ended his life on the island of Upolu, Samoa, in the South Pacific Ocean. He had sailed extensively among the Pacific Islands and made Upolu his own ‘treasure island’ in 1890. He bought an estate on the island with the proceeds of his book sales and lived there happily for four years until he was struck down by a seizure. It was probably a stroke (cerebral haemorrhage) caused by an embolism.
His health had been compromised in 1879 when Stevenson took a long journey by sea and rail from Europe to California. He chose to travel second class, which was ‘roughing it’ in those days. By the time he arrived at his destination he was at deaths door. It seems that he never fully recovered from these self-imposed hardships. Stevenson was, surprisingly, viewed as something of a failure by his family. He had been expected to become a successful engineer, but rejected convention and expectation in pursuit of his writing. Although he was successful as a writer in his own lifetime his naturally Bohemian and unorthodox behaviour made him feel marginalized by Victorian society. This could explain why he felt more at home in far flung places, where he was free from the parameters of Victorian etiquette and expectation. Before he started to travel, he found his escape in visiting places of ill repute and iniquity where the underclass would not judge him and where he met more interesting people on the fringes of society.
To
S. L. O.,
An American gentleman, in accordance with whose classic taste the following narrative has been designed, it is now, in return for numerous delightful hours, and with the kindest wishes, dedicated by his affectionate friend,
THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 The Old Sea Dog at the ‘Admiral Benbow’
CHAPTER 2 Black Dog Appears and Disappears
CHAPTER 5 The Last of the Blind Man
CHAPTER 6 The Captain’s Papers
CHAPTER 8 At the Sign of the ‘Spy-Glass’
CHAPTER 11 What I Heard in the Apple Barrel
CHAPTER 13 How I Began my Shore Adventure
CHAPTER 15 The Man of the Island
CHAPTER 16 Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship was Abandoned
CHAPTER 17 Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-Boat’s Last Trip
CHAPTER 18 Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day’s Fighting
CHAPTER 19 Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade
CHAPTER 22 How I Began my Sea Adventure
CHAPTER 24 The Cruise of the Coracle
CHAPTER 25 I Strike the Jolly Roger
CHAPTER 28 In the Enemy’s Camp
