Why Didn't I Like Treasure Island More?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, part of the literary bucket list of classics I should read before I die that my Kindle seems to be giving me (does it know something I don't?) can now be crossed off.

More than any of these books I've read recently though when finished I felt unenthused. Won't say neutral, because I did like the novel. Just not as much as I thought.

So there am I on completion thinking to myself "Why Didn't I Like Treasure Island more?" Mentally found myself  making a short list of reasons.

Here's it is:

That I knew too much about the book before reading it: Regular readers to this blog will know that I try to avoid film/TV adaptations of famous novels as much as possible to avoid the probability of the reading experience being spoilt. But the more famous the book the more chances there are of images in the popular consciousness, consequently there are less chances of you being able to be monk like in the isolation of them.

Of the recent classic books I've read Treasure Island was far and away the most famous. Who doesn't know about Long John Silver and that parrot, Jim Hawkins etc. It's also responsible for a lot of popular pirate clichés. Perhaps I just knew too much before I started reading it to have enjoyed it now?

That the book had just one strong character in Long John Silver and was damaged because of it: I've read bad books in my life where what pulled you through as a reader was the strength of one particular character. Soames Forsyth and Francis Urquhart in the novels of John Galsworthy and Michael Dobbs springs to mind. It didn't mean that I enjoyed the book, it just meant there was a reason why I continued to turn the page.

The trouble however was that when the strong character wasn't in a scene the book seemed dull in comparison. Although let me stress I don't think that this is a bad novel to me it was exactly what occurred in Treasure Island.

And linked to this reason comes the following:

That the "good guys" in Treasure Island are just dull/unbelievable: And so they are. Even Jim Hawkins, who is able at thirteen to do things that elders in his group are incapable of.

That people should just know their place: If we leave aside Jim Hawkins for a moment. It's noticeable that the "good guys" in Treasure Island are all in positions of authority (the captain.the squire and the doctor). The subliminal message here is that the lower orders should follow people of a higher strata than them. It's irritating to say the least.

All of the above are genuine reasons why I didn't like Treasure Island as much as I was expecting to. But one reason dominates above all else.

I read it too late: When starting to read this book I didn't know whether it was purely for children or "for all the family". Having read it I now know that it's the former. More specifically a book for boys between about ten and thirteen before girls come into the picture. It's on reflection noticeable that there's just one female character in the entire novel, Jim Hawkins' mother. And she's gone after a few chapters.

What more could a boy of that age want than adventure in the high seas and foreign climes without bothersome whiny women to stop you? Not only that but you prove yourself just as invaluable as the adults around you. It's very Boy's Own.

However I'm a very old man with very grey hair. I no longer have the enthusiasm of thirteen, just the fatigue of fifty three.

So the fault as to why I didn't like Treasure Island as much is not Stevenson's but mine. I was too old to truly enjoy it (a sentence I'll be saying a lot of as these years go on).

The next book from the great unread is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. Arguably the most important work of socialist fiction in English.

So definitely a book a fifty three year old man can read.

Until the next time.