La isla del tesoro

An old sailor with a saber scar across his face takes up residence at an inn on the English coast, not far from Bristol. He carries a chest he never opens, gets drunk on rum, and terrifies the guests with his stories and songs. He also pays Jim, the innkeeper's son, to keep a sharp eye out and warn him if "a one-legged sailor" shows up. The truth is, the secret chest contains a map to an island with a magnificent treasure buried by an ancient pirate, and Jim finds himself, overnight, signed on as a cabin boy on an expedition (led by a wealthy landowner) to search for it. From that moment on, he must acquire "the habit of living tragic adventures" and become familiar with more scars and mutilations, death, greed, and betrayal. But everything has two sides: fear overcome by curiosity can lead to gratuitous acts of courage, composure can turn into coldness, and recklessness can lead to boasting. Jim, just a boy, constantly saves the lives of adults, but he doesn't always manage to distinguish between being brave and being emboldened, between a dream and a nightmare. Treasure Island (1883) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's best-known—practically immortal—novels, and in it he displays all his narrative mastery to tell an extraordinary adventure, fraught with violence and danger, and full of ambivalent characters, such as the famous pirate Long John Silver, kind and vile, eloquent and cunning, one of the great manipulators in the history of literature.