Book Anatomy · Treasure Island
Treasure Island: Prose style
17 lenses on prose style for Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Count lenses are exact for our text. AI lenses are our reading and cite only quotes that passed a word for word check.
Jump to: H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 H10 H11 H12 H13 H14 H15 H16 H17
H1. Readability score per chapter. Count
Flesch reading ease for the whole book is about 78 (higher is easier; 60 to 70 is plain English).
Reading ease per chapter, chapter by chapter
H2. Vocabulary range. Count
5,994 different words. On average 51 in every 100 words are new within a 500 word stretch. 2,835 words appear only once.
H3. Signature words: what this author uses far more than others. Count
silver, captain, squire, doctor, ship. See the full lens on the book page.
H4. Adverb and adjective rates. Count
About 9.44 words ending in 'ly' and 4.33 likely adjectives per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
'ly' words per 1,000, chapter by chapter
H5. Share of weak verbs such as "was" and "had". Count
'Was', 'were', 'had', 'is' and 'are' make up 3.6% of all words.
H6. Passive voice rate. Count
About 5.2% of sentences use a passive form such as 'was taken'. (rough estimate from word lists)
H7. Variety of sentence openings. Count
The five most common first words start 29% of sentences: i, the, and, but, he.
| First word | Sentences |
|---|---|
| i | 358 |
| the | 291 |
| and | 200 |
| but | 138 |
| he | 115 |
| it | 113 |
| well | 94 |
| you | 67 |
| we | 61 |
| now | 59 |
H8. Rhythm: how much sentence length varies. Count
Sentence length varies by 0.72 of its mean on average (higher means a more varied rhythm).
Variation per chapter, chapter by chapter
H9. Similes and metaphors: how many, and of what kind. Both
194 likely similes ('like a', 'as ... as'): 2.83 per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
Ch 1, para 5: in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of …
Ch 1, para 5: in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of …
Ch 1, para 8: “Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me. Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; “bring up alongside and help up …
Ch 1, para 9: And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed …
Ch 1, para 10: He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in …
Ch 1, para 10: He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in …
Stevenson uses similes frequently for action and character: Silver moves 'agile as a monkey' (c14), Jim's conscience is 'smitten' like a wound (c25). Metaphors are sparse; the book favours direct comparison and nautical language over abstract imagery.
Chapters: Ch 14, Ch 25, Ch 26
Silver, agile as a monkey even without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment and had twice buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenceless body. (Ch 14, para 25)
I had now plenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which had smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest I had made. (Ch 25, para 38)
One more step, Mr. Hands,” said I, “and I’ll blow your brains out! Dead men don’t bite, you know,” I added with a chuckle. (Ch 26, para 40)
H10. Senses used: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Both
Share of sense words. sight 54%, sound 31%, touch 11%, taste 3%, smell 1%. (rough estimate from word lists)
| Sense | Words |
|---|---|
| sight | 497 |
| sound | 289 |
| touch | 97 |
| taste | 28 |
| smell | 11 |
Sight dominates: maps, faces, the island landscape. Sound is strong: songs, shouts, the parrot's cry. Smell appears rarely but vividly: 'pleasant smell of the pines' (c22). Touch and taste are minimal; the book privileges visual and auditory detail.
Chapters: Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 27, Ch 31
What I began to do was to envy the doctor walking in the cool shadow of the woods with the birds about him and the pleasant smell of the pines (Ch 22, para 12)
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! (Ch 23, para 22)
Silver’s green parrot, Captain Flint! It was she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was she, keeping better watch than any human being, who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain. (Ch 27, para 31)
H11. Repetition, lists of three and other patterns. Both
105 lists of three in the pattern 'a, b and c': 1.53 per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
Lists of three are common: 'Trelawney, Redruth, and the captain' (c17); 'spoil forecastle hands, make devils' (c10). The sea-shanty 'Fifteen men on the dead man's chest' repeats across chapters as a motif. Parallel structures mark key moments.
Chapters: Ch 10, Ch 17, Ch 23
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! (Ch 1, para 4)
He’s no common man, Barbecue,” said the coxswain to me. “He had good schooling in his young days and can speak like a book when so minded; and brave--a lion’s nothing alongside of Long John! (Ch 10, para 19)
Five grown men, and three of them--Trelawney, Redruth, and the captain--over six feet high, was already more than she was meant to carry. (Ch 17, para 2)
H12. Old words that may trip modern readers. Count
Old forms that may trip a modern reader: ere, nay, art, whence, thither, hither.
| Word | Times |
|---|---|
| ere | 7 |
| nay | 5 |
| art | 3 |
| whence | 2 |
| thither | 2 |
| hither | 1 |
H13. Showing against telling, with examples. AI
Stevenson shows character through action and dialogue rather than summary. Silver's treachery emerges through Jim overhearing him plot (c10 to 11) and his knife work (c14), not through authorial judgment. The mutiny is revealed, not explained.
Chapters: Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 14, Ch 28
from these dozen words I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended upon me alone. (Ch 10, para 35)
You may imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to myself. (Ch 11, para 7)
Silver, agile as a monkey even without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment and had twice buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenceless body. (Ch 14, para 25)
H14. How much description comes before action. Both
Description is brief and woven into action. The stockade is described in one paragraph (c19) before fighting begins. The island landscape appears in snatches during Jim's flight (c13 to 15). Stevenson prioritises plot momentum over scene-setting.
Chapters: Ch 13, Ch 15, Ch 19
The log-house was made of unsquared trunks of pine--roof, walls, and floor. The latter stood in several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half above the surface of the sand. (Ch 19, para 21)
The pines, great and small, grew wide apart; and even between the clumps of nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. (Ch 32, para 39)
H15. Filter words such as "saw", "felt", "heard". Count
Filter words ('saw', 'felt', 'heard' and so on): 4.22 per 1,000 words.
| Word | Times |
|---|---|
| thought | 79 |
| saw | 55 |
| seemed | 51 |
| heard | 50 |
| knew | 28 |
| felt | 16 |
| watched | 7 |
| wondered | 3 |
| realized | 1 |
H16. Shifts in tone. AI
Tone shifts from gothic dread (c1 to 3: Billy Bones's terror) to adventure (c7 to 13: voyage and exploration) to dark comedy (c28 to 29: Silver's mutineers squabbling). The final chapters blend triumph with melancholy as Jim reflects on trauma.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 7, Ch 28, Ch 34
keep my “weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg” and let him know the moment he appeared (Ch 1, para 10)
Sail!” says he. “We sail tomorrow! (Ch 7, para 35)
Without are dogs and murderers.” The printed side had been blackened with wood ash, which already began to come off and soil my fingers; on the blank side had been written with the same material the one word “Depposed. (Ch 29, para 42)
H17. How the comedy works. AI
Comedy arises from Silver's charm and quick thinking (c8: he talks his way out of suspicion), the mutineers' superstition (c32: they fear Flint's ghost), and Jim's youthful boldness (c25 to 26: he commands the ship). Humour undercuts danger rather than replacing it.
Chapters: Ch 8, Ch 25, Ch 28, Ch 32
by the time the two men had come back out of breath and confessed that they had lost the track in a crowd, and been scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver. (Ch 8, para 32)
God save the king!” said I, waving my cap. “And there’s an end to Captain Silver! (Ch 25, para 28)
There was an echo. Now, no man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow; well then, what’s he doing with an echo to him, I should like to know? That ain’t in natur’, surely? (Ch 32, para 27)
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