Treasure Island · Chapter
To the Hesitating Purchaser explained
The author addresses the reader directly, offering a poetic invitation to those who still enjoy classic tales of sailors, adventure, treasure, and pirates, while acknowledging that modern tastes may have moved on.
What happens
The author addresses the reader directly, offering a poetic invitation to those who still enjoy classic tales of sailors, adventure, treasure, and pirates, while acknowledging that modern tastes may have moved on.
Themes in this chapter
Adventure and Coming of Age
The poem explicitly invokes 'storm and adventure' and 'buried Gold' as the core appeal of the tale.
The Lure of the Unknown
The mention of 'schooners, islands, and maroons' evokes the allure of distant, mysterious places.
Key passages
“If sailor tales to sailor tunes, Storm and adventure, heat and cold, If schooners, islands, and maroons And Buccaneers and buried Gold, And all the old romance, retold Exactly in the ancient way, Can please, as me they pleased of old, The wiser youngsters of today: —So be it, and fall on!”
If classic adventure stories about sailors, storms, islands, pirates, and treasure still appeal to modern young readers as they did to me, then let the story begin.
The author sets the stage for a traditional pirate adventure, hoping it will captivate a new generation.
“If not, If studious youth no longer crave, His ancient appetites forgot, Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave, Or Cooper of the wood and wave: So be it, also! And may I And all my pirates share the grave Where these and their creations lie!”
But if today's serious young readers have lost interest in the old adventure writers like Kingston, Ballantyne, and Cooper, then let this book and its pirates be buried alongside them.
The author acknowledges that tastes may have changed, but accepts this fate with a touch of defiance.