Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Table of Contents
Plot Summary
The novel is told from Jim Hawkins’ point of view, with the exception of a few chapters narrated by Livesey concerning the recovery of the stockade. Jim is a boy whose parents own an inn to which the pirate Billy Bones comes to reside. Bones carries with him a treasure map made by the pirate Flint. Other pirates seek this map from Bones. It is Jim who unwittingly takes it after his mother seeks recompense for Bones’ extended stay at the inn.
Jim delivers the map to Dr. Livesey for safekeeping. Livesey and his friend Squire Trelawney decide, with Jim, to set sail for the treasure. Trelawney buys a ship and hires a crew. The crew, however, happens to consist mainly of the very same pirates who had been seeking the map. Led by Long John Silver, who poses as the ship’s cook, the pirates keep their cool until the ship finally reaches the island. Then they can no longer refrain from murder.
To defend themselves, Livesey, Captain Smollett and the others take shelter in Flint’s stockade on the island. There they repulse an attack by the mutineers. Jim, meanwhile, meets Ben Gunn, a marooned pirate, who has already found the treasure. Jim uses Ben’s handmade boat to steal the Hispaniola from the pirates. Jim returns to the stockade to discover that it has been given to the pirates. He becomes Silver’s hostage.
Livesey visits the stockade to tend to the ailing pirates. He talks to Jim, and Jim tells him what he has done with the ship. Silver tells Livesey how he saved Jim’s life from the other pirates, and Livesey promises to see that Silver is not prosecuted for leading the mutiny. Livesey also tells Silver not to expect to find what he is looking for if he does indeed go looking for the treasure.
Backed into a corner by his own men, Silver has no choice but to lead the remaining mutineers on an expedition to dig up the treasure. He clings to Jim, however, as a last hope. When it is discovered that the treasure has already been removed, the mutineers turn on Silver. Two of them are killed. The...
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