Treasure Island (Dover Thrift Editions)
Pirates are the endurable symbol of man’s desire for freedom from
restriction and the cost of such freedom. They are one of the few mythic
archetypes in literature that can be both the villain of the story as well as
the protagonist thanks in large part to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Few adventure stories
have had such a wide-ranging impact on storytelling and popular culture. While
Stevenson did not invent the swashbuckling genre, the argument can be made that
he made a swashbuckling story that is close to perfect.