SOURCE: "Adventure," in Robert Louis Stevenson, New Directions Books, 1947, pp. 32-73.

In the following excerpt, Daiches discusses Stevenson's decision to cast his novel "in one of the oldest of all narrative moulds—the quest." Below, Daiches examines Stevenson's use of plotting techniques that heighten the novel's suspense.

Treasure Island took its origin from a map of an imaginary, romantic island idly drawn by Stevenson and his stepson on a rainy day in "the late Miss Macgregor's cottage," Braemar, Scotland. Stevenson had returned from his first stay in America, with memories of poverty, illness and adventure (including his marriage), and a warm reconciliation with his parents had been effected. Both he and his wife were now established in a secure family relationship with the elder Stevensons and, for the first time since his pre-university days, Stevenson was not constantly haunted by the torturing paradox which the combination of warm...