Stevenson's Treasure Island

Stevenson's Treasure Island

:. (e Ifta^uM &ava*Zz^/£4t&sT^(yi^\754 9K\S 7aejt—iSt.e/l CfWif. '/art'tue/f o^3 'a+^&ns \^ <z - STEVENSON'S TREASURE ISLAND Edited with Introduction and Notes by «? G& FRANK WILSON CHENEY HERSEY, A.M. <@ W Instructor in English in Harvard University, Coeditor of "Specimens of Prose Composition" and "Representa- tive Biographies of English Men of Letters" ( J GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO LONDON ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO • . •,-... • • • • - . < . - • COPYRIGHT, 191 1, BY GINN AND COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 324.5 off* vnhmm EDUCATION DEFT. GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. PREFACE " " Ogilvy," I remember," says Sir J. M. Barrie in Margaret " a delightful life of his mother, I remember how she read { Treasure Island,' holding it close to the ribs of the fire (because she could not spare a moment to rise and light the gas), and how, when bedtime came, and we coaxed, remon- strated, scolded, she said quite fiercely, clinging to the book, 1 1 dinna lay my head on a pillow this night till I see how that laddie got out of the barrel.' " This is the spirit in which "Treasure Island" should be read. The student should first be allowed to give himself up to the enjoyment of rapidly reading the story as a story. He may then turn to various parts of the Introduction and the Notes, which are designed to sharpen his appreciation and zest. Several sections of the Introduction have been included in order that the student may have immediately at hand material which hardly any school library possesses: for instance, a history of the Buccaneers ; many quotations from Captain Charles Johnson's " History of the Pyrates," which Stevenson used in writing his story; and extracts from Stevenson's essay " A Gossip on Romance." Further- more, the explanation of sailing a schooner is inserted for the benefit of the many students who, living inland, have no experience in sailing and no knowledge of seamanship. For the convenience of every student, however, all the sea terms mentioned in the text are grouped together in the Glossary at the end, and their meaning should be sought there rather than in the Notes. The sections entitled " The " ' ' Writing of ' Treasure Island,' " and Treasure Island and vi TREASURE ISLAND Dime Novels " will be entertaining to those who wish to know how a skillful author weaves his materials together and creates situations and characters which " remain in the mind's eye forever." Since few books offer as many advan- tages for teaching Composition in an interesting way as "Treasure Island," I have given many suggestions for themes and oral discussions, and in the Notes have commented on various effective incidents and descriptions. Before beginning my happy labors, I asked several hun- dred students to tell me what they should like to have in a school edition of " Treasure Island." The suggestions aris- ing from their needs and desires have determined my plan, and here at last is what aims to be their own edition. F. W. C H. Harvard University CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE ix I. Life of Stevenson .... XIX II. The Writing of "Treasure Island" . xxvi III, "Treasure Island" and Dime Novels IV. "The Persons of the Tale" xxxiii V. Stevenson's Theory of Romance xxxvi VI. The Buccaneers xlv VII. Sailing a Schooner .... lxvii VIII. Topics for Themes and Discussions lxx IX. Bibliography lxxiii TREASURE ISLAND PART I. THE OLD BUCCANEER CHAPTER i I. The Old Sea Dog at the "Admiral Benbow" II. Black Dog Appears and Disappears . 7 III. The Black Spot 14 IV. The Sea Chest 20 V. The Last of the Blind Man .... 27 VI. The Captain's Papers 3 2 PART II. THE SEA COOK VII. I go to Bristol 39 VIII. At the Sign of the "Spyglass" ... 45 IX. Powder and Arms 5° X. The Voyage 5 6 62 XI. What I heard in the Apple Barrel . XII. Council of War 68 PART III. MY SHORE ADVENTURE XIII. How my Shore Adventure Began . 75 • • Vll viii TREASURE ISLAND CHAPTER PAGE XIV. The First Blow 80 XV. The Man of the Island .... 86 PART IV. THE STOCKADE XVI. Narrative continued by the Doctor : How the Ship was Abandoned .... 94 XVII. Narrative continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-Boat's Last Trip .... 99 XVIII. Narrative continued by the Doctor : End of the First Day's Fighting . 104 XIX. Narrative resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade . .109 XX. Silver's Embassy 115 XXI. The Attack 121 PART V. MY SEA ADVENTURE XXII. How my Sea Adventure Began . .128 XXIII. The Ebb tide Runs 134 XXIV. The Cruise of the Coracle . 139 XXV. I strike the Jolly Roger . .145 XXVI. Israel Hands 15° XXVII. "Pieces of Eight" 158 PART VI. CAPTAIN SILVER XXVIII. In the Enemy's Camp 165 XXIX. The Black Spot Again . 173 XXX. On Parole 180 XXXI. The Treasure Hunt — Flint's Pointer . 187 XXXII. The Treasure Hunt --The Voice among the Trees 194 XXXIII. The Fall of a Chieftain . .200 206 XXXIV. And Last » . NOTES 2I 3 GLOSSARY OF SEA TERMS 239 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Map of Treasure Island Frontispiece Blackbeard ..... lix A Schooner .... lxvii Diagrams to explain Sailing . lxviii, lxix Inventory of Captain Kidd's Treasure . lxxvi The Battle of Looks between Dr. Livesey and Bill Bones 8 A Horrible Change comes over Black Dog 9 The Entrance of the Blind Pirate Pew iS The Pirates find Bill Bones Dead J 9 The Squire engages Long John Silver . 46 " By the powers, Tom Morgan, it's good for you 47 A Piece of Eight 93 The Victory at the Stockade 126 The Fight in the Rigging 127 Permission to reproduce the photographs of the dramatization of " Treasure Island " has kindly been given by the producer, Mr. Charles Hopkins. ; INTRODUCTION I. LIFE OF STEVENSON " Thin-legged, thin-chested, slight unspeakably,— Neat-footed and weak-fingered : in his face Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race, Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea, The brown eyes radiant with vivacity — There shines a brilliant and romantic grace, A spirit intense and rare, with trace on trace Of passion, impudence, and energy. Valiant in velvet, light in ragged luck, Most vain, most generous, sternly critical, Buffoon and poet, lover and sensualist A deal of Ariel, just a streak of Puck, Much Antony, of Hamlet most of all, And something of the Shorter- Catechist." 1 This is a vivid portrait of that versatile and courageous man whose life illuminated the last half of the nineteenth century, and whose personality fascinated men of many races from the bleak Highlands of Scotland to the palm-leaved shores of Samoa. Child of a long line of famous engineers, — his grandfather, Robert, built the Bell Rock Light, and his father, Thomas, "the noblest of all extant deep-sea lights," Skerryvore, — Robert Louis Stevenson was forced by ill health to spend his life with pens and paper instead of with stone and steel. But the booming of the surf was always in his ears, and he lies buried upon a peak of the Pacific in hear- ing of its sonorous voice. i W. E. Henley, "A Book of Verses," 1888. ix x TREASURE ISLAND He was born in Edinburgh, November 13, 1850. His boy- hood was passed in this city and at the Manse of Colinton, the home of his mother's father, a clergyman. The pul- monary disease, against which his life was one long battle, condemned Mm to stay indoors. But the spirit of boyhood was never conquered. Indeed, "he was the spirit of boyhood tugging at the skirts of this old world of ours and compelling it to come back and play." x The amusements of his early childhood Stevenson has charmingly told us about in "A Child's Garden of Verses" and in the essays "Child's Play" 2 and "A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured." 3 Leaden soldiers, toy theaters, books, a box of paints — "crimson lake (hark to the sound of it — crimson lake ! — the horns of elf-land are not richer on the ear) " — made glad the heart of this fragile boy. His reading consisted of stirring tales of adventure and the melodramas of Skelt's Juvenile Drama — books which colored much of his own writing, notably "Treasure Island." His attendance at school was not regular, but his interest in story-telling and his creative imagination led him to practice the art of writing with a regularity which no school could have inspired. This is the way he taught himself to write. "All through my boyhood and youth, I was known and pointed out for the pattern of an idler ; and yet I was always busy on my own private end, which was to learn to write. I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. As I walked, my mind was busy fitting what I saw with appropriate words ; when I sat by the roadside, I would either read, or a pencil and a penny version book would be in my hand, to note down the features of the scene or commemo- rate some halting stanzas. Thus I lived with words. And what I thus wrote was for no ulterior use; it was written con- 1 J. M. Barrie, "Margaret Ogilvy," ch. vii. 2 In "Virginibus Puerisque." 3 In ""Memories and Portraits." INTRODUCTION xi sciously for practice. It was not so much that I wished to be an author (though I wished that too) as that I had vowed that I would learn to write.

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