《金银岛》是史蒂文森最成功的作品之一。据说这是因他偶然看到一张海岛图而触发灵感，完全凭借虚构而写成的。小说通过少年吉姆·霍金斯的经历，讲述了一个惊险曲折的冒险故事。为了夺取老海盗弗林特藏在金银岛上的财宝，以乡绅特里劳尼和斯莫利特船长为代表的正面人物与以西尔弗为首的海盗们展开了一场惊心动魄的斗争。《金银岛》虽是一个虚构的故事，但情节曲折，悬念迭起，使读者起来如身临其境，而且，本书开创了探宝小说的先河，并成为此类作品的经典。

《金银岛》讲述的是浪漫而奇险的海上寻宝故事。一日，少年吉姆·霍金梦见宝藏和海上历险。没过几天，他就从一位生命垂危的水手彭斯的手中得到藏宝图，他与乡绅屈利劳尼、医生李福西等一道乘船去寻找南方的宝岛。然而，海盗头目西尔弗及其手下也一道上船。原来，这笔价值70万英镑的宝藏是已故海盗船长弗林特留下的，他的爪牙还在，他们也在觊觎这宗财宝，于是，一场惊心动魄的夺宝大战由此展开。

这虽是一本写给孩子们的书，但小说题材新颖，情节变幻莫测，尤其是几个主要人物性格鲜明生动，即使是海盗西尔弗，也并不脸谱化，因而，这部小说自诞生以来一直深受各年龄层读者的喜爱，并多次被手搬上银幕。

PART ONE The Old Buccaneer

 1 The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow

 2 Black Dog Appears and Disappears

 3 The Black Spot

 4 The Sea-chest

 5 The Last of the Blind Man

 6 The Captain's Papers

 71 Go to Bristol

PART TWO The Sea-cook

 8 At the Sign of the Spy-glass

 9 Powder and Arms

 10 The Voyage

 11 What I Heard in the Apple Barrel

 12 Council of War

PART THREE My Shore Adventure

 13 How My Shore Adventure Began

 14 The First Blow

 15 The Man of the Island

PART FOUR The Stockade

 16 Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship was Abandoned

 17 Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat's Last Trip

 18 Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day's Fighting

 19 Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade

 20 Silver's Embassy

 21 The Attack

PART FIVE My Sea Adventure

 22 How My Sea Adventure Began

 23 The Ebb-tide Runs

 24 The Cruise of the Coracle

 25 1 Strike the Jolly Roger

 26 Israel Hands

 27 'Pieces of Eighty'

PART SIX Captain Silver

 28 In the Enemy's Camp

 29 The Black Spot Again

 30 On Parole

 31 The Treasure-hunt--Flint's Pointer

 32 The Treasure-hunt--The Voice Among the Trees.

 33 The Fall of a Chieftain

 34 And Last

  He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hunground the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope;all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fireceand drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he wouldnot speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierceand blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and thepeople who came about our house soon learned to let himbe. Every day when he came back from his stroll he wouldask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At firstwe thought it was the want of company of his own kind thatmade him ask this question, but at last we began to see hewas desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did put up atthe Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did, making bythe coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him throughthe curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he wasalways sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such waspresent. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter,for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken measide one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the firstof every month if I would only keep my 'weather-eye open fora seafaring man with one leg' and let him know the momenthe appeared. Often enough when the first of the month cameround and I applied to him for my wage, he would onlyblow through his nose at me and stare me down, but beforethe week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring memy four-penny piece. and repeat his orders to look out for .theseafaring man with one leg.'

 How that personage haunted my dreams. I need scarcelytell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the fourcorners of the house and the surf roared along the cove andup the cliffs. I would see him in a thousand forms, and witha thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cutoff at the knee. now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kindof a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that inthe middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursueme over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. Andaltogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpennypiece. in the shape of these abominable fancies.

 But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaringman with one leg. I was far less afraid of the captain himselfthan anybody else who knew him. There were nights whenhe took a deal more rum and water than his head wouldcarry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked.old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes hewould call for glasses round and force all the tremblingcompany to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to hissinging. Often I have heard the house shaking with 'Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum,. all the neighbours joining in fordear life. with the fear of death upon them, and each singinglouder than the other to avoid remark.   P4-5