RM_Ballantyne_The_Coral_Island

To see the transcribed text with images (if available) use the FB2 version. This is one of the most famous of Ballantyne's more than eighty books, which is strange, because it was one of the first. Furthermore it owes a great deal to James Bowman's "Our Island Home", which was published just before Ballantyne started to write "The Coral Island". That said, it is a fine early effort at writing a book intended for the interest of teenagers. It is an enjoyable read, and there is a lot of action, either among the three boys as they explore the island, or later on in the book as a rather dramatic way is found of getting off the island, involving pirates, cannibals, a beautiful maiden, and the theft of a ship. Ballantyne's earlier books were either in effect rewrites of his excellent letters home, written during his time in Northern Canada with the Hudson Bay Company, or a rather trivial set of books intended for very small children, such as "Mister Fox", written under the pen-name of Comus. Luckily he did not concentrate on writing more Comus books, but started a fine literary career with this book, and with "Martin Rattler". At the time that he wrote "The Coral Island" he was also writing some pot-boilers for a publisher, such as his "Handbook to the New Gold Fields". This gave him a small income, evidently enough to finance his writing of "The Coral Island". First published 1858. The edition used here was the 1870 edition by Chambers, evidently intended for the cheaper end of the market. It was printed on poor quality very thin paper. There was but one illustration, a strange pink confection of what we can discern as a beach only because there are ships in the background. In the foreground are some strange objects, and in the background, as well as the ships, there is a man on a horse. There are no horses in the story at all. On the whole the book would have been better without this picture. Luckily most modern authors don't have pictures in their books, unless they are writing for illiterates or for very small children.