Coral Island

The adventure story for boys became popular from the mid-nineteenth century, evolving from Robinson Crusoe, the story by Daniel Defoe which would inspire a whole genre of children's literature-the Robinsonnade.

With the wider world now known and European settlers spreading to these new lands there was plenty of scope for adventure stories in locations as exotic as the Pacific Islands, the Canadian wilds and Australia's frontier lands. But shipwreck and the ensuing adventures maintained its place in the development of English children's literature and RM Ballantyne was among those who exploited it with his novel The Coral Island published in 1858. The Coral Island was only his third adventure story, the previous two having both been set in Canada and drawing upon his experiences there: he had been apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company when he was 16 after his father, a successful publisher, experienced financial difficulties.

Ballantyne would later undergo all manner of escapades as he looked for new storylines: working on lighthouses, the London fire brigade, and in mines to name but a few. Whether he deliberately underwent shipwreck is not recorded but this theme was more than adequately explored with Robinson Crusoe, and through the many newspaper accounts of shipwreck. A prolific author, Ballantyne was one of the very first to portray boys as boys, free from adult restrictions.

In Coral Island three boys are the sole survivors of a shipwreck. On their uninhabited island they initially lead an idyllic life: food is easy to find and with a small axe, one of their few possessions, they are able to build a shelter and a small boat. Their island then becomes the battleground for two opposing groups of Polynesians and the boys support those under attack and earn the gratitude of their chief. They are not however removed from their island but remain. They then become embroiled with pirates and one of the boys, Ralph Rover, is captured and taken away. Eventually Ralph manages to escape and make his way back to the Coral Island and his friends. Later they reach an island where there are missionaries. Again they find themselves involved in conflict between the converted and the unconverted, are captured, freed and finally make their way back home, much wiser from their many experiences as castaways.

Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719: it was immediately successful so much so that four editions were published in the next four months. The story was translated, abridged and re-written for children many times, appearing as a 16 page chapbook and as a seven page early pop-up book among more standard formats. It also spawned a whole genre of imitations--the Robinsonade.

A Robinsonade is not a 'reinterpretation of the Robinson story, but a repetition of a similar situation, a castaway on an uninhabitated island...' (Signal p. 64). Countless of these stories have been writtten and continue to be written into the modern era: Lord of the Flies by William Golding but one of the many.

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