Critical Reception
The Coral Island was widely admired by its contemporary readers, although modern critics view the text as featuring "dated Colonialist themes and arguably racist undertones". Ballantyne is today mainly remembered for The Coral Island, to the exclusion of much of his other work.
The novel was still considered a classic for English elementary-school children in the early 20th century. In the United States, it has long been a staple of suggested reading lists for high-school students; such a list, discussed in a 1915 article in The English Journal, recommends the novel in the category "Stories for Boys in Easy Style". A simplified adaptation of the book was recommended for 12–14 year olds. Although generally considered to be dated in many aspects, in 2006 it was voted one of the top twenty Scottish novels at the 15th International World Wide Web Conference.
Read more about this topic: The Coral Island
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reception:
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)