Three boys wrecked on a Pacific island build, hunt and swim happily until pirates and a war party arrive, and the paradise turns out to have neighbours. Ballantyne had worked for the Hudson's Bay Company and wrote from experience-except about coconuts, which he got wrong from books and never forgave himself for. It is the direct ancestor of Treasure Island and the book Lord of the Flies was written against. Fifty-four sea pieces from Turner to Homer, 1772 to 1903, give the wreck and the island light of their own time.
