Download or read book The Coral Island Musaicum Adventure Classics written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. Ralph and his two companions – 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay – are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. At first, boys have to manage how to feed themselves, what to drink, and how the resolve clothing and shelter, coping with having to rely on their own resources. As the boys adopt to the situation, they start dealing with new difficulties, such as conflicting with pirates, fighting with native Polynesians, and dealing with Christian missionaries and their conversion efforts.
Download or read book The Coral Island The Gorilla Hunters Musaicum Adventure Classics written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean" relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. Ralph and his two companions – 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay – are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. At first, boys have to manage how to feed themselves, what to drink, and how the resolve clothing and shelter, coping with having to rely on their own resources. As the boys adopt to the situation, they start dealing with new difficulties, such as conflicting with pirates, fighting with native Polynesians, and dealing with Christian missionaries and their conversion efforts. "The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa" is a sequel to The Coral Island set in "darkest Africa", and it follows the further adventures of Ralph Rover, Peterkin Gay and Jack Martin. After their adventures in the South Sea Islands, Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin go their separate ways. Six years later, Ralph, living on his father's inheritance on England's west coast and occupying himself as a naturalist, is visited by Peterkin, whose "weather-beaten though ruddy countenance" he does not recognise. Peterkin, who has stayed in touch with Jack, has hunted and killed every animal on Earth except for the gorilla and now comes to Ralph to entice him on a new adventure. After Peterkin writes him a letter, Jack joins the two, and they leave for Africa.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-11-13 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean" relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. Ralph and his two companions – 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay – are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. At first, boys have to manage how to feed themselves, what to drink, and how the resolve clothing and shelter, coping with having to rely on their own resources. As the boys adopt to the situation, they start dealing with new difficulties, such as conflicting with pirates, fighting with native Polynesians, and dealing with Christian missionaries and their conversion efforts. "The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa" is a sequel to The Coral Island set in "darkest Africa", and it follows the further adventures of Ralph Rover, Peterkin Gay and Jack Martin. After their adventures in the South Sea Islands, Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin go their separate ways. Six years later, Ralph, living on his father's inheritance on England's west coast and occupying himself as a naturalist, is visited by Peterkin, whose "weather-beaten though ruddy countenance" he does not recognise. Peterkin, who has stayed in touch with Jack, has hunted and killed every animal on Earth except for the gorilla and now comes to Ralph to entice him on a new adventure. After Peterkin writes him a letter, Jack joins the two, and they leave for Africa.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-10-29 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coral Island is a novel written author R.M. Ballantyne during the peak of the British Empire. It was voted as one of the top twenty Scottish novels in the 2006 15th International World Wide Web Conference. The Coral Island tells the story of three sailor lads, Ralph, Jack, and Peterkin. When the threesome are are cast ashore after the storm, their first task is to find out whether The Coral Island is inhabited. Their next task is to find a way of staying alive. They go hunting and learn to fish, explore underwater caves and build boats - but then their island paradise is rudely disturbed by the arrival of pirates. William Golding's 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, was written as a response to this book, which is referenced at the end of Golding's story, when the naval officer says, "I know. Jolly good show. Like The Coral Island." Golding, despite enjoying the book many times as a child, massively disagreed with the views that The Coral Island held, and Lord of the Flies depicts the English boys as savages themselves. The Coral Island is also mentioned within the first four chapters of Lord of the Flies, when one of the English school boys says "it will be an adventure story, like Treasure Island, Coral Island." This edition of The Coral Island is unabridged.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-06-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three boys, fifteen-year-old Ralph Rover (the narrator), eighteen-year-old Jack Martin and fourteen-year-old Peterkin Gay, are the sole survivors of a shipwreck on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. At first their life on the island is idyllic; food, in the shape of fruits, fish and wild pigs, is plentiful, and using their only possessions; a broken telescope, an iron-bound oar and a small axe, they fashion a shelter and even construct a...
Download or read book The Gorilla Hunters Musaicum Adventure Classics written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa follows the adventure of three young men in "darkest Africa." Ralph Rover is living on his father's inheritance on England's west coast and occupying himself as a naturalist. He gets visited by his old friend Peterkin Gay, whose "weather-beaten though ruddy countenance" he does not recognize. Peterkin has hunted and killed every animal on Earth except for the gorilla and now comes to Ralph to entice him on a new adventure. The two are joined by the third friend, Jack Martin, and they leave for Africa.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R M Ballantyne and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2010 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When three boys find themselves shipwrecked on a South Pacific Island, they must learn to survive in a sometimes beautiful, sometimes deadly new world. A classic tale of high adventure and boyhood courage.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by VM eBooks. This book was released on 2016-07-29 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CHAPTER ONE. BEGINNING--MY EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER--I THIRST FOR ADVENTURE IN FOREIGN LANDS, AND GO TO SEA. CHAPTER TWO. THE DEPARTURE--THE SEA--MY COMPANIONS--SOME ACCOUNT OF THE WONDERFUL SIGHTS WE SAW ON THE GREAT DEEP--A DREADFUL STORM AND A FRIGHTFUL WRECK. CHAPTER THREE. THE CORAL ISLAND--OUR FIRST COGITATIONS AFTER LANDING AND THE RESULT OF THEM--WE CONCLUDE THAT THE ISLAND IS UNINHABITED. CHAPTER FOUR. WE EXAMINE INTO OUR PERSONAL PROPERTY, AND MAKE A HAPPY DISCOVERY--OUR ISLAND DESCRIBED--JACK PROVES HIMSELF TO BE LEARNED AND SAGACIOUS ABOVE HIS FELLOWS--CURIOUS DISCOVERIES--NATURAL LEMONADE! CHAPTER FIVE. MORNING, AND COGITATIONS CONNECTED THEREWITH--WE LUXURIATE IN THE SEA, TRY OUR DIVING POWERS, AND MAKE ENCHANTING EXCURSIONS AMONG THE CORAL GROVES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN--THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP ENLARGED UPON. CHAPTER SIX. AN EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR IN WHICH WE MAKE MANY VALUABLE AND INTERESTING DISCOVERIES--WE GET A DREADFUL FRIGHT--THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE--WONDERFUL PECULIARITY OF SOME OF THE FRUIT-TREES--SIGNS OF FORMER INHABITANTS. CHAPTER SEVEN. JACK'S INGENUITY--WE GET INTO DIFFICULTIES ABOUT FISHING, AND GET OUT OF THEM BY A METHOD WHICH GIVES US A COLD BATH--HORRIBLE ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK. CHAPTER EIGHT. THE BEAUTIES OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TEMPT PETERKIN TO DIVE--HOW HE DID IT--MORE DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME--THE WATER GARDEN--CURIOUS CREATURES OF THE SEA--THE TANK--CANDLES MISSED VERY MUCH, AND THE CANDLE-NUT TREE DISCOVERED--WONDERFUL ACCOUNT OF PETERKIN'S FIRST VOYAGE--CLOTH FOUND GROWING ON A TREE--A PLAN PROJECTED, AND ARMS PREPARED FOR OFFENCE AND DEFENCE--A DREADFUL CRY. CHAPTER NINE. PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY ROUND THE ISLAND--SAGACIOUS REFLECTIONS-- MYSTERIOUS APPEARANCES AND STARTLING OCCURRENCES. CHAPTER TEN. MAKE DISCOVERY OF MANY EXCELLENT ROOTS AND FRUITS--THE RESOURCES OF THE CORAL ISLAND GRADUALLY UNFOLDED--THE BANYAN TREE--ANOTHER TREE WHICH IS SUPPORTED BY NATURAL PLANKS--WATER-FOWL FOUND--A VERY REMARKABLE DISCOVERY, AND A VERY PECULIAR MURDER--WE LUXURIATE ON THE FAT OF THE LAND. CHAPTER ELEVEN. EFFECTS OF OVEREATING, AND REFLECTIONS THEREON--HUMBLE ADVICE REGARDING COLD WATER--THE "HORRIBLE CRY" ACCOUNTED FOR--THE CURIOUS BIRDS CALLED PENGUINS--PECULIARITY OF THE COCOA-NUT PALM--QUESTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF CORAL ISLANDS--MYSTERIOUS FOOTSTEPS--STRANGE DISCOVERIES AND SAD SIGHTS. CHAPTER TWELVE. SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TANK--JACK'S WISDOM AND PETERKIN'S IMPERTINENCE--WONDERFUL BEHAVIOUR OF A CRAB--GOOD WISHES FOR THOSE WHO DWELL FAR FROM THE SEA--JACK COMMENCES TO BUILD A LITTLE BOAT. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. NOTABLE DISCOVERY AT THE SPOUTING CLIFFS--THE MYSTERIOUS GREEN MONSTER EXPLAINED--WE ARE THROWN INTO UNUTTERABLE TERROR BY THE IDEA THAT JACK IS DROWNED--THE DIAMOND CAVE. CHAPTER FOURTEEN. STRANGE PECULIARITY OF THE TIDES--ALSO OF THE TWILIGHT--PETERKIN'S REMARKABLE CONDUCT IN EMBRACING A LITTLE PIG AND KILLING A BIG SOW--SAGE REMARKS ON JESTING--ALSO ON LOVE. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. BOAT-BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY--PETERKIN TRIES HIS HAND AT COOKERY, AND FAILS MOST SIGNALLY--THE BOAT FINISHED--CURIOUS CONVERSATION WITH THE CAT, AND OTHER MATTERS. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. THE BOAT LAUNCHED--WE VISIT THE CORAL REEF--THE GREAT BREAKER THAT NEVER GOES DOWN--CORAL INSECTS--THE WAY IN WHICH CORAL ISLANDS ARE MADE--THE BOATS SAIL--WE TAX OUR INGENUITY TO FORM FISH-HOOKS--SOME OF THE FISH WE SAW--AND A MONSTROUS WHALE--WONDERFUL SHOWER OF LITTLE FISH-- WATERSPOUTS. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. A MONSTER WAVE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES--THE BOAT LOST AND FOUND--PETERKIN'S TERRIBLE ACCIDENT--SUPPLIES OF FOOD FOR A VOYAGE IN THE BOAT--WE VISIT PENGUIN ISLAND, AND ARE AMAZED BEYOND MEASURE--ACCOUNT OF THE PENGUINS. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. AN AWFUL STORM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES--NARROW ESCAPE--A ROCK PROVES A SURE FOUNDATION--A FEARFUL NIGHT AND A BRIGHT MORNING--DELIVERANCE FROM DANGER. CHAPTER NINETEEN. SHOEMAKING--THE EVEN TENOR OF OUR WAY SUDDENLY INTERRUPTED--AN UNEXPECTED VISIT AND AN APPALLING BATTLE--WE ALL BECOME WARRIORS, AND JACK PROVES HIMSELF TO BE A HERO. CHAPTER TWENTY. INTERCOURSE WITH THE SAVAGES--CANNIBALISM PREVENTED--THE SLAIN ARE BURIED AND THE SURVIVORS DEPART, LEAVING US AGAIN ALONE ON OUR CORAL ISLAND. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. SAGACIOUS AND MORAL REMARKS IN REGARD TO LIFE--A SAIL!--AN UNEXPECTED SALUTE--THE END OF THE BLACK CAT--A TERRIBLE DIVE--AN INCAUTIOUS PROCEEDING AND A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF PIRATES--HOW THEY TREATED ME, AND WHAT I SAID TO THEM--THE RESULT OF THE WHOLE ENDING IN A MELANCHOLY SEPARATION AND IN A MOST UNEXPECTED GIFT. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. BLOODY BILL--DARK SURMISES--A STRANGE SAIL, AND A STRANGE CREW, AND A STILL STRANGER CARGO--NEW REASONS FOR FAVOURING MISSIONARIES--A MURDEROUS MASSACRE, AND THOUGHTS THEREON. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. BLOODY BILL IS COMMUNICATIVE AND SAGACIOUS--UNPLEASANT PROSPECTS-- RETROSPECTIVE MEDITATIONS INTERRUPTED BY VOLCANIC AGENCY--THE PIRATES NEGOTIATE WITH A FEEJEE CHIEF--VARIOUS ETCETERAS THAT ARE CALCULATED TO SURPRISE AND HORRIFY. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. THE SANDAL-WOOD PARTY--NATIVE CHILDREN'S GAMES SOMEWHAT SURPRISING-- DESPERATE AMUSEMENTS SUDDENLY AND FATALLY BROUGHT TO A CLOSE--AN OLD FRIEND RECOGNISED--NEWS--ROMATA'S MAD CONDUCT. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. MISCHIEF BREWING--MY BLOOD IS MADE TO RUN COLD--EVIL CONSULTATIONS AND WICKED RESOLVES--BLOODY BILL ATTEMPTS TO DO GOOD, AND FAILS--THE ATTACK--WHOLESALE MURDER--THE FLIGHT--THE ESCAPE. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. REFLECTIONS--THE WOUNDED MAN--THE SQUALL--TRUE CONSOLATION--DEATH. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. ALONE ON THE DEEP--NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION--A VALUABLE BOOK DISCOVERED--NATURAL PHENOMENON--A BRIGHT DAY IN MY HISTORY. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. THE EFFECT OF A CANNON-SHOT--A HAPPY REUNION OF A SOMEWHAT MOIST NATURE--RETROSPECT AND EXPLANATIONS--AN AWFUL DIVE--NEW PLANS--THE LAST OF THE CORAL ISLAND. CHAPTER THIRTY. THE VOYAGE--THE ISLAND, AND A CONSULTATION IN WHICH DANGER IS SCOUTED AS A THING UNWORTHY OF CONSIDERATION--RATS AND CATS--THE NATIVE TEACHER-- AWFUL REVELATIONS--WONDERFUL EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. A STRANGE AND BLOODY BATTLE--THE LION BEARDED IN HIS DEN--FRIGHTFUL SCENES OF CRUELTY, AND FEARS FOR THE FUTURE. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY, AND A BOLD, RECKLESS DEFIANCE, WITH ITS CONSEQUENCES--PLANS OF ESCAPE, AND HEROIC RESOLVES. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. THE FLIGHT--THE PURSUIT--DESPAIR AND ITS RESULTS--THE LION BEARDED IN HIS DEN AGAIN--AWFUL DANGER THREATENED AND WONDERFULLY AVERTED--A TERRIFIC STORM. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. IMPRISONMENT--SINKING HOPES--UNEXPECTED FREEDOM TO MORE THAN ONE, AND IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE. CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE. CONCLUSION.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by Robert Michael Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 1897 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coral Island is a novel written author R.M. Ballantyne during the peak of the British Empire. It was voted as one of the top twenty Scottish novels in the 2006 15th International World Wide Web Conference. The Coral Island tells the story of three sailor lads, Ralph, Jack, and Peterkin. When the threesome are are cast ashore after the storm, their first task is to find out whether The Coral Island is inhabited. Their next task is to find a way of staying alive. They go hunting and learn to fish, explore underwater caves and build boats - but then their island paradise is rudely disturbed by the arrival of pirates. William Golding's 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, was written as a response to this book, which is referenced at the end of Golding's story, when the naval officer says, "I know. Jolly good show. Like The Coral Island." Golding, despite enjoying the book many times as a child, massively disagreed with the views that The Coral Island held, and Lord of the Flies depicts the English boys as savages themselves. The Coral Island is also mentioned within the first four chapters of Lord of the Flies, when one of the English school boys says "it will be an adventure story, like Treasure Island, Coral Island." This edition of The Coral Island is unabridged.
Download or read book Coral Island written by Robert Michael Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Coral Island written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2019-11-22 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. Ralph and his two companions – 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay – are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. At first, boys have to manage how to feed themselves, what to drink, and how the resolve clothing and shelter, coping with having to rely on their own resources. As the boys adopt to the situation, they start dealing with new difficulties, such as conflicting with pirates, fighting with native Polynesians, and dealing with Christian missionaries and their conversion efforts.
Download or read book The Coral Island Classic Book written by R. M. Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858) is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck. A typical Robinsonade - a genre of fiction inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe - and one of the most popular of its type, the book first went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. Among the novel's major themes are the civilising effect of Christianity, 19th-century British imperialism in the South Pacific, and the importance of hierarchy and leadership. It was the inspiration for William Golding's dystopian novel Lord of the Flies (1954), which inverted the morality of The Coral Island; in Ballantyne's story the children encounter evil, but in Lord of the Flies evil is within them.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by Robert Michael Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 1940 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Coral Island 1857 written by Robert Michael Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-17 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Young Fur-Traders (1856), The Coral Island (1857), The World of Ice (1859), Ungava: a Tale of Eskimo Land (1857), The Dog Crusoe (1860), The Lighthouse (1865), Fighting the Whales (1866), Deep Down (1868), The Pirate City (1874), Erling the Bold (1869), The Settler and the Savage (1877), and more than 100 other books followed in regular succession, his rule being to write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described. The Gorilla Hunters. A tale of the wilds of Africa (1861) shares three characters with The Coral Island: Jack Martin, Ralph Rover and Peterkin Gay. Here Ballantyne relied factually on Paul du Chaillu's Exploration in Equatorial Guinea, which had appeared early in the same year.The Coral Island is the most popular of the Ballantyne novels still read and remembered today, but because of one mistake he made in that book, in which he gave an incorrect thickness of coconut shells, he subsequently attempted to gain first-hand knowledge of his subject matter. For instance, he spent some time living with the lighthouse keepers at the Bell Rock before writing The Lighthouse, and while researching for Deep Down he spent time with the tin miners of Cornwall.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by Robert Michael Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 2014-07-26 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Top 100 Childrens Adventure Novels. The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean by Robert Michael Ballantyne. The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858) is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck. A typical Robinsonade – a genre of fiction inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe – and one of the most popular of its type, the book first went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. Among the novel's major themes are the civilising effect of Christianity, 19th-century British imperialism in the South Pacific, and the importance of hierarchy and leadership. It was the inspiration for William Golding's dystopian novel Lord of the Flies (1954), which inverted the morality of The Coral Island; in Ballantyne's story the children encounter evil, but in Lord of the Flies evil is within them. The novel was considered a classic for elementary-school children of the early 20th century in Britain, and in the United States it was a staple of suggested reading lists for high-school students. Modern critics consider The Coral Island to feature a dated imperialist view of the world, but although it is less popular today than it once was, it was adapted into a four-part children's television drama broadcast by ITV in 2000.
Download or read book The Coral Island written by Robert M. Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-29 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coral Island (1858) is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck.A typical Robinsonade - a genre of fiction inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe - and one of the most popular of its type, the book first went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. Among the novel's major themes are the civilising effect of Christianity, 19th-century British imperialism in the South Pacific, and the importance of hierarchy and leadership.Three teenage boys, the sole survivors of a shipwreck, find themselves marooned on a deserted island in the South Pacific. With little more than a telescope and a broken knife, the youths must find food and shelter and learn to survive. But though the coral island is a tropical paradise, full of natural beauty and exotic fruits and wildlife, dangers and adventures abound: sharks, pirates and cannibals!