Captain Blood: His Odyssey [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Rafael Sabatini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2004

Abounding with adventure, color, romance, and strong social commentary on the evils of slavery and the dangers of intolerance, this classic adventure is a story about how oppression drives men to desperate actions, how fate plays a hand in everyone's life, and how love is ultimately the greatest power of all.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This title is immediately recognizable as the basis for Michael Curtiz's 1935 film starring Errol Flynn. At the time of its 1922 debut, however, the book was a smash hit and was followed up with additional adventures of swashbuckler Peter Blood in numerous sequels. A salty dose of high-seas adventure for all fiction collections, this is the most affordable edition currently available.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Glorious . . . I never enjoyed a novel more than Captain Blood."
-- Norman Mailer

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 538 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (June 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786265663
• ISBN-13: 978-0786265664
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,185,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertainment on Every Page, May 31, 2003

By 

Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Captain Blood (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Rafael Sabatini struggled for years as a writer before striking it big with his fabulous historical fiction stories. His breakthrough, according to the elaborate introduction written by Gary Hoppenstand, came with "Scaramouche: A Romance of the French Revolution" in 1921. Immediately following this novel was "Captain Blood: An Odyssey." These two books alone sealed Sabatini's success with an audience hungry for adventure tales. Hoppenstand argues that Sabatini's fictional endeavors fed an increasing appetite amongst low level industrial workers for stories that placed the little guy against the vested interests (in this case, a wronged man turns pirate and fights back against upper class nobles and landowners), but the story works just as well as an adventure story. Penguin Classics has graciously reprinted "Captain Blood" for the modern reader, and deserves a hearty round of applause for bringing this great yarn to our attention.

The only thing Irishman Peter Blood wants is to be left alone. A trained physician living in Bridgewater, England in the 17th century, Blood spends his days healing the sick, smoking his pipe, and reminiscing about his ten-year stint as an adventurer throughout Europe. When the Duke of Monmouth organizes a rebellion against the tyranny of James Stuart, the King of England, Blood refuses to have anything to do with it despite suffering the abuse of those locals who wholeheartedly support the campaign. Blood's undoing comes when he assists an injured rebel after the royal army crushes the upstarts. Blood sees no contradiction in offering aid to an injured man, but the English soldiers who arrest him insist he is a traitor to the Stuart monarchy. They charge Blood for his "crimes" and sentence him to death by hanging. After commuting the sentence to ten years of slavery on the island of Barbados, the English transport Blood and a few rebels into the hands of the treacherous Colonel Bishop, a sugar plantation owner and a ruthless thug who sees nothing wrong with using stocks, whips, and other threatening devices to control his slaves.

The story rapidly takes off from this point, as Blood escapes and embarks on a career as a pirate. He raids Spanish treasure ships in the Caribbean while pining for Bishop's pretty niece Arabella. Sabatini introduces us to a whole host of despicable characters, from Spanish Admiral Don Esteban, a French pirate named Lavasseur, and a French general named Rivarol who all present a threat to Peter at one time or another. Blood dupes them all through a series of adventures on sea and land. Through it all this Irish pirate never loses sight of his goals: to clear his name and return to England, and to woo Arabella Bishop.

The most notable aspect of this novel is the writing style employed by Sabatini. This guy really knows how to tell a tale, and his language is rich, ornate, and deeply descriptive. His technique seems more 19th century than early 20th. The texture of Sabatini's language adds considerably to the story without becoming too overweening. In a time when language became more functional and therefore less complex, Sabatini strove for authenticity by using older words and lengthier terminology. It works, and it works well in a chronicle about 17th century pirates by making the reader feel as though this story really is from another time.

Sabatini also wrote historical biographies about the Spanish Inquisition and Cesare Borgia, which give Sabatini the knowledge to place Blood in the proper historical context. The year 1688 makes an appearance towards the end of the story, and if you know anything about what happened in England at that time you can probably figure out what implications it had for Peter Blood. In short, this blending of the real and the imaginary continually shapes the events in the novel, thus making the story more realistic. The references to real life people also give the book a halo of respectability.

A few improbabilities mar the otherwise pristine veneer of "Captain Blood." There are certain battles that take place on the high seas that would make it impossible for Blood to accomplish the sort of things he pulls off. The total evilness of the pirate captain's foes presents a few problems as well. The Spanish Admiral Don Esteban, for example, assumes a Captain Ahab like attitude towards Blood after the pirate repeatedly defies the Spanish fleet. It seems unlikely that Esteban would resort to blatant piracy himself to seek personal revenge against one criminal. Despite these few small problems, the story's great style, engaging adventures, and historical accuracy builds a yarn both fascinating and entertaining.

I was about half way through the book before I realized that this is my first pirate adventure novel. What a way to start! I enjoyed it thoroughly on a purely entertainment level, and after reading one book by Rafael Sabatini I would definitely read another. "Captain Blood" is a great way to pass a few hours and undeniably beats spending a like amount of time watching mindless sitcoms on television.

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Library Binding is not all it seems, May 20, 2000

By 

Zeta Thompson "Zeta Thompson" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captain Blood (Library Binding)

I have loved Sabatini ever since I read The Sea Hawk in 7th grade. His stories are full of swashbuckling and high adventure. I hadn't read Captain Blood for a while, so I took it out of the library. I remembered how much I loved it, so I went down to the book store to order it in hardback to add to my collection. Imagine my surprise to discover that it may be library binding, but not edition. The book has been edited. Whole scenes cut that sometimes may seem incidental when they occur, but actually contribute in some way to the character development and choices made by the character. I would not advise buying this edition if you are a fan of the book. If you have seen the movie and just want to know what the book was really like, there is enough in there to give the flavor. But I advise all Sabatini fans to avoid it and look for an unabridged copy.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars clever and courageous - captain blood, July 14, 2005

By 

H. D. Nichols (huntington, wv) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Captain Blood (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

i woke up one bright spring day and went to work. i sat at my desk mourning the misspent youth that landed in me in my ergonomic chair in front of a radiant cancer box. i had an epiphany. i wanted to read about pirates. i rousted my boyfriend out of bed with several jangling rings of the telphone and begged him to go to the library and get me lots and lots of pirate books that i could drown my sorrows in when i returned from another grueling day at work. didn't seem like a major life event at the time.... not until i started reading about captain blood. the first book i read was "the fortunes of captain blood." my life hasn't been the same since.

captain blood is one of the most amazing characters i've ever known. we spent several days together on the high seas escaping from the spanish armada. we spent countless nights enjoying carribean rum and rescuing damsels in distress.

amazing how books written over half a century before i was born have been able to capture my imagination. i tried wearing an eyepatch while drinking lots of rum, but i got really dizzy and ended up with a bad headache. guess i'll just stick to reading about pirates. nice girls do needlepoint; they don't try to act like pirates.. at least that's what grandma says.