I recently came across an article about the benefits of reading a book more than 100 times. Some of these include gaining insights and nuances beyond the story’s superficial understanding. You go beyond the characters and plot to subtexts, themes, and deeper symbolism.
This said, I started searching for books I’d want to read this many times and study in depth. Several great works came to mind (Don Quixote, The Count of Monte Cristo, Dracula), but I landed on two that have influenced me both as a reader and writer the most: Treasure Island and The Hobbit.
Thus far, I’ve read both books thirteen times, and am in the midst of the fourteenth. I’ll share my insights and analyses as I go, and encourage you to read along and share your views.
Treasure Island:
I see two different threads running with this classic. One is the fictional work itself, and the other is the story’s allusions to real world places and people.
The work — A few things in this work have popped out at me so far. The author’s use of the word chine. The narrator suggests that he viewed these pirates as nothing more than animals. The writer also made a subtle use of the dialogue tags throughout the tale.
He/she said: for those not going on the voyage.
Said he: for those going on the voyage.
An interesting duality exists between Trelawney and Livesay. The squire wants desperately to be taken seriously and seen as a professional equal, while the doctor is a professional, but keeps his ego in check.
The hunt — Some might say that this island is or was a real place. So far, there are plenty of allusions that could support this hypothesis. Captain Flint may have been modeled after Edward Teach, a pirate that plundered the Atlantic for decades before settling down along the Carolina coast. The story drops several clues to Skelton Island’s possible whereabouts. Savanah and peaches are mentioned early on in the same sentence. One of Flint’s men was allegedly left near Trinidad. Hispaniola is a Caribbean city. The island is described at length in the book. It has tall pines intermingled with the foliage, bullrushes, and rattlesnakes.
These are just my observations to date. We’ll see where this project leads me as I progress.
A Day In The Life 