I thought that book was non-fiction when I read it as a kid, because of all the detailed descriptions of how he built stuff out in the woods. I did wonder why his parents didn’t seem to care about him.
In Julie Andrew’s The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, two kids meet a weird old man in a park and go with him to his house. IIRC, he then advises them to lie to their parents about where they were.
I can quote whole passages by heart.
As Billy Bones is chasing Blind Pew (another of the scariest characters in children’s lit) away when Pew first shows up, Billy Bones takes a cut at Pew with his cutlass that “would have split him to the chine” if it had not been intercepted by the sign over Jim’s parents’ tavern. For years I thought it was a misprint for “chin”. But it is even more vivid than that.
And Malacandra is right - part of the charm of the book is that Jim Hawkins is not a simpering goody-goody Galahad. He is over-confident; he makes mistakes and gets scared. But he learns and grows - when he has been captured by the pirates, and the doctor comes to treat them and Jim is allowed to speak with the doctor privately, the doctor asks Jim to break his promise and escape. But Jim won’t do it - “I passed my word”. Part of that is because of the scene I mentioned earlier with the doctor and Billy Bones, and because the doctor has shown Jim how a gentleman responds when threatened by a non-gentleman - he sticks to his code.
All the older characters of the book are variations on a grown-up version of Jim - Long John is how he could grow up if he abandons his moral code, Squire Trelawney if Jim continues to be thoughtless but sincere, the doctor as a more idealized version of his father. And Captain Smollett is another - witness that speech Smollett gives in the scene where Long John Silver is trying to talk them into letting themselves be betrayed with a mixture of threats and promises - all lies, of course, and Long John would cut their throats and sail away the minute he had the treasure. But Smollett sits and listens to it all, and then ignores it all and gives his great, straightforward speech -
Brilliant. Two pages of obfuscation and threats, and Captain Smollett to cut thru all of it.
Regards,
Shodan
I also thought “The Giving Tree” was pretty unpleasant when I was younger, but now that I’m a parent, I think I actually understand it. It’s not about a selfish child; it’s about a tree who loves her child so much that she gives everything she has to him, and that makes her happy.
I know, you’re all probably stuck on the line, “And the tree was happy…but not really,” toward the end. The thing is, as I read it now, the tree’s unhappiness comes not from being cut down, but because her child has gone away. It’s about unconditional love. And I’m not sure I would have understood that if I didn’t have a child of my own.
Talking of Pew, it’s amazing what a memorable character he manages to be given really very little screen time. But one slight correction - Bones chases Black Dog away; he is so terrified of Pew, blind as he is, that he can hardly move while Pew hands him the Black Spot, and a minute later he dies of a stroke.
Smollett, of course, provokes Silver on purpose: he knows an attack from the pirates must come sooner or later, and better it were sooner while they are all ready for it. And Silver (who was otherwise the coolest-headed of pirates, able to plan, dissemble and keep his hands to himself; he would have let the gentlemen find the treasure and return the ship safely to familiar waters before making away with them if he’s been allowed his way) loses his temper and falls right into the trap.
Is there any published collection of the, erm, original versions?
Shades of Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer!
Here’s one
