A Matter of Perception: Treasure Island Is Good or Bad
Written in the nineteenth century, Treasure Island was the beginning of Robert
Louis Stevenson's career as a writer. While numerous critics think that his work
(Treasure Island) was a great success, there are still some that think it was not. In there
critiques they deal with moral concerns that the people of Stevenson's tome may have had
and literary excellence.
Maurice Hewlett says in his article in "Criticism Today" that Treasure Island along
with many other works of Stevenson is "not so wonderful a performance after all"
(www.wwwesterni.unibg.it/siti_esterni/rls/critrec.htm, 3/01/03). H.L.Mencken says that
even Stevenson's most doting admirers find his literature difficult to read. However, in
the struggle to read it, Treasure Island and other works by Stevenson belong in the second
rank if not first. Mencken also adds that here is nothing in Treasure Island to save it and
that it was empty. "But their ideas are seldom notable either for vigor or originality"
(www.wwwesterni.unibg.it/siti_esterni/rls/critrec.htm, 3/01/03).
Stevenson himself admits in a letter to Sidney Colvin that he borrowed ideas for
his own pieces of work from others. Still after admitting that he gains a number of fans
including William Gladstone (1809-1898), who served as the British Prime Minister for
four terms between 1865 and 1894, as one of his greatest fans. Apparently it is written
well enough to gain fans throughout England. So it must be a somewhat good piece of
literature. William Blackburn writes in his essay, "Much of Treasure Island is in brilliantly
handled dramatic dialogue, salty enough to convey the tang of piratical talk yet chaste
enough to pass muster with the most respectable of parents" (Nineteenth-Century
Literature Criticism, Vol. 63, pp.253). It is so wonderfully written that it is suitable for all
ages. For example, to clarify something, before misunderstanding, he uses brief
interjections from the...
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