Each time I reread an old favorite, I start with the idea of focusing on some different aspect of the story or a writing technique than I have in the past. Last week, during my annual re-reading of Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece, Treasure Island, I wanted to specifically focus on something that I have noticed before but never spent much time exploring: specifically the weird brevity of the stockade battle scene in Chapter 21 (“The Attack”).

It has always felt to me quite compressed, even abrupt, compared to how carefully Stevenson sets it up. As the text says, “in a breath of time… the fight was over.”

Doing a deeper dive into this, I see that it is a topic that many have noticed and commented on over the years. Here are some examples from various critics:

“The story is told with a rapidity and economy that never waste a word, and the excitement is all the greater for it.” ~J.B. Priestly

“Stevenson’s genius lies in compression—he gives us the essence of adventure without padding or delay.” ~Frank McGlynn

“Stevenson’s action scenes are not extended set pieces but swift, almost abrupt climaxes.” ~ Ian Ousby

“The fighting is rendered in flashes rather than in sustained description, as if seen in moments of heightened perception.” ~John Sutherland

As a reader, I specifically resonate with McLynn’s quote about Stevenson avoiding “padding or delay.”

I have mentioned here before, in reviewing books, that I have come to believe that no novel should be more than 240 pages. The only reason most novels these days are longer than that is NOT a literary decision, but a marketing one. If you are going to ask people to shell out $20.00–$30.00 for a new book, the marketing people say bigger is better. You want to make sure that people feel like they are getting a lot for their money.

Pick up any novel written in the last 30–40 years, and I bet you could make it better by trimming it down to 240 pages or less. How much of most books is just “padding and delay”?

But please be warned: once you begin to notice this, reading most contemporary fiction becomes very difficult. And before you know it, you are re-reading the great classics like Treasure Island.