Publisher's Synopsis
Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857) is a novel written by Scottish author RM Ballantyne. One of the first works of youth fiction to feature exclusively youth heroes, the story recounts the adventures of three abandoned children on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck. A typical Robinsonade - a fictional genre inspired by Daniel Defoe 's Robinson Crusoe - and one of the most popular of its kind, the book went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. Among the novel's main themes are the civilizing 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 reversed the morality of The Coral Island; In Ballantyne's story children find 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 suggested reading lists in high school. Modern critics consider the book's worldview to be outdated and imperialistic, but although less popular today, The Coral Island was adapted into a four-part children's television drama broadcast on ITV in 2000.
