemporaries would not have shared, either in his particular case or as a general rule. Victorian adults felt free to embrace so-called children's books without apology. Stevenson's father often reread The Parent's Assistant, a volume of children's stories, and Virginia Woolf records being taken to Peter Pan on her twenty-third birthday with no signs that this was a childish treat.

Like the shadow in his poem, Stevenson's reputation has waxed and waned at an alarming rate. The blaze of hagiography in which he died seems to have incited critics to special fury. F. R. Leavis, in The Great Tradition, dismissed Stevenson as a romantic writer guilty of fine writing, and the critical community in general has designated him a minor author not worthy of the serious admiration that we accord his friend Henry James. People comment with amazement that Borges and Nabokov liked his work. This year marks the centenary of Stevenson's death, and I am not alone in believing that it is time to reconsider his reputation.

Two obvious factors in Stevenson's fall from grace are quantity and fashion. The list of his publications is much longer than most people realize, but the few works by which we remember him do not constitute a recognizable oeuvre. And literary taste has swung in a direction that Stevenson disliked and did his best to avoid—namely, pessimism. While admiring the early Hardy, for instance, he hated Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and he took James to task for The Portrait of a Lady. John Galsworthy commented memorably on this when he said that the superiority of Stevenson over Hardy was that Stevenson was all life, while Hardy was all death.

There are, of course, more-crucial reasons why Stevenson's shadow has dwindled. He often falls short of our expectations of a serious novelist; his plots tend to be too simple in psychological terms and too fantastic in terms of events. The former problem stemmed partly from his theory of fiction; the latter he knew to be a fault and blamed on the tales of his childhood. Typically he worked on several projects at once, a sign of his natural prolixity but also of the difficulty he had in reaching conclusions. History, which gave him so many of his plots, was not so generous with endings, and in trying to invent them, Stevenson often either over-reached the bounds of credibility, as in The Master of Ballantrae, or fell into flatness, as in Kidnapped.

The most complete account we have of his theory of fiction is contained in "A Humble Remonstrance," the essay he wrote in reply to James's "The Art of Fiction." Here we see him rebutting James's view that art should compete with life:

Man's one method, whether he reasons or creates, is to half-shut his eyes against the dazzle and confusion of reality…. Life is monstrous, infinite, illogical, abrupt and poignant; a work of art, in comparison, is neat, finite, self-contained, rational, flowing, and emasculate…. The novel, which is a work of art, exists, not by its resemblances to life, which are forced and material … but by its immeasurable difference from life, which is designed and significant.

In fact many of his critics have brought just this charge against Stevenson: that in the pursuit of significance he departed too far from life.

I would argue that in his best work—most notably Kidnapped, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Weir of Hermiston—Stevenson, perhaps in spite of himself, failed to emasculate his art. He opens his eyes, and ours, to the confusion of reality, and what he shows us is something that the modern reader is vitally concerned with: the inescapable duality of our existence.

Shortly before his death Stevenson wrote,

I cannot get used to this world, to procreation, to heredity, to sight, to hearing; the commonest things are a burthen. The prim obliterated police face of life, and the broad, bawdy, and orgiastic—or maenadic—foundations, form a spectacle to which no habit reconciles me.

He dramatized this spectacle with lyrical specificity and, as his work matured, increasing subtlety. And no one has ever described better what I saw from the window of my first bedroom.

How Stevenson grew to be preoccupied with duality can be seen in even a brief examination of his life. He was born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh. His father, Thomas, came from a line of lighthouse engineers. His mother, Margaret, was the youngest of the thirteen children of the Reverend Lewis Balfour. Louis, as the boy was called, had a formidable Scottish nanny, Cummy, who he later claimed was a major influence. By the time he was seven, the family had moved to 17 Heriot Row in the New Town of Edinburgh, a highly respectable address from which Stevenson later ventured forth to explore the more salacious neighborhoods of the city.

He began writing at an early age, dictating "A History of Moses" to his mother when he was six. Unlike me, he knew about authors and referred to himself as one. He read widely, not least history, and grew up vividly aware that Scotland was divided by both politics and temperament. The natural enmity between the cold, proper Lowland Scots and the fiery Highlanders informs much of his work.

His parents were proud of his precocious literary endeavors, but it never occurred to them that their son would be a writer; he was destined to be a lighthouse engineer. To this end Louis studied engineering at Edinburgh University—very lackadaisically, by all accounts—and accompanied his father to remote lighthouses, trips he later made use of in his work, especially Kidnapped. His parents seem to nave tolerated his lack of studiousness, but in 1873 there was a terrible crisis when they discovered that Louis had lost his faith. Fortunately, they do not seem to have been aware that he also was involved with prostitutes. Partly as a result of these quarrels Louis collapsed and was sent to recuperate in the south of France. There, in a determined effort to improve his writing, he continued to play "the sedulous ape," as he described it, imitating Wordsworth, Defoe, Hawthorne, and Baudelaire, among others.

Over the next few years he wrote a number of essays, including a highly controversial one in which he took Robert Burns to task for philandering, and reached a modus vivendi with his parents. They gave him an allowance of about £80 a year, and he gave up engineering in favor of law. In 1875 he was admitted to the Scottish bar; his total earnings as a solicitor are recorded as four guineas.

The rapprochement between parents and son weathered even the scandal of Louis's marriage. In 1876, while visiting a cousin in Grez, France, Stevenson met Fanny Osbourne. She was an American, ten years older than he, and estranged from her husband. She had come to Grez with her two children, Lloyd and Belle, to recover from the death of her third child. Later Osbourne claimed that Stevenson fell in love with her at first sight. This seems to have been pure fabrication, but not long after this he visited her in Paris. Osbourne gave an odd picture of her volatile suitor: "I do wish Louis wouldn't burst into tears in such an unexpected way," she wrote. He also suffered from cataracts of laughter the only cure for which, he claimed, was to have someone bend back his fingers. Osbourne and Stevenson almost certainly became lovers around this time.

In 1878 Osbourne returned to America and Stevenson, briefly, to Scotland. That autumn he was back in France, where he bought a donkey for sixty-five francs. He named her Modestine, and during their twelve-day journey in the Cévennes he reduced her value by nearly half. Later he immortalized her in Travels With a Donkey. We do not know on exactly what terms he and Osbourne had parted, but in July of 1879 she sent him a telegram. In the most romantic gesture of his life he set sail secretly for America. His account of the voyage and the subsequent train journey to San Francisco was so grim that his father persuaded him not to publish The Amateur Emigrant. By the time he reached Osbourne, in Monterey, Stevenson needed a nurse more than a wife. Their marriage, the following year, was described by both parties as taking place in extremis.

Fanny is a major battleground for Stevenson biographers, as two recent books—Robert Louis Stevenson, by Frank McLynn, and Dreams of Exile, by Ian Bell—demonstrate. Whatever came later, it seems clear that the unlikely couple were initially in love. For Stevenson, Fanny was the apogee of several significant relationships with older women. As for her, surely love was the only argument for marrying a sickly, impoverished writer. Later Fanny advertised herself as Stevenson's muse, collaborator, and nursemaid, claims that are vigorously, and often convincingly, challenged by Frank McLynn. Still, I find myself reluctant to apportion blame. Who can say who are the criminals in love? Stevenson lived with Fanny for fourteen years, and during that time wrote the works by which we know him.

For the first few years of their marriage the Stevensons shuttled back and forth between Scotland and the Continent, finally settling in 1884 in the English seaside town of Bournemouth. Louis spent much of the next three years in bed, and later described himself as having lived there "like a weevil in a biscuit." During this time he became better acquainted with Henry James, who came to Bournemouth to visit another invalid: his sister, Alice. The two passed from admiration into a friendship that survived a number of aesthetic disagreements. Why not write about women? James suggested, What about action? Stevenson urged. How different the work of each might have been if he had heeded the other.

In spite of ill health Stevenson was wonderfully productive. In rapid succession he published AChild's Garden of Verses, Jekyll and Hyde, and Kidnapped. By the time he and Fanny left Britain, in 1887, he was a well-known writer. Thomas Stevenson had died in May of that year, and with his death Louis felt free to go abroad. In August he and Fanny sailed to America, and for a time they led an extreme version of the itinerant life that used to be common for writers. Eventually they made their way to the South Seas and Samoa, where in 1889 they bought an estate called Vailima. To the public this was the realization of the myth: the author of Treasure Island was now living on his own island.

Life at Vailima, however, was far from idyllic. Fanny, who had long suffered from nervous illnesses, became increasingly difficult, and Stevenson, though he was earning more than ever before, was worried about money. These anxieties go some way toward explaining why, in spite of his better health, so little of the work by which we remember him comes from this period. Not that he was idle—he wrote constantly, but mostly travel books and a history of Samoa, all of which provoked James to urge him not to squander his gifts.

Perhaps James was prescient. On December 3, 1894, Stevenson wrote fiction in the morning, wrote letters in the afternoon, and died in the evening. He was helping Fanny to make mayonnaise dressing, adding the oil drop by drop, when he collapsed. By dawn the following day the Samoans were at work cutting a road up the slopes of Mount Vaea with knives and axes. That afternoon his coffin was carried in relays to the summit.

To map Stevenson's life is to produce a complex diagram in which we can see, I think, why dualism was such a central concern for him. As the bohemian child of conventional parents, as a Lowland Scot, as an invalid, as an exile, he was always living a double life, trying to be in two places, or two postures, at the same time, and nowhere more so than in his difficult relationship with his father. This relationship was for Stevenson the central dualism: his father was the prim face, he was the orgiastic foundations, and the resulting quarrel between them was simultaneously a great force and a great barrier in his work. In Treasure Island and Kidnapped he offered a preliminary solution to the quarrel by killing off the narrator's father—in the opening chapters of the former, before the novel begins in the latter. Until after Thomas's death Stevenson had trouble keeping fictional fathers alive.

Like many great writers, Stevenson was slow to discover his true subjects. "I … sit for a long while silent on my eggs," he wrote. He was thirty when he began what would be his first success, Treasure Island. The genesis of the novel is revealing. The family was staying in the small Scottish town of Braemar. One rainy afternoon Stevenson drew a map of an island and began to make up a story to go with it to entertain his stepson, Lloyd. Thomas Stevenson was visiting at the time and enthusiastically contributed suggestions to his son's project. Early chapters were read aloud to the appreciative family. The novel went on to be serialized in a boys' magazine and was published as a book in 1883. It is surely no accident that Stevenson found narrative luck on the first occasion for which we have any record of his father's approval.

Stevenson's avowed aim in Treasure Island was to write a story for boys—"No need of psychology or fine writing," he said. Many readers, including James, praised the novel. Probably no one at the time, including Stevenson himself, recognized his most significant accomplishment. With the tap of Pew's cane and a few choruses of yo-hoho, he liberated children's writing from the heavy chains of Victorian didacticism.

One of the great pleasures of reconsidering Stevenson was rereading Kidnapped. I came back to it hesitantly, nervously, expecting to take my seven-year-old self to task, and found from the beautiful, stately opening pages, wherein David Balfour leaves his home for the last time, that I was captivated. Alan Breck remains a wonderfully jaunty character, and I was struck afresh by Steven-son's gift for describing landscapes that both shape and reveal the actions of the characters.

Only after I closed the book did it occur to me that the story was set almost a century before Stevenson's birth. I attribute this oversight not to my obtuseness but to his genius. As he liberated children's literature from didacticism, so he liberated the historical novel from creaking obeisance toward the past. He presented the characters in a prose that is lively and lucid and, best of all, unstrained by nostalgia.

Jekyll and Hyde, the quintessential novel of a double life, was written "in a white heat" around the same time as Kidnapped, and had a long hatching period—Stevenson had known about Deacon Brodie, the eighteenth-century Edinburgh cabinetmaker on whom he based Jekyll and Hyde, since childhood. The novel, published in 1886, achieved something even better than good reviews; it became the subject of numerous sermons. Forty thousand copies were sold within the first six months, and since then the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has entered the culture.

To go back and read what Stevenson actually wrote is disorienting for several reasons. The novel is firmly in the romantic tradition wherein amazing events are reported by a dry-as-dust narrator. We tend to overlook the cold, silent lawyer Utterson who guides us through the story and who, precisely because of his reserve, is the best possible witness to the horror of Hyde. Part of our disorientation is not merely forgetfulness but the result of Stevenson's cunning design. The labyrinthine streets through which we pursue Hyde increasingly depart from the map of the known city. Slowly but inexorably we are being led into a strange country, where the relationship between Jekyll's prim white hand and Hyde's orgiastic hairy paw will be revealed. The two are not merely opposites, or alter egos. In Nabokov's helpful analogy Hyde is a precipitate of Jekyll. We might also think of him as Jekyll's son.

Critics have speculated that both Jekyll and Hyde are guilty of sexual misdemeanors. But I read the novel as essentially Scottish; the sins I attribute to Jekyll are the Edinburgh ones of secrecy and puritanism that governed Stevenson's youth and my own. Whatever the author had in mind, vagueness has served the novel well. Sin dates, and modern readers, although frustrated, are left free to imagine their own version of horror.

Between Jekyll and Hyde and Weir, Stevenson wrote several more novels, among them The Master of Ballantrae and David Balfour. The former is commonly regarded as his greatest full-length work, although the plot, about a life-long duel between two brothers, one of whom turns out to be an incubus, defeated even as staunch an admirer as André Gide. What is notable in terms of Stevenson's development as a writer is that the father remains alive through the first half of the novel and that the characters include a strong-minded, intelligent woman.

Both these promises are fulfilled in the unfinished Weir of Hermiston. Here Stevenson at last explored the quarrel between father and son and created two superb female characters. Lord Braxfield, the notorious Scots hanging judge, was, like Deacon Brodie, a famous Edinburgh character. Stevenson became convinced that Braxfield was his great subject, the one that would allow him to achieve the epic qualities his work to that point had lacked.

The plot combines the dazzle of reality with the significance of art. Archie, the only son of illmatched parents, is raised at Hermiston by his religious mother, who unthinkingly teaches him to criticize his father. After her death he moves to Edinburgh to live with his father, the judge. The crisis between them comes when Archie, now a law student, watches his father sentence a man to death.

Archie denounces the hanging as murder, and his father banishes him to Hermiston. There the older Kirstie, his housekeeper, falls in love with him, while he falls in love with her niece, the younger Kirstie. The idyllic pursuit of the latter, secret relationship is interrupted by the arrival of Frank, an Iago-like figure. Frank discovers the relationship and, with the worst intentions, warns Archie against it. His advice is seconded by the older Kirstie, for very different reasons. In chapter nine we see Archie attempting to act on it.

From letters and notes we have an idea of how Stevenson imagined the remainder of the book. Frank was going to seduce the younger Kirstie. Archie would shoot Frank and be arrested. He would come to trial, and in some way—Stevenson was desperate to make this work—he would be tried by his father and condemned to death.

All this, whatever its credibility, does have the resonance of an epic. It is also Stevenson's profoundest exploration of duality. Finally he laid aside the subterfuges of the supernatural and created characters who are both in opposition to each other and at war within themselves. In his single person the judge upholds the polite face of society while remaining firmly rooted in the orgiastic foundations, and it is crucial to the tragedy that Archie is his father's son as well as his mother's. Here we see him describing his tangled feelings:

I will be baldly frank. I do not love my father, I wonder sometimes if I do not hate him. There's my shame; perhaps my sin; at least, and in the sight of God, not my fault. How was I to love him? … You know the way he talks? … My soul is sick when he begins with it; I could smite him in the mouth.

And yet, Archie goes on, he has asked his father's pardon and placed himself wholly in his hands. The two Kirsties also show us terrific vitality and subtlety of motivation.

That Stevenson died in the midst of this story is tragic; that he lived to write it at all is a marvel. The canon has taught us to value a body of work over a single work, but at this late date in the twentieth century, drowning in books, surely we can afford to esteem quality even when it comes without quantity. If Stevenson deserves a place in our adult lives, his reputation must, like a number of authors', rest on only a few works. As we love Shelley for Frankenstein, Di Lampedusa for The Leopard, Fournier for The Lost Domain, so we can love Stevenson for his vaulted ambition and because in those last days of his life, at least, he wrote pages worthy of that ambition and of our admiration. He worked on Weir of Hermiston intermittently from 1892 onward. The last words were dictated the morning of his death.

Source: Margot Livesey, "The Double Life of Robert Louis Stevenson," in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 274, No. 5, November 1994, pp. 140–46.

Sources

Bell, Ian, "Preface," in Dreams of Exile: Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography, Mainstream Publishing, 1992.

Jones, William B., Jr., ed. "Preface," in Robert Louis Stevenson Reconsidered, McFarland, 2003.

Moore, Laura, "Voices from the Middle," in Urbana, Vol. 8, No. 2, December 2000, p. 75.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, "Essay: Treasure Island," in Treasure Island, Courage Books, 1995, pp. 202–07.

Further Reading

Cordingly, David, The Black Flag, reprint, Harvest Books, 1997.

Cordingly looks pirates in the eye and discovers the truth of their lives, which is far from the romanticized versions in literature. The author also ponders the myths of pirates in an attempt to figure out where and how those myths were born.

Lapierre, Alexandra, Fanny Stevenson: A Romance of Destiny, Carroll & Graf, 1995.

Stevenson met Fanny, an American woman, in France and supposedly fell immediately in love with her, and she later became his wife. In the biography of Stevenson's wife, Lapierre exposes Fanny's emotions and her devotion to her husband, for whom she gave up her own creative endeavors as an artist.

McLynn, Frank, Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography, Random House, 1994.

McLynn believes that Stevenson was much more than a writer of boys' adventure stories. He sets out to demonstrate through this biography that Stevenson was a superb writer and also a great influence on other writers, such as Joseph Conrad, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats.

Pool, Daniel, What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England, reprint, Touchstone Books, 1994.

Pool offers a glimpse into Victorian England, with interesting information on grave robbers, debtors' prison, and other curiosities. Other topics include religion, sex, dinner parties, and politics.