Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Publisher: free on iBooks
Published date: 1883
FTC: read for free on iBooks

One of my favorite classic authors is Robert Louis Stevenson.    In high school I read this awesome little compilation of short stories called The New Arabian Nights.  While I still haven't found that same compilation, I did snag a copy of Stevenson's works that include his novels, The New Arabian Nights, and a bunch of poetry I didn't know he wrote.  Seriously, if you have time, check out the short stories The Suicide Club and The Rajah's Diamond.  Anyway, for those of you less familiar, you might have heard of his novels Kidnapped or The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Anyway, I'm not sure why it took me so long to read his classic story Treasure Island. We all pretty much know the basics of the story: boy Jim Hawkins goes on an adventure to Treasure Island to get said treasure and has a bunch of shenanigans with a pirate named Long John Silver who has a parrot on his shoulder and a wooden leg.

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest- 

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

Anyway, when I was asked if I wanted to read Andrew Motion's recent novel Silver I jumped at the chance.  It's a novel about Jim Hawkin's son who returns to Treasure Island.  If you've read the original, and it's really not a huge spoiler, there's a bit of treasure left behind on the island - bar silver.  I was excited to finally have an excuse to read the original and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Is it silly to think that someday I'll read this book to my boys?  Or maybe they'll snag it up and read it for themselves?  While it does have some older language, I'd like to think my kids will be smart enough to read this classic.  

Now I'm going to have to read more of Stevenson's works: The Master of Ballantrae, Kidnapped, and The Arrow.   

Extras:

Head over to the official Robert Louis Stevenson website and look at the beautiful original artwork from the novel. I'd love a copy of the book with the original artwork. I hope it's ok I post a photo:

Scrolling through Netflix streaming I found the TV movie Treasure Island (2012) starring Eddie Izzard (awesome!), Rupert Penry-Jones, Donald Sutherland and Elijah Woods.  I haven't watched it yet but the trailer looks awesome.