Biography

Bell, Ian. "Exile: 1880-1884," pp. 143-59. In Dreams of Exile: Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1992.

Discusses the biographical context surrounding Stevenson's composition of Treasure Island and emphasizes the author's poor health at the time.

Damon, Lindsay Todd. Introduction to Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Lindsay Todd Damon, pp. 27-29. New York: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1904.

Discusses Stevenson's artistic temperament in relation to the creation of Treasure Island.

Kiely, Robert. "Adventure as Boy's Daydream." In Robert Louis Stevenson and the Fiction of Adventure, pp. 61-108. Harvard University Press, 1964.

Discusses the thematic elements that contribute to the essential feeling of freedom, or "casting off of encumbrances that pervades Treasure Island.

McLynn, Frank. "Davos." In Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography, pp. 180-208. New York: Random House, 1993.

Includes discussion of the biographical circumstances and literary sources surrounding the genesis of Treasure Island.

Criticism

Colebatch, Hal. "A 'Treasure Island' Mystery: What Are We to Make of It?" Treasure Island Quadrant 32, Nos. 1-2 (January-February 1988): 85-87.

Examines the "mystery" of time discrepancies in the plot of Treasure Island and interprets them as evidence of Jim Hawkins's occasional unreliability as a narrator.

Hardesty, Patricia Whaley, William H. Hardesty, and David Mann. "Doctoring the Doctor: How Stevenson Altered the Second Narrator of Treasure Island." Studies in Scottish Literature XXI (1986): 1-22.

Discusses Stevenson's recasting of Dr. Livesey's character in his revised version of Treasure Island following initial serial publication of the work.

Noble, Andrew, Introduction to Robert Louis Stevenson, by Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Andrew Noble, pp. 7-22. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble Books, 1983.

Discusses Stevenson's ambivalent position as both a popular and a literary writer, and the impact of this status on his mixed critical reception.

Saposnik, Irving S. "A Pursuit of Nightingales: Treasure Island." In Robert Louis Stevenson, pp. 105-09. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1974.

Discusses Stevenson's narrative techniques in Treasure Island and articulates the novel's distinction from conventional adventure fiction.

Additional coverage of Stevenson's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Gale Research: Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Volumes 5 and 14; DISCovering Authors; Children's Literature Review, Vols. 10 and 11; and Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 18, 57, 141, 156, and 174.