"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. It was a cold and rainy August-September and
Stevenson was with five family members on holiday in a cottage.
Young Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's step-son, would pass the rainy
days painting with water colors. Remembering the time, Lloyd
wrote:
..busy with a box of paints I happened to be tinting a map of an island I had drawn. Stevenson came in as I was finishing it, and with his affectionate interest in everything I was doing, leaned over my shoulder, and was soon elaborating the map and naming it. I shall never forget the thrill of Skeleton Island, Spyglass Hill, nor the heart-stirring climax of the three red crosses! And the greater climax still when he wrote down the words "Treasure Island" at the top right-hand corner! And he seemed to know so much about it too—the pirates, the buried treasure, the man who had been marooned on the island". "Oh, for a story about it", I exclaimed, in a heaven of enchantment, and somehow conscious of his own enthusiasm in the idea.
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.
As autumn came to Scotland, the Stevensons left their summer holiday retreat for London, but Stevenson was troubled with a
life-long chronic bronchial condition that put an end to his
work on the novel at about chapter fifteen. Concerned about a
deadline they traveled in October to Davos, Switzerland where
the clean mountain air did him wonders and he was able to
continue, and, at a chapter a day, soon finished the story."
John Nettles reads for the BBC
Replies
Thankyou for this book read by John Nettles, one of my favorite books
Richard
Thanks for sharing.
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