Customer Reviews

Captain Blood

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I resisted at first, because the title was hokey. I was hooked halfway down the first page. Sabatini has a way of taking a time of wind-powered ships, black powder cannons, iron cutlasses, antique political causes, and beautiful, somewhat flowery speech patterns, and making them exciting, and fast, and immediate. You can stop on every page and the words will paint pictures in your mind. I was thrilled to find this book available again, and in hardcover. My 1940 edition is getting pretty fragile. But that edition has something this new one doesn't. Across the bottom of the cover it says "Complete and Unabridged". And the new one isn't. I found the first act of vandalism on page 6.

When my family moved into a new home when I was only 13, we found that the previous tenants had left a copy of this novel behind. And that is how I first met Peter Blood, one of the most intriguing characters in fiction. I don't know how many times I read that book as a teenager, but years later I acquired another copy and have read it several more times. I have never been disappointed in it.Dr. Peter Blood would probably have been content to spend the rest of his life in his quiet medical practice and tending his geraniums, but when he treats a patient who happens to be a revolutionist, he is charged with treason, is almost hanged, and is instead sent as a bond slave to Jamaica. There he is sold to plantation owner Col. Bishop, whose daughter Arabella takes a special interest in him. When the crew of a Spanish ship sacks the town, Blood leads some of his fellow slaves as they steal aboard the ship and capture it. Thus Capt. Blood becomes a pirate, a very noble one, but one who is sought by both the Spanish and the English. He names the ship the Arabella, and he cannot forget the lovely lady whose slave he had been. The ensuing story of Blood's fantastic career is one of the best sea stories ever written, and the love story is equal to it. I can't imagine any reader not becoming thoroughly engrossed in this excellent novel. And if you like this one and want to meet a character who is almost Blood's equal, try Sabatini's great novel of the French Revolution, SCARAMOUCHE.

Remember when you were a kid and first discovered the time machine-like power of a book to transport you to distant centuries and places? Remember the hours you spent gloriously lost in its magical pages? Well yes, you CAN go home again and will when you enter the world of Rafael Sabatini, a historical fiction writer's writer if ever there was one.

CAPTAIN BLOOD is old-school adventure with a modern sensibility. By that I mean, Sabatini understands that romantic swashbuckling heroes must be realistic, too, and that his plot and fiction must be leavened with the truth of history for it to come off just right. In reading this book, then, you will learn something about the useful role of piracy and buccaneering in the Caribbean during the 17th century. No mere pawns on an oceanic chessboard, these pirates and privateers were players of substance in the war games and skirmishes between the nautical heavyweights of those days -- England, France, and Spain.

In addition to a completely engaging hero and a plot even short-attention spanned young readers can embrace, CAPTAIN BLOOD offers outstanding characterization and insight into mankind's cupidity, ambition, and thirst for power. Sabatini shows the so-called "respectable" nobles of the European countries to be every bit as bloodthirsty and criminal as the pirates they hunt down and despise, and CAPTAIN BLOOD is the perfect vehicle with which to do it.

If you haven't tried Sabatini, you're denying yourself. This is the book! Watch a common man of uncommon ability and charisma match wits and strength, guile and subterfuge, and words of love and hate with nefarious admirals, despicable villains, a bold and beautiful woman, and high-placed European snobs all in the accurately-rendered setting of the sunny Caribbean. It'll make you feel young again (even if you're only 12), I promise!

This reading was not my first acquaintance with the redoubtable Peter Blood. I first encountered him in this gripping tale about 47 years ago in the pages of a Classics Comic book. Readers nearing their sixth decade may recall these delightful comic books, which converted serious fiction into the colored drawings and essential dialogue of comic book characters, possibly in a desperate attempt to expose youngsters to literature in some form at least. However, I cannot say that I was particularly enraptured by the story of Dr. Peter Blood at that time. Perhaps I was yet too young to have the mature imagination required to appreciate fully the exploits that are so vividly described in Sabatini's book. In any event, I have now read the "real thing" and have enjoyed my vicarious adventure aboard the Arabella tremendously.

This Penguin Classics edition also includes a highly educational introduction that helps the reader recognize and appreciate the various themes that run through this grand historical novel. While the introduction can be totally ignored and the story enjoyed just for its sea-faring, swashbuckling adventurism, a little understanding of the genre of the historical novel, of Sabatini's sources, and of the type of protagonist exemplified by the character of Peter Blood will add to that enjoyment even further. In fact, not only did I read the introduction before beginning the story itself, but I went back and re-read it after finishing the novel, appreciating its contributions to my understanding even more.

I particularly like Sabatini's own comments that are quoted in the introduction: "It is demanded of the writer of fiction, whether novelist or dramatist, that the events he sets forth shall be endowed with the quality of verisimilitude. What he writes need not necessarily be true; but, at least, it must seem to be true, so that it may carry that conviction without which interest fails to be aroused." This reminds me of Coleridge's admonition that the successful reader of poetry must enforce a "willing suspension of disbelief" in order to mentally join with the author in the shared experience of writing and reading. In the case of Captain Blood, suspending disbelief is in no way a challenge. This historical novel, skillfully intermixing the factual and the fanciful, the real and the imagined, the history and the fiction, is a believable yet romantic tale straight from the Golden Age of Piracy on the High Seas.

What is amazing to me is that Captain Blood has, at the moment I write this, only about 20 or so reader reviews posted, while a modern novel I recently read, Ahab's Wife, has some 171 reviews! The pity of it is that Ahab's Wife is a poorly written, shallow, superficial sort of thing that will be hardly remembered 82 years from now, while Captain Blood remains as vigorous, exciting and enthralling a read as when it was first published 82 years ago. Why do we so often overlook the excellent-nay, say rather the outstanding-books that were laid in our laps before we were even born while we waste time with artificial garbage cranked out by modern hack writers?

The beauty of Sabatini's Captain Blood is that it is timeless. It will be as exciting for your grandchildren to read as it will be for you, and it will be there for theirs to read, too. This book is as modern as any can be and deserves your time to read it. I started to say "your effort," but it requires no effort to read. The suspense and action will carry you along as surely as the Caribbean winds filled the Arabella's sails and carried her effortlessly across the expanse of the sea from one glorious adventure to another.

If there is any weakness in this book where the modern reader is concerned, it is that few of us will understand Blood's occasional remarks rendered in flawless Latin. I regret that I am too ignorant to grasp the significance of those remarks, for I am certain that they hold wonderful irony and are quite meaningful in the situations in which Blood finds himself at the moment of their utterance. It would have been thoughtful of today's editor to take into account the fact that we are now largely ignorant of classical languages and to include a footnote or two translating those lines for us. Beyond this, I can levy no criticism against this edition of the novel, and I can assure you that any discerning reader who will suspend his disbelief and embrace the mythical romance of the Caribbean pirate will enjoy his time with this book.

I have 10 of the novels of Rafael Sabatini. Being a writer myself, I am constantly learning from this gentleman the proper use of the English language. Sabatini applies Occam's Razor to the language, evoking the most meaning from the fewest words. I have found myself often buried in the dictionary, looking up the meaning of wonderful, evocative words which have been forgotten in today's over-technical writing style. I have often just had to put a book of his down to figure out how he expressed this or that scene, or emotion, in so few words. Reading his novels is a writers delight!
This book is set in the late 17th century, when Spain ruled the seas of the Carribean. It is about Peter Blood, a physician who is sent as a slave to the island of Barbados, and who winds up leading a group of pirates out of Tortuga, in all sorts of interesting adventures on the sea, usually against Spanish shps.
All of Sabatini's novels are romances, and this is no exception. Peter Blood is a man of intelligence and refinement, holding a high sense of honor, and Sabatini makes you really like and identify with the character.
I had my atlas out while reading this one and learned all about the Carribbean and its islands, the Spanish Main, and naval warfare.
This is a delightful, superbly written book,a real page turner.

That some authors can so quickly descend into disfavor is baffling. Consider Robert Ludlum being forgotten in fifty years.

But that was the fate of Rafael Sabatini, an author of some of the most engaging swashbuckling fiction written in the English language.

Peter Blood, a veteran of the high seas, but now a humble doctor in Bridgewater, is sold into slavery in the West Indies after an unfortunate rebellion - of which he had no direct part - in support of the duke of Monmouth. This incident is a catalyst for his metamorphosis to a bucanneer. A pirate with honor, Blood rescues ladies in distress, plunders treasure-laden ships, while preventing razing of conquered territory. His love for a woman constrains him, but will she love him back?

Sabatini offers a romance set on the high seas. Captain Blood has some similarities with his other works - the utility of knowledge, the cultured protagonist acting against his nature, and the efficacy of laughter. When Blood tells Arabella, "A man must sometimes laugh at himself or go mad," it is faintly reminiscent of the opening line of Bellarion, Sabatini's famous novel.

An engaging read, The Odyssey of Captain Blood, though less imposing than a Dumas, offers a wonderful way to spend time.

Having finished Scaramouche not long ago, I looked forward to reading another Sabatini adventure tale. The writing is standard Sabatini. It is crisp and clear and he knows how to tell a good story.

What was dissapointing is that the story has not aged well. It feels like something that was written in the 1920's. The characters lack any depth or nuance. Every thing is black and white. The story line is simplistic and predictable. Captain Blood is an Adventure Tale and not really an Adventure Novel.

I love the adventure stories of this time period (ie. Buchan, PC Wren or Ouida) but the craft and art of the adventure novel has moved far beyond Sabatinis adventure tales of the 1920's. If you are looking for good sea stories, stick with Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey and Maturin series or CS Foresters' Hornblower Series. Captain Blood is interesting because it a precursor to much greater novels.