Poison Island

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch short stories, novels, criticism, and edited anthologies, including the "Oxford Book" series. He was Assistant Editor of the Liberal weekly "The Speaker," and from 1912 until his death was Professor of English at Cambridge University.

Writing under the pen name "Q," Sir Arthur produced a variety of work, including adventure stories, historical fiction, satire, stories of the supernatural, and mysteries. "Poison Island" is an adventure after Robert Louis Stevenson. Harry Brooks is sent at age fourteen by his widowed father for a classical education at Mr. Stimcoe's Academy for the Sons of Gentlemen.

Mr. Stimcoe is a drunk, and the school a travesty, but Harry meets the mysterious Captain Coffin. Coffin is building a ship to voyage to the Honduras, where he expects to find large amounts of gold, while avoiding the poison of the title. The Captain has a map, but is the treasure real, or a product of drunken imagination? Harry will find out.

Genres: Adventure, Classics, Fiction

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q. He is primarily remembered for the monumental "Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900" (later extended to 1918), and for his literary criticism. He guided the taste of many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of 84 Charing Cross Road, its sequel, Q's Legacy, and the putatively fictional Horace Rumpole via John Mortimer, his literary amanuensis.

Reviews

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good classic treasure adventure...