The Coral Island
a tale of the Pacific Ocean
by Robert Michael Ballantyne, Ralph Crane, George Dalziel, Edward Dalziel · first published 1858
67% recommend33% neutral
A nineteenth century adventure story of three teenaged boys shipwrecked on a Pacific island. At first they lead an idyllic life but this is soon interrupted by the arrival on the island of rival Polynesian war parties and then pirates. After various adventures the boys find themselves in possession of the pirate’s ship and can sail for home.
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…fiction, or fiction that is extremely well-researched. I like James Michener. - Read travel and adventure type stories. Personal favorites in this category are The Treasure Island by R L Stevenson, and The Coral Island by R M Ballantyne. Both are not particularly long, and the original is still suprisingly readable in this day and age. Bonus: these are extremely well-regarded classics. I personally find Ballantyne's…
on “Ask HN: I don't read fiction, how much am I missing out on?” ↗Lord of the Flies was somewhat a rebuttal to The Coral Island. More enjoyable to read though.
on “When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)” ↗The Coral Island, by R M Ballantyne It was written a long time ago, and I read an abridged version as a kid. I got a copy to give away as a present, but got the unabridged version, which is not suitable for children.…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗Strange how proving the book utterly false has not dimmed its literary reputation even a little, nor caused a resurgence of the "unrealistic" Coral Island that Golding set out to disprove and displace [1]. In fact being proven false has not been acknowledged at all by the literary world, which show how much respect that world deserves. [1] Golding thought…
on “William Golding's Island of Savagery” ↗Partly. But again, in the author's own words, he "wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave". Even his motivation was that Coral Island was "unrealistic". You'd think that would earn the book at least a little asterisk. Meanwhile Animal Farm is obviously intended to be allegorical by using animals as protagonists. While I disagree, one…
on “William Golding's Island of Savagery” ↗