Customer Reviews

A General History of the Pyrates (Dover Maritime)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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This is the most complete and authoratative version of the General History that you'll be able to find. It contains both Volume 1 and Volume 2 and is superbly edited with extensive footnotes and a graceful treatment of the language. It preserves the eighteenth-century feel while making some subtle changes in spelling and punctuation to make it more comprehensive to us. Also, Volume 2 originally contained an appendix with corrections and additions to the biographies contained in Volume 1; this edition places those sections with the chapters in Volume 1 to which they correspond, and indicates clearly when this has been done. A word of warning: Defoe sometimes takes off on long tangents that digress quite far from the subject at hand, and these sections have not been ommitted; but as a reader I personally appreciate the editor letting me decide which parts I do or do not wish to read.

As a point of interest, I originally sought out this edition because it's the same one that David Cordingly used to write his excellent book Under the Black Flag. I highly recommend it for anyone seriously interested in piratology, history or literature.

Pyrates, when we think of them we think of good for nothing brutes who plagued the seas and made they're prisoners walk the plank, in fact it's far from the truth. First of all let me point out that the plank walking is a myth and that most pyrates were not blood thirsty murderers. Daniel DeFoe wrote an excellent book, he gives you enough background on the person or place, before you read about him or it. Pirates for the most part were saillors who had lost they're jobs after the big wars, and turned to robbing the great ships like the Great Monghol's vessels of silver, gold, fabrics, spices and goods. All the captains especially Blackbeard(yes there really was a blackbeard) have great and colorful personalities and backgrounds. My favorite story in here would have to be the sad story of Cpt. Thomas Tew, one of the bravest pyrates ever, why should I tell you his story, read it for yourself, it's tragic and inspiring a great read. For an interesting piece of work, filled with alot of information and short stories look no further than Daniel Defoe's: A Genereal history of pyrates.

While excellent, this book is the same volume also published under the name of Captain Johnson, sold in a different edition, with a different cover, etc. I was in a rush to read several authentic pirate stories, and bought both books. Don't make the mistake I did!

This book contains short biographies of pirates. It was first published in 1724, but these stories read fast despite the antiquated language. The biographies focus on the most interesting parts of each pirate's life instead of dry facts. There are plenty of more "serious" facts here, but the biography goes into more detail just when the reader is getting curious. So we are told any interesting anecdotes about each pirate in the course of reading their biographies.

For example the biography of Anne Bonny tells about her life and exploits as a pirate. But we also are treated to a description of the bedroom farce by which Anne's mother, a household servant, was discovered by the lady of the house to be having an affair with the man of the house. She caught the maid accidentally because of a prank involving spoons hidden in the bed sheets. This event doesn't take place during Anne's life. (It involves her conception, and leads into why her father left for the New World.) But really we are told about it because it is a good entertaining story.

So this book is highly readable and entertaining despite the language. This is a good book for you if you are into pirates, history, or the adventure genre (this book is factual, but it inspired many fictions).

Yes, Kevin, it was written by Captain Johnson. And Defoe. Johnson was one of Defoe's pennames.

This book truly is the definitive work; while there is a lot of 18th century mythology sprinkled without, it's easy to pick through. Many of the characters in this book lived during Defoe's lifetime, making their stories fairly recent to his ears. It's fascinating to read about these pirates in the context in which they were presented to their contemporaries.

This book is written in a different kind of English than we what are used to. As such, this book is amazing. Filled to the brim with pirate information, boat information, etc, this is a good book for anyone who really is interested in pirates.
For those who are interested in pirates purely at a humorous level, this isn't the book you should go with. This is packed with real information in older English, and is really intended for those who wish to know more about pirates and how they lived.

This book helped my understanding of pirates greatly! I recommend to anyone who is interested in trying to know more about those scalawags of the sea.

The dearth of primary sources have encouraged "scholars" to grasp onto the Furbanks / Owens short de-atrribution, which is basically an ad hominem attack against the preeminent 20th century Defoe scholar Moore. The tales in this book are wild and outlandish, much like Defoe's life. Full of get-rich quick schemes, bankruptcy, and being pilloried, he did not lack for his own source material. So enjoy the tales, picture a proto-democracy where illiterate desperate men create "articles" of piracy that would make a modern day attorney proud, read some more Defoe and make up your own mind. Clear sailing!

The author has done a wonderful job outlining the life and times of the men and women who ruled the high seas during the 17th and 18th centuries. I found a great deal of historical facts that I had not been able to find in other texts. lifesytles and philosophies of the pirates are described in great detail.

This is a great book for either academic research or just for those who want to learn more about what life was really like as a pirate!

If you are a fan of Defoe and want to read about pirates in their heyday then this is the book you need. It was published under the name of Captain Charles Johnson, presumably to protect its author from the retaliation of ones such as Captain Avery - then in England - whose case the book deals with first. Avery had had a play written about or by him called The Successful Pirate, and a book called The King of the Pirates, and this A General History of the Pyrates is a scathing attack against their pretentions. Because of his history as a pirate Avery would not have been able to visit the naval records office to check up on his adversary, hence the security and reason presumably for the name. Subsequent research in the naval records have shown that no such fish as Captain Charles Johnson had existed. His name is fictional.

A possible explanation for why this book was published under that name is that at the time there was a hack playwright named Charles Johnson who is suspected of having written Avery's play and possibly also his book The King of The Pirates. If so, the name Captain Charles Johnson here would have been to mock this author and subvert any such pretence.

The American Defoe scholar John Robert Moore identified A General History of the Pyrates as being Defoe's and it certainly adds to his tally of great works.

In 1988 a couple of so-called scholars dismissed Moore's attribution on the grounds that the style was not the same as in The Pirate Gow or The King Of Pirates, both of which have been attributed to Defoe. However neither of these books are alike in style (The Pirate Gow is at least good journalism) and certainly the King of Pirates doesn't resemble Defoe's style or his character, while this one (Volume One anyway) does. Moore was a fan and an expert and he has to be right.

The author has done a wonderful job outlining the life and times of the men and women who ruled the high seas during the 17th and 18th centuries. I found a great deal of historical facts that I had not been able to find in other texts. lifesytles and philosophies of the pirates are described in great detail.

This is a great book for either academic research or just for those who want to learn more about what life was really like as a pirate!