Treasure Island is packed with vivid characters, but it’s Long John Silver who steals the show as a murderous mutineer who nevertheless spares Jim’s life. At the end of the story, a significant part of the treasure is left on the island, and the way is left open for a number of sequels, though none by Stevenson himself. From his sketch, Stevenson conceived the tale of young Jim Hawkins, who finds the map in a dead man’s chest and takes up the role of cabin boy in a search for pirate gold. Partially inspired by Poe’s story, the most famous of all treasure hunts began when Stevenson sketched an imaginary island complete with swamps, graves, and an X to mark the spot where the “Bulk of Treasure” was buried. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson The treasure, meticulously catalogued, includes gold coins, jewellery and precious gemstones, along with 83 crucifixes and 197 gold watches: more than enough to restore Legrand’s lost fortune.Ģ. What seems at first like a tale of the supernatural or a descent into madness is revealed, through Legrand’s step-by-step explanation, as a logical if improbable case of invisible ink, ciphers and cryptic clues. In my book the quest to solve the clues is an attempt to undo a series of bad choices, to make amends – and this seems to be in the tradition of literary treasure hunts often in the titles I’ve chosen, the discovery of treasure is a means of putting things to rights, whether it’s restoring a family fortune or saving the world from the forces of darkness.Ī masterpiece of misdirection, this short story tells the tale of William Legrand’s delirious search for the pirate treasure hidden by notorious real-life Captain Kidd. And because a treasure hunt is an ever-shifting mix of teamwork and competition, I found it worked as a metaphor for adult friendships too – for that strange brew of loyalty and rivalry that characterises some of the closest friendships. When I started to write The Last Treasure Hunt, I wanted to explore childhood friendships and shared memories using the idea of an annual hunt. Those weekends were like stepping into an Enid Blyton book though our friends’ parents couldn’t provide us with real mysteries to solve or criminals to catch, they could set a mean treasure hunt. I grew up in the city, but occasionally as a family we spent weekends with friends in rural Aberdeenshire. It’s no coincidence that when I remember childhood treasure hunts, they always seem to have taken place on perfectly sunny days. It delivers thrills, perhaps danger, but often with a sense that things will work out happily in the end. L ike a good whodunnit, a treasure-hunt story can be the ultimate page-turner (and in a way, all detective novels are treasure hunts too, since the sleuth must solve a series of clues to discover the prize of the murderer’s identity).
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