The Coral Island - Couverture rigide

Ballantyne, R. M.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0361038682 ISBN 13 : 9780361038683

Editeur : Prentice Hall & IBD, 1977

Synopsis

The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858) is a novel written by Scottish juvenile fiction author R. M. Ballantyne during the peak of the British Empire. It was voted one of the top twenty Scottish novels at the 15th International World Wide Web Conference held in 2006. The story is written as a first person narrative from the perspective of one of three boys shipwrecked on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island, 15-year-old Ralph Rover. He and his companions – 18-year-old Jack Martin, and 14-year-old Peterkin Gay – are the sole survivors from the ship. At first their life is idyllic; food, in the shape of fruits, fish and wild pigs, is plentiful, and using their only possessions, a broken telescope, an iron-bound oar and a small axe, they fashion a shelter and even construct a small boat.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

If Lord of the Flies is one of [your child's] A-level texts, they may just be interested to know that this 1857 Boys' Own adventure story about pirates, cannibals and how to survive on a Pacific island with a broken telescope and a rusty penknife was what inspired William Golding's novel. He even pinched Ballantyne's names, Ralph and Jack, for his leading characters - though there the resemblance ends. Here the boys are shining stiff-upper-lip products of empire who risk all to help each other and their friend Peterkin, who may or may not be the piggy in the middle. He sounds as if he went to a better school. This is Peterkin telling his chums what he thinks of being shipwrecked on a desert island: 'I have made up my mind that it's capital, first-rate, the best thing that ever happened to us. We've got an island all to ourselves. We'll take possession in the name of the King, then we'll build a charming villa and plant a lovely garden round it, stuck all full of the most splendiferous tropical flowers, and we'll farm the land ... and be merry.' That's how small boys wearing round black straw hats, worsted socks and pocket handkerchiefs with 16 portraits of Lord Nelson printed on them and a union flag in the middle used to talk in the mid 19th century. --Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Présentation de l'éditeur

Three boys, fifteen-year-old Ralph Rover, eighteen-year-old Jack Martin, and fourteen-year-old Peterkin Gay, are the sole survivors of a shipwreck on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. At first their life on the island is idyllic; food, in the shape of fruits, fish and wild pigs, is plentiful, and using their only possessions, a broken telescope, an iron-bound oar and a small axe, they fashion a shelter and even construct a small boat.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Prentice Hall & IBD
• Date d'édition: 1977
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0361038682
• ISBN 13: 9780361038683
• Reliure: Relié
• Illustrateur: Bown Derick
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible