Treasure Island Summary | Chapterly
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson: A Complete Summary "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" Overview Treasure Island (1883) is the novel that invented the popular image of pirates: treasure maps with X marks the spot, one-legged sea cooks, parrots on shoulders, and buried gold. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it as a story for boys, but it transcends its audience with sophisticated characterization—particularly the unforgettable Long John Silver, one of fiction's most charismatic villains. The story follows young Jim Hawkins, who discovers a treasure map in a dead pirate's sea chest and sails to a remote island to find the buried gold—only to discover that the ship's cook, Long John Silver, has assembled a crew of pirates planning mutiny. Plot Summary Jim Hawkins, a boy living at his parents' inn, encounters Billy Bones, a dying pirate who possesses a map to Captain Flint's buried treasure. After Bones dies, Jim finds the map and shares it with Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey. They outfit the ship Hispaniola and hire a crew, including the one-legged cook Long John Silver. Jim overhears Silver plotting mutiny—most of the crew are Flint's former pirates. On the island, the crew...