Uncertainties

Spent the last couple of days adventuring with Robert Louis Stevenson on Treasure Island. Odd that I've never read the full novel before. I seem to remember as a kid getting up to the bit where Jim is hiding in the apple barrel on board the Hispaniola and hears Long John Silver plotting mutiny and finding the whole thing pretty heavy-going. It's certainly not an easy read at any level. Silver himself is a deeply ambiguous figure and the action is often surprisingly complex. I'm still not sure exactly how Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesey and the rest of the good guys got themselves into the abandoned stockade on the island after the mutiny. Or why Jim suddenly took himself off to sea in the coracle. But there's enough going on in terms of raw characterisation for me to have enjoyed the outing.

And it was nice to reach the final chapters not being at all sure how the story would be concluded, and then quite enjoying the good guys winning in the end, whilst still feeling more than a touch of sympathy for the mutineers left stranded on the island. Gosh, the Victorians were fierce in their sense of right & wrong, especially when calling such conventional morality into question. It's notable that Stevenson makes sure Silver gets away with it all, including a reasonable amount of the money.