The Coral Island
Title page, illustrated 1893 edition of The Coral Island
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| Author | R. M. Ballantyne |
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| Language | English |
| Genre | Adventure novel |
| Publisher | T. Nelson & Sons |
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Publication date
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1858 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & paperback) |
| Text | at |
The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858) is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck.
A typical Robinsonade – a genre of fiction inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe – and one of the most popular of its type, the book first went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. Among the novel's major themes are the civilising effect of Christianity, 19th-century British imperialism in the South Pacific, and the importance of hierarchy and leadership. It was the inspiration for William Golding's dystopian novel Lord of the Flies (1954), which inverted the morality of The Coral Island; in Ballantyne's story the children encounter evil, but in Lord of the Flies evil is within them.
In the early 20th century, the novel was considered a classic for primary school children in the UK, and in the United States it was a staple of high-school suggested reading lists. Modern critics consider the book's worldview to be dated and imperialist, but although less popular today, The Coral Island was adapted into a four-part children's television drama broadcast by ITV in 2000.
Born in Edinburgh in 1825, and raised there, Ballantyne was the ninth of ten children and the youngest son. Tutored by his mother and sisters, his only formal education was a brief period at Edinburgh Academy in 1835–37. At the age of 16 he travelled to Canada, where he spent five years working for the Hudson's Bay Company, trading with the Native Americans for furs. He returned to Scotland in 1847 and for some years worked for the publisher Messrs Constable, first as a clerk and then as a partner in the business. During his time in Canada he had helped to pass the time by writing long letters to his mother – to which he attributed "whatever small amount of facility in composition [he] may have acquired" – and began his first book. Ballantyne's Canadian experiences formed the basis of his first novel, The Young Fur Traders, published in 1856, the year he decided to become a full-time writer and embarked on the adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated.
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