Three teenage boys, the sole survivors of a shipwreck, find themselves marooned on a deserted island in the South Pacific. With little more than a telescope and a broken knife, the youths must find food and shelter and learn to survive. But though the coral island is a tropical paradise, full of natural beauty and exotic fruits and wildlife, dangers and adventures abound: sharks, pirates, and even bloodthirsty cannibals
Scottish-born R.M. Ballantyne (1825-1894) wrote more than ninety books for young people during the Victorian era, the most famous of which is "The Coral Island" (1857), a tale whose popularity has proved so enduring that it has never been out of print. A thrilling story in the tradition of "Robinson Crusoe" and a key influence on later classics such as Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," "The Coral Island" is presented here in a new scholarly edition that includes the unabridged text of the first British edition, a new introduction and notes by Ralph Crane and Lisa Fletcher, and the original illustrations by the author.