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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In my Top Ten books of all time,
By
This review is from: Captain From Castile: The Best-Selling Historical Epic (Paperback)
I love this book completely. I found it in a used bookstore when I was thirteen (1993) and completely fell under its spell. It's an incredibly EPIC and rich tale, following Pedro de Vargas from the Spanish Inquisition at home to the New World, with lots of drama and swashbuckling in between. I must have read this yearly through early high school. However, it has probably sat on my shelf for the last 6 or 7 years, which is a tragedy. (Confession time: I am a NUT for historical epics, in both literature and film, I love the grandure, the sweeping scale, the broad vistas). Recently, I was gripped by a need to partake in something EPIC so I pulled this off the shelf and it's been such a delightful ride, again. I've been long enough removed from the story that, while it is familiar, I am still in suspense for all but the largest of plot twists. I'm so glad that this is being published again. This was written in the 40s and deserves a chance at a new audience.
After re-reading this recently, I found that it is even BETTER than I remembered. The story is so rich and complex...warm fuzzies! I stayed up WAY TOO LATE last night trying to get past all the "tense" moments so I could get some sleep. UG! But then, there were only twenty pages left so I stopped because I didn't want it to be over just yet. It was very interesting seeing the 16th Century Spaniards' sentiments toward the Native Americans, and then Shellabarger (the author) as an "enlightened" 1930's male trying to justify/explain them. Yet, the author had NO ISSUE with his characters' treatment of women. While several of the female characters are much more than dish rags (yay!) the concept of beating a woman into obedience is treated as an acceptable solution. I had forgotten that part and how it had rankled me during my readings of this a dozen years ago. Still, it's a tiny 2 page blight on a 500 page great adventure.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you love historical adventure....,
By A Customer
This review is from: Captain from Castile (Hardcover)
...you'll love this book! I have to agree with "No from Seattle." This is one of my five all-time favorites as well. I first read it about 35 years ago when I was a kid, and have re-read it probably 5-6 times since (it's pretty intense and not a once-a-year read). Its compelling characters, graphic and historically accurate account of the Inquisition and the Conquest, heroes and villains, tough hombres and scoundrels, are no less real to me now than they were 35 years ago. Pedro de Vargas has been my archetypical hero since my first read, and few others have matched or exceeded him in my mind. Cortez was every bit as complex in reality as he is portrayed in the book, and the Conquistadores' audacity and greed in believing that a few hundred men could conquer a martial civilazation was realistically and breathtakingly portrayed. The period in Tenochtitlan is portrayed in a detail rarely seen anywhere else, including in histories I've been inspired to read as a result of this book. The account of the Sad Night was grim, desperate, and exciting. The author's descriptions of the Aztecs, a tough warrior race with a strange mixture of brutality and beauty, gave me a much better sense of the high culture present in North America when the Europeans arrived. And of course we can't forget the romantic storyline - enough to satisfy any romance addict. Be warned - the movie doesn't really do the book justice: it only covers about the first half of the story, with a contrived ending, and Tyrone Power was a little too old and a little too wooden to play Pedro de Vargas with conviction. But don't let that stop you from reading this book! It has to be one of the all-time great adventure stories.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read swashbuckler,
By Kara Ortiez (Hamilton, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Captain From Castile: The Best-Selling Historical Epic (Paperback)
"On the evening of June 28th, 1518, young Pedro de Vargas, aged nineteen, confessed his sins of the month to Father Juan Mendez."
So begins Captain from Castile, a great adventure set in Renaissance era Spain. Pedro de Vargas is an eminently likable young man who gets by through quick thinking and a deft hand. The story is quick paced, taking the reader on a journey that leaps from imprisonment in the dungeons of the Inquisition, to the invasion and conquest of Mexico to intrigues in the court of Emperor Charles V. The treatment of the native populations may come across as dated but definitely true to the views of the 1500s. This is pure swashbuckling action written at a time when Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn ruled the box office. Swashbuckler fans won't be disappointed with this book.
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