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A review by hayesstw
The Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne
3.0
I think I read this some time in my childhood, but had lost my copy long ago, and when I saw a copy on the toss-out counter of a church bookshop I picked it up and re-read it, mainly in order to compare it with [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512], whose plot I do remember, though I first read it a long time ago too.
I had often heard it said that [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512] was a kind of realistic retelling of the story of [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233], but it was only on re-reading the latter that I realised that the two main characters had the same names. And I also realised how much I had forgotten of the story. Virtually the only thing I recalled was my mental picture of the island on which they landed, and I had a vague recollection that the boys in [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233] were a bit older.
What I had completely forgotten was the extent to which [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233] deals with Christian mission and missionaries, especially in the second part, and that links with a current project of mine, on missiology in fiction, which was sparked off by reading Things fall apart | Notes from underground about a month ago.
The main difference between the two island books, it seems to me, is the age of the characters -- teenagers in [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233], doing resourceful teenage things that could have come out of [b:Scouting for Boys|947104|Scouting for Boys A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship|Robert Baden-Powell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347732999s/947104.jpg|932032], if the latter had been published by then. [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512] has pre-teen children, less resourceful, more easily distracted. And where The Coral Island has savages becoming civilised, thanks to the influence of missionaries, Lord of the Flies has the civilised becoming savages, in the absence of such influences.
The comparison is quite interesting, but I'll say no more here, lest I introduce spoilers. But it would be interesting to read them one after the other, and to follow both up with [b:A High Wind in Jamaica|188458|A High Wind in Jamaica|Richard Hughes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388190660s/188458.jpg|2166961].
I had often heard it said that [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512] was a kind of realistic retelling of the story of [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233], but it was only on re-reading the latter that I realised that the two main characters had the same names. And I also realised how much I had forgotten of the story. Virtually the only thing I recalled was my mental picture of the island on which they landed, and I had a vague recollection that the boys in [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233] were a bit older.
What I had completely forgotten was the extent to which [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233] deals with Christian mission and missionaries, especially in the second part, and that links with a current project of mine, on missiology in fiction, which was sparked off by reading Things fall apart | Notes from underground about a month ago.
The main difference between the two island books, it seems to me, is the age of the characters -- teenagers in [b:The Coral Island|226800|The Coral Island|R.M. Ballantyne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343840889s/226800.jpg|2167233], doing resourceful teenage things that could have come out of [b:Scouting for Boys|947104|Scouting for Boys A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship|Robert Baden-Powell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347732999s/947104.jpg|932032], if the latter had been published by then. [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512] has pre-teen children, less resourceful, more easily distracted. And where The Coral Island has savages becoming civilised, thanks to the influence of missionaries, Lord of the Flies has the civilised becoming savages, in the absence of such influences.
The comparison is quite interesting, but I'll say no more here, lest I introduce spoilers. But it would be interesting to read them one after the other, and to follow both up with [b:A High Wind in Jamaica|188458|A High Wind in Jamaica|Richard Hughes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388190660s/188458.jpg|2166961].