Murder, mutiny, and marooning all told so innocently yet so engagingly – Stevenson's sea yarn, Treasure Island (1883), is a suspenseful pleasure whether you are 10 or 100 years old. Robert Louis Stevenson's story recounts some pretty rough characters and gory events, but the story of Jim Hawkins' adventure in search of pirate treasure is so romantic, action packed, and quick paced that it was hard to put the book down.

My only disappointment is that the characterization was too thin and unrealistic: Jim shows dubious audacity for a young man of his age, and I was surprised that he wasn't more disturbed by all the blood and guts that are liberally sloshed about in the second half of the book; the squire practically drops out of the tale after a brief cameo in a couple of chapters; and the doctor and the rest of the 'good guys' all seem to blend together ... even Jim doesn't show enough peculiarities or personal traits to be memorable. Only the complex character of the ingratiating yet villainous Long John Silver gets enough color, shading, and detail to stand out against the tale's action driven plot. In fact, before I recently re-read the story, Long John was the only character whose name I could recall in connection with the book.

But I suppose we read a tale like this for the pleasure of the swashbuckling adventure, not the revelation of character. And when it comes to well-written adventure stories, suitable for young minds and still entertaining for the nearly senile (present reviewer included), Treasure Island is hard to beat.