TREASURE ISLAND

About The Book

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book in 1883, it was originally serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881-82 under the title The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island. Stevenson was 30 years old when he started to write Treasure Island, and it would be his first success as a novelist. The first fifteen chapters were written at Braemar in the Scottish Highlands in 1881. One cold, rainy day Young Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's step-son was drawing a map. Stevenson took the map and after adding a few details such as X for buried treasure and the name Skeleton Island he wrote at the top TREASURE ISLAND. Within three days of drawing the map for Lloyd, Stevenson had written the first three chapters, reading each aloud to his family who added suggestions: Lloyd insisted there be no women in the story; Stevenson's father came up with the contents of Billy Bones' sea-chest, and suggested the scene where Jim Hawkins hides in the apple barrel. Two weeks later a friend, Dr. Alexander Japp, brought the early chapters to the editor of Young Folks magazine who agreed to publish each chapter weekly

The Author

Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850–December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer. He was born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson, in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13, 1850. His father was Thomas Stevenson, and his grandfather, Robert Stevenson; both were distinguished lighthouse designers and engineers. It was from this side of the family that he inherited his love of adventure, joy of the sea and for the open road. He entered the University of Edinburgh at seventeen, but soon discovered he had neither the scientific mind nor physical endurance to succeed as an engineer. When his father took him for a voyage he found his mind teeming with wonderful romances about the coast and islands which they visited. His career in literature had begun. Other works include.

The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses (1884) An historical adventure novel and romance set during the Wars of the Roses

The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), a story about a dual personality much depicted in plays and films

Kidnapped (1886) is a historical novel that tells of the boy David Balfour's pursuit of his inheritance and his alliance with Alan Breck in the intrigues of Jacobite troubles in Scotland.

The Master of Ballantrae (1889), a masterful tale of revenge, set in Scotland,