The Annotated Treasure Island

The Annotated Treasure Island

First published as a serialized childrenâ€™s story in 1881â€“1882, Robert Louis Stevensonâ€™s Treasure Island has become an enduring classic. It has all the elements of a great adventure story: a plot full of twists and turns, an escalating sense of treachery and impending disaster, and a quintessential villain. Teenager Jim Hawkins finds a map titled â€œTreasure Islandâ€ in the belongings of a stricken lodger at the Admiral Benbow Inn in 1750s England. He soon finds himself aboard the schooner Hispaniola with a crew of disguised pirates headed to the Caribbean on a quest to find buried treasure. Long John Silver, the peg-legged cook, is the leader of this wretched crew. He is both engaging and ruthless, feared by even his barbarous accomplices, and a shape-shifter, pretending to be Jimâ€™s good friend and enemy, secretly plotting a mutiny. When mutiny begins, Jim must save the day. This beloved adventure story is pure fictionâ€”but fiction well grounded in historical and geographical reality. In The Annotated Treasure Island, editor and researcher Simon Barker-Benfield meticulously and lovingly annotates this voyage, offering crucial factual information, a sociopolitical context, and clear technical explanations that bring you closer to the action. Lavishly illustrated with pictures of nautical equipment, parts of ships, and period maps, The Annotated Treasure Island brings the seafaring vernacular to life. Youâ€™ll learn about â€œblocks,â€ â€œbackstays,â€ and â€œshrouds.â€ And youâ€™ll see Jim and the crew handle the Hispaniola, whether itâ€™s the â€œsimpleâ€ chore of raising the anchorâ€”which in a similar, real vessel could require three hoursâ€™-worth of hauling in a very slimy cable six inches at a timeâ€”or the difficulty and meaning of â€œwarpingâ€ and â€œputting a man in the chainsâ€ in order to take depth soundings. The story illustrations by Louis Rhead (1857-1926) deftly draw out the escalating dramatic tension. Would all the risk and hardship have been worth it? Just how much treasure was the crew after? What could one have bought with 700,000 pounds sterling in the 1700s? Even that question is answered in this newly annotated edition: it would have been enough to buy and outfit a fleet of eleven 104-gun battleships of the period. Seven hundred thousand pounds sterling was serious money, enough money that some men would do almost anything to get it.
Country USA
Brand Fine & Kahn
Manufacturer Fine & Kahn Llc
Binding Hardcover
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781937075019
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Fine & Kahn
Manufacturer	Fine & Kahn Llc
Binding	Hardcover
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781937075019
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

The Annotated Treasure Island

Customers who purchased this also purchased....