Inside the illustrated edition
Where the horizon begins
Salt air, a cliff path and a watchful figure. Seven luminous paintings accompany Stevenson’s adventure.
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A world on a sheet of paper
Candlelight gathers around an unfolded chart. The imagined journey begins before the ship departs.
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The pull of the open water
A harbour slips into the morning light. Colour and moving water catch the excitement of departure.
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An unfamiliar brightness
Still water reflects a wooded shore. The island’s beauty carries a note of uncertainty.
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A fragile shelter
Rough timber and a narrow stream among the trees. Sunlight lends warmth to a precarious refuge.
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A small boat in the dark
A coracle drifts beneath a looming hull. Broken silver light gives the night its scale.
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Room for the imagination
Sea, rock and empty distance. The final panorama leaves space for your own sense of adventure.
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Distinctive voices, expressive narration and words that light up as you listen. Move between reading and listening in the Read Classics app, at your own pace.
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The opening is yours.
The title announcement, introduction and everything through the end of the first chapter, including any intervening preface or dedication, are included free.
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An island on a map. A world of uncertain loyalties.
A stranger’s sea-chest draws young Jim Hawkins from a coastal inn toward a dangerous voyage. Stevenson’s adventure combines the exhilaration of discovery with a sharp eye for the people we choose to trust.
Discover the edition
With an original introduction, chronology and further reading. 7 paintings accompany the story.
Read the complete ebook in the Read Classics app, for Android now and for iPhone soon. The free audio opening is separate from ebook access. This website offers an excerpt from the introduction, not an interactive browser reader.
From the introduction
A stranger arrives at a quiet coastal inn with a sea-chest and a talent for frightening everyone around him. For Jim Hawkins, the innkeeper’s son, the sea soon becomes more than something visible from the doorstep. Treasure Island begins with the discomfort of sharing a house with a dangerous adult, then opens outward into a voyage. Its pleasures are concrete: a voice heard through a wall, the shape of a coastline, the distance between a hiding place and safety. You need no advance knowledge of sailing or pirates. Jim must learn whom to trust, and the reader learns beside him.
An excerpt from the original Read Classics introduction.
The captain above the cove
upon the cliffs with a brass telescope
Chapter 1 · Painting 1 of 7
The promise of a map
there fell out the map of an island
Chapter 6 · Painting 2 of 7
The voyage begins
soon the sails began to draw
Chapter 10 · Painting 3 of 7
An unfamiliar shore
a kind of poisonous brightness
Chapter 13 · Painting 4 of 7
Shelter among the pines
a thick bed of moss and some ferns
Chapter 19 · Painting 5 of 7
Under the dark hull
her spars and hull began to take shape
Chapter 23 · Painting 6 of 7
The island opens out
the very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude
Chapter 32 · Painting 7 of 7
Treasure Island
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