The Coral Island are, in his own words, "adventure stories for young folks", and "The Coral Island" is no exception. It is a Robinsonade, a genre of fiction inspired by Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1719), one of the most popular of its type, and one of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes. Susan Maher, professor of English, notes that in comparison to "Robinson Crusoe" such books generally replaced some of the original's romance with a "pedestrian realism", exemplified by works such as "The Coral Island" and Frederick Marryat's 1841 novel "Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific".
The Island Queen (novel) islands of Oceania. The novel's major themes include 19th century British imperialism, the value of Christianity, and the development of social hierarchies. Ballantyne published the novel after having moved from Edinburgh to Harrow, a north London borough, to allow his children to finish school in 1873. The novel begins with the Rigonda family and two men aboard a castaway ship somewhere in the south Pacific. The family finds a hidden cache of food and they land safely on a nearby island. After finding shelter they set out to explore the island. They soon find that everything they need seems to