Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

Jan 1998 · Spotify Audiobooks · Narrated by Ralph Cosham

About this audiobook

This performance was awarded Audio Best of the Year.-- Publishers Weekly

Jim Hawkins and his mother unlock a sea chest belonging to Billy Bones, an old sea captain who died while staying at their inn. Inside the chest was a logbook and map. Thus begins one of the greatest adventures of all time. Once again come aboard the Hispaniola in search of treasure with young Jim Hawkins, Dr. Livesey and Long John Silver.

In the summer of 1881 Stevenson's first novel was inspired when he was helping his wife's son learn how to draw. He explained, "...I made the map of an Island; it was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully coloured. The shape of it took my fancy beyond expression...I ticketed my performance Treasure Island."

Narrator Ralph Cosham has recorded more InAudio titles by far than any other narrator, and he has received numerous awards to include several Audio Best of the Year awards & Earphone awards.

About the author

Novelist, poet, and essayist Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. A sickly child, Stevenson was an invalid for part of his childhood and remained in ill health throughout his life. He began studying engineering at Edinburgh University but soon switched to law. His true inclination, however, was for writing. For several years after completing his studies, Stevenson traveled on the Continent, gathering ideas for his writing. His Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey (1878) describe some of his experiences there. A variety of essays and short stories followed, most of which were published in magazines. It was with the publication of Treasure Island in 1883, however, that Stevenson achieved wide recognition and fame. This was followed by his most successful adventure story, Kidnapped, which appeared in 1886. With stories such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Stevenson revived Daniel Defoe's novel of romantic adventure, adding to it psychological analysis. While these stories and others, such as David Balfour and The Master of Ballantrae (1889), are stories of adventure, they are at the same time fine studies of character. The Master of Ballantrae, in particular, is a study of evil character, and this study is taken even further in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). In 1887 Stevenson and his wife, Fanny, went to the United States, first to the health spas of Saranac Lake, New York, and then on to the West Coast. From there they set out for the South Seas in 1889. Except for one trip to Sidney, Australia, Stevenson spent the remainder of his life on the island of Samoa with his devoted wife and stepson. While there he wrote The Wrecker (1892), Island Nights Entertainments (1893), and Catriona (1893), a sequel to Kidnapped. He also worked on St. Ives and The Weir of Hermiston, which many consider to be his masterpiece. He died suddenly of apoplexy, leaving both of these works unfinished. Both were published posthumously; St. Ives was completed by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, and The Weir of Hermiston was published unfinished. Stevenson was buried on Samoa, an island he had come to love very much. Although Stevenson's novels are perhaps more accomplished, his short stories are also vivid and memorable. All show his power of invention, his command of the macabre and the eerie, and the psychological depth of his characterization. Ralph Cosham was born in England. He changed careers from a journalist to actor in the 1970s. As an actor, he performed in productions at the Arena Stage and the Shakespeare Theatre in the Washington, DC area. He also appeared in several films including Starman, Suspect, The Pelican Brief, and Shadow Conspiracy. He started narrating audiobooks in 1992 and had more than 100 audiobook recordings, some using the pseudonym Geoffrey Howard. He was best-known as the voice of Armand Gamache in Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. He won the 2013 Audie Award for Louise Penny's A Beautiful Mystery. He also narrated such classics as The Time Machine, Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein, Around the World in Eighty Days, Alice in Wonderland, and Watership Down. His version of Classic Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe was awarded Best Audio of the Year for four straight years (1993-96) by Publishers Weekly. He died after an illness on September 30, 2014 at the age of 78.