Essay About Frontispiece Map Of Treasure Island And Finest Tale Of Maritime Adventure

Treasure Island
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sir,Book Description: London: Cassell & Company, 1883., 1883. First edition, First Issue “The Finest Tale of Maritime Adventure That Has Been Told Since Defoe ” (Prideaux)STEVENSON, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. London: Cassell & Company, 1883.First edition, first issue. Frontispiece map of Treasure Island, printed in three colors, with tissue guard.Original olive green diagonal fine-ribbed cloth with covers ruled in blind and spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Original black coated endpapers. The absolute minimum of wear to corners and extremities, rear inner hinge expertly and almost invisibly repaired. Some very occasional browning and soiling. Previous owners neat ink inscription on front flyleaf. An exceptionally fresh, bright and fine copy. Chemised in a quarter green morocco slipcase.The Bradley Martin copy, with the bookplate of Mildred Greenhill on the front pastedown. “The finest tale of maritime adventure that has been told since Defoe ” (Prideaux).Treasure Island was published on 14 November 1883, so it is most likely that the first issues had October advertisements (“5R-1083”). Copies are known with July advertisements (“5G-783”), and it is likely that the binder used these when he ran out of the October advertisements. There are also copies known with December advertisements (“5R-1283”). In this copy, the “7” in the pagination on p. 127 has been hand stamped in a larger font and darker ink, and, as with other copies of the first issue, the “8” is not present in the pagination on p. 83 (copies are known with the “8” present on p. 83 and with the “7” missing from the pagination on p. 127).Stevenson supposedly raced through the first fifteen chapters of his soon to be classic tale. He would delight his family and friends by reading out loud the chapters of his new novel and according to one visitor Stevenson “read it beautifully: recalling how he swayed rhythmically while reading it aloud his fine voice, clear and keen” (McLynn, Robert Louis Stevenson, p. 197). Stevenson himself had no doubt of the merit of his book as he writes: “If this dont fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day. Will you be surprised to hear that it is about Buccaneers, that it begins in the Admiral Benbow public-house on the Devon coast, that its all about a map, and a treasure and a mutiny, and a derelict ship, and a fine old Squire Trelawny with the chorus Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum” (McLynn, Robert Louis Stevenson, pp. 198-199). “Treasure Island established itself as a classic, drawing plaudits from the widest range of literary sensibilities. In 1890 W.B. Yeats wrote to tell [Stevenson] that the book was the only one in which his seafaring grandfather had ever taken any pleasure and that he reread it on his deathbed with infinite satisfaction. Jack London, in so many ways RLSs