Literature

Let's all set sail for «Treasure Island»!»

5 reading minutes

written by Ivan Garcia · 16 June 2020 · 0 comment

Embarquons tous en direction de «L’île au trésor»

Les bouquins du mardi - Literature in retrospect - Ivan Garcia

A brave young boy, rum-drinking pirates, a mysterious island and fabulous treasure. These are the ingredients that give charm to this immortal tale that generations of readers have read and will read again. A taste for adventure compels us to cast off for Treasure Island.

After about three months of confinement, we're gradually returning to a normal existence. At the same time, it can seem quite bland. «Subway, work, sleep» pretty much. What boredom and inevitability! Where's the adventure, the risk-taking, the thirst for discovery? It was then that a memory sprang up like treasure from an island of memory where it had been buried. In the past, a book had intrigued us, amused us and taken us on a journey. Its name? Treasure Island. The author? Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, author of the famous novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The deconfinement is the perfect opportunity to (re)immerse ourselves in the adventures of young Jim Hawkins and his confrontations with pirates.

The model son-in-law

History is full of crossroads. Today, after several months, the Covid-19 pandemic is over. And in the past, Stevenson revised his book in Switzerland, the country to which he had come for treatment. In the heart of the Grisons canton, in Davos, the Scotsman dreamed of an island. Several months earlier, the writer had had a curious discussion with his fourteen-year-old stepson:

«What are you doing here?" asked Robert Louis Stevenson of his stepson, Lloyd Osbourne.
- You see, I'm drawing an island,» replied the child.

So begins the preface to the book we'll be talking about today. Lloyd Osbourne, the author's son-in-law, is the person who came up with the idea for Treasure Island. And also the person to whom this work was dedicated. In addition to the idea for the novel, Stevenson used Lloyd to create the protagonist of his story, young Jim Hawkins, also aged fourteen, who braves all dangers to find an island on which the legendary Captain Flint's treasure is buried.

Jim Hawkins is the narrator of the novel we hold in our hands. He writes it in the first person, some time after his journey and at the request of «Mr. Trelawney, Dr. Livesey and all those gentlemen [...]», as a kind of travelogue or confession. From the very first pages, the attentive reader knows that Jim has survived everything that has happened to him. This is one of the book's main strengths: to play on expectation. We know that something is going to happen, but not when; the author keeps us waiting, sometimes surprising us, and we wonder how the characters will cope.

Pirate song

After this incipit, Hawkins talks about the time when he worked with his parents at the Admiral Benbow Inn. And of the day he met a mysterious customer, a former pirate named Billy Bones, whom he didn't like very much, and who sang a sinister song all the time:

«There were fifteen of us on the dead man's chest -
Yo-ho-ho! And a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil took the others,
Yo-ho-ho! And a bottle of rum!»

But Billy Bones, though often drunk on rum, is suspicious. He asks Jim to keep an eye out for new arrivals, and to let him know if he sees «a one-legged sea wolf». And, before long, plenty of pirates arrive, including a sinister blind man who gives Bones «the black spot», an ominous warning that takes him straight to the grave. Amidst the belongings of the deceased sea wolf, Jim finds a strange map that reveals the location of a treasure: Treasure Island.

Accompanied by Doctor Livesey, a gentleman doctor, and Chevalier Trelawney, Jim boards the ship the’Hispaniola to find the island and its mysterious treasure. But it's not all plain sailing, as the crew is infested with pirates. It will take all their cunning and courage to foil the plans of the dangerous «master cockerel» and ship's cook, the redoubtable Long John Silver. Silver, a former member of the crew of the terrifying Flint, has only one leg (the other is made of wood) and, with his green parrot named «Captain Flint», is extremely duplicitous.

«No, not me,» said Silver. Flint was the captain, I was his quartermaster, with my wooden leg. It was in the same collision that I lost my leg and Pew lost his sight."

Long John Silver is the most interesting character in the book. Cook, pirate leader, skilled rhetorician and force of nature, he is ambivalent and does his best to serve his own interests. Jim Hawkins and his allies will see him change sides more than once. In turn, he'll rally to their cause or help his fellow pirates reach the famous treasure. In this respect, the song sung by Billy Bones is familiar to all pirates, and recurs periodically in the course of the story like a fatal rhyme foretelling the fate that awaits buccaneers.

One book, several narrators

We used to say that Jim was the one leading the narrative. That's correct. But sometimes another character tells the story to fill in the gaps. For example, in the fourth part of the book, entitled The fort, is Dr. Livesey's account of what he and his acolytes are doing on the’Hispaniola while Jim is on the island with the pirates. The book, initially aimed at children and young people, is a pleasant read. Even if some of the descriptive scenes, with their realistic marine vocabulary, may slow down our reading and prove too precise for freshwater sailors.

With its endearing and interesting characters, Treasure Island takes us to a faraway land in search of adventure and thrills. A book to (re)read to rediscover a taste for amazement and the desire to take to the open seas.

Write to the author: ivan.garcia@leregardlibre.com