The next book to reach The Top Shelf is a bit of a cheeky one, because it isn't one of my favourite books but I like it enough to maybe read it again one day.
‘Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17⸻, and go back to the time when my father kept the ‘Admiral Benbow’ inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.’
Whew, that’s a long opening sentence.
So like most people, I was pretty familiar with the story of Treasure Island growing up, mostly from the 1950 Disney movie which we had recorded off the TV and also Muppet Treasure Island, which was at the time my favourite Muppet movie.
Then one day when I was at university, I went into a newsagents, and I saw a bunch of copies of Treasure Island sitting on the newspaper rack. It was some kind of promotion with the Daily Mail, but the shopkeeper let me buy the novel without purchasing the newspaper. I guess I wish I had an edition that had nothing to do with the foul Daily Mail, which I pretty much hate more than anything else in existence, but at least I got a cheap book out of it.
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| I do wonder about the quality of the text in this version. |
Treasure Island is the story of a boy, Jim Hawkins, who gets hold of a treasure map from a dead pirate and the expedition that sets out to find the island and the treasure that leads to mutiny.
Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over, and I was on my way to my berth, it occurred to me that I should like an apple. I ran on deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. The man at the helm was watching the luff of the sail, and whistling away gently to himself; and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea against the bows and around the sides of the ship.
In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found there was scarce an apple left; but, sitting down there in the dark, what with the sound of the waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I had either fallen asleep, or was on the point of doing so, when a heavy man sat down with rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders against it, and I was just about to jump up when the man began to speak. It was Silver’s voice, and, before I had heard a dozen words, I would not have shown myself for all the world, but lay there, trembling and listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity; for from these dozen words I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended upon me alone.
As it turns out, I actually didn’t know Treasure Island as well as I thought. (The Muppets is nothing like it, which is odd since their Christmas Carol was so deliberately accurate.) Every version of Treasure Island that I have seen really focuses on the paternal relationship between Jim and Silver, usually making it particularly mawkish, but it really isn’t like that in the book. Silver is a fascinating character because he is so entirely duplicitous, but he would absolutely kill Jim at any moment if it suited him and Jim would return that favour if he had a chance. Adaptations also tend to gloss over Jim's mother, who though only in it briefly (and the only woman in the book at all - Silver's wife is mentioned a couple of times but we don't see her), does have a pretty cool scene of bravery. My particular delight reading the book was how awesome Dr Livesey was. That kind of friendly, deadpan heroic type you got in books back then.
However, it is not one of my favourite books. It is very shallow. It’s simply an adventure story that never really stirs the emotions. So it is a good read for what it is, but there could have been more to it.
If you are interested, you can read my four star review on Goodreads here.
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