February 6, 2016
This isn't the first Stevenson work that I've read. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a story with a good premise, if it wasn't told very well. I felt that Stevenson told us all the good parts rather than showing them to us. I kind of felt that way about this book, too, but I also felt like it was really predictable.
No, not because I was terribly familiar with the premise. All I knew is that it was about pirates, and a kid was somehow involved. There have been many adaptations of this story, but none that I've seen. Anyway, there are two possible reasons for why this story lacked suspense for me.
One could be the same issue I've had with other "classics," that they were written for an audience that didn't know the tropes that readers today are so familiar with. The things that surprised people in the late 19th century don't faze people today.
The other could be that the story was written for a younger audience, and so events are more heavily foreshadowed than in books written for adults. Either way, I didn't totally get into this book, and the lack of suspense had a lot to do with it.
I don't have much to say about Treasure Island. As the pirates would sing the "Yo Ho Ho" song, or whatever, I thought of "Somalian Pirates, We" (from an episode of South Park, of course). The episode "Fatbeard" compares the romanticized image of pirates (as started, in part, by Stevenson's work, though the pirates be the antagonists, ar!) to the realities of piracy in the 21st century. Cartman's song is really damn catchy.
Anyway, in my view this book was only all right. Also, I don't know that Hawkins' crew was any "better" than the pirates. Did they return the treasure to the nations from which it'd been stolen? I don't think so. They spent the money on themselves, as the pirates would have done. So really, I didn't much care about any of the characters. I usually say that a "classic" is sometimes worth reading because it is, but with this one, I'd perhaps think twice.
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