Mapping axel heyst's island: the limits of allegory in Conrad's victory

Abstract

Readers of Treasure Island may remember Stevenson's observation that his novel grew up around the treasure map he had one day draw in a mood of daydream. The map preceeded and incited his prose, providing not only atmosphere, but stimulus for plot. Thus Jim Hawkins discovers Stevenson's map (attributed to Captain Flint) in Billy Bones' tarry trunk, and the game is afoot. Having invented such places as the anchorage, the stockade, Spyglass Hill and the like, the author was at pains to connect them in a story that converges in time as well as space at the X that marks the spot of Flint's silver.