The Coral Island - Influence

Influence

Robert Louis Stevenson's 1882 novel Treasure Island was in part inspired by The Coral Island, which Stevenson admired for its "better qualities". William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies was written as a counterpoint to (or even a parody of) The Coral Island. Despite having enjoyed the book many times as a child, Golding strongly disagreed with the views that it espoused, and in contrast Lord of the Flies depicts the English boys as savages themselves, who forget more than they learn, unlike Ballantyne's boys. Golding described the relationship between the two books by saying that The Coral Island "rotted to compost" in his mind, and in the compost "a new myth put down roots".

The Coral Island was adapted into a children's television series in a joint venture between Thames Television and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1980, first shown on British television in 1983. The novel was also adapted into a four-part children's television drama by Zenith Productions, broadcast by ITV in 2000.

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