Robert Michael Ballantyne

a tale of the Pacific ocean

The Coral Island

The Lighthouse

Mercan adası

A Tale of the Wilds of Africa

The Gorilla Hunters

Tales of Adventure ...

The Norsemen in the West

Fictional account based on the Icelandic saga Heimskringla of the Norse discovery and settlement of America in the years 986 and 1006.

The Norsemen in the West, Or, America Before Columbus

The Madman and the Pirate

"Aged just sixteen, the intrepid young Scotsman Robert M. Ballantyne joined the Hudson's Bay Company. Posted immediately to North-Eastern Canada, he spent five years traversing the region's inhospitable terrain by sleigh and canoe. His journal and letters home were so evocative that, upon his return, he was persuaded to publish an account of his experiences. Combining anthropological observations with descriptions of landscapes, plants, and animals, the account was applauded by the Dundee Courier for 'opening up a mine of information to the curious' and 'describing the everyday life of a novel and singular existence' with 'buoyancy and animation'." -- Goodreads.com.

During Six Years' Residence in the Territories of the Hon. Hudson Bay Company

Hudson Bay; Or, Everyday Life in the Wilds of North America

William Roscoe

Comus (pseud. [i.e. Robert Michael Ballantyne.])

The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast

The red man's revenge, a tale

Three English boys, shipwrecked on a deserted island, create an idyllic society despite typhoons, wild hogs, and hostile visitors. Then evil pirates kidnap one of the youths whose adventures continue among the South Sea Islands.

The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean 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.

The Coral Island Annotated

Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, and in man's estate I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woody glens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world.

The Coral Island Illustrated

Large Print

Original Text

A Tale of the Pacific Ocean

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.

Robert Michael Ballantyne

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