: Robert Louis Stevenson
: Treasure Island
: Seven Books
: 9783689950859
: 1
: CHF 3.50
:
: Erzählerische Bilderbücher
: English
: 500
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Young Jim Hawkins lives an ordinary life, helping his parents run the Admiral Benbow Inn in England. Until an old seafarer, Billy Bones arrives carrying the black spot, an old symbol of pirate justice. When Billy meets his tragic death, Jim unlocks the pirates chest only to discover a mysterious map that leads to an old treasure hidden away by the notorious Captain Flint. Soon, Jims life takes a most unexpected turnOnce aboard the Hispaniola, the ship Jim joins in hopes of getting closer to riches beyond imagination, he meets the rest of his crewmates and tries to fit in as a cabin boy. But Jim doesnt know that the crew has different intentions. In the blink of an eye, mutiny breaks out, and young Jim is caught between honest sailors and ruthless pirates, trying to pick a side. What will he choose? The one that will bring him closer to the treasure, or the one that will save his life?

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Arthur Conan Doyle, Cesare Pavese, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he 'seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins.'

Preface(About the Book)


 

PREFACE

Treasure Islandis an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of"buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book on 23 May 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazineYoung Folksbetween 1881 and 1882 under the titleTreasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniolawith Stevenson adopting the pseudonymCaptain George North.

Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story,Treasure Islandis a tale known for its atmosphere, characters and action, and also as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality — as seen in Long John Silver — unusual for children's literature now and then. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. The influence ofTreasure Islandon popular perceptions of pirates is enormous, including treasure maps marked with an"X", schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen carrying parrots on their shoulders.

 

Short Summaryof the Book:

The novel is divided into six parts and 34 chapters: The novel opens in the seaside village of Black Hill Cove in south-west England (to Stevenson, in his letters and in the related fictional playAdmiral Guinea, near Barnstaple, Devon) in the mid-18th century. The narrator, James"Jim" Hawkins, is the young son of the owners of the Admiral Benbow Inn. An old drunken seaman named Billy Bones becomes a long-term lodger at the inn, only paying for about the first week of his stay. Jim quickly realizes that Bones is in hiding, and that he particularly dreads meeting an unidentified seafaring man with one leg. Some months later, Bones is visited by a mysterious sailor named Black Dog. Their meeting turns violent, Black Dog flees and Bones suffers a stroke. While Jim cares for him, Bones confesses that he was once the mate of a notorious late pirate, Captain Flint, and that his old crewmates want Bones' sea chest. Some time later, another of Bones' crew mates, a blind man named Pew, appears at the inn and forces Jim to lead him to Bones. Pew gives Bones a paper. After Pew leaves, Bones opens the paper to discover it is marked with the Black Spot, a pirate summons, with the warning that he has until ten o'clock to meet their demands. Bones drops dead of apoplexy (in this context, a stroke) on the spot. Jim and his mother open Bones' sea chest to collect the amount due to them for Bones' room and board, but before they can count out the money that they are owed, they hear pirates approaching the inn and are forced to flee and hide, Jim taking with him a mysterious oilskin packet from the chest. The pirates, led by Pew, find the sea chest and the money, but are frustrated that there is no sign of"Flint's fist". Customs men approach and the pirates escape to their vessel (all except for Pew, who is accidentally run down and killed by the agents' horses).

pp. 27–8:"...[Pew] made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the coming horses. The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face, and moved no more."

—Stevenson, R.L.

Jim t