Treasure Island

The first adventure novel for children by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island is a thrilling tale of “buccaneers and buried gold” The idea for the story originated in the summer of 1881 with a map created as a game by Stevenson and his 12-year-old stepson Lloyd Osborne. The novel was serialized in 1881–82 in the children’s magazine Young Folks under the title “The Sea-Cook; or Treasure Island” and published in book form in 1883.

Traditionally considered a boys’ coming-of-age story, Treasure Island relates young Jim Hawkins’ adventures with a group of pirates who are trying to locate an abandoned treasure trove. The leader of the pirates, the flamboyant, one-legged Long John Silver, is initially hostile to Jim but eventually befriends him. The book is both a gripping, atmospheric adventure tale and a wry comment on the ambiguities of human character and motives. The first of many film adaptations appeared in 1912.