Captain Blood (Unabridged Classic Edition)

Rafael Sabatini struggled for years as a writer before striking it big with his fabulous historical fiction stories. His breakthrough came with "Scaramouche" in 1921. Immediately following this novel was "Captain Blood." These two books alone sealed Sabatini's success with an audience hungry for adventure tales. 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 fighting back against upper class nobles and landowners), but the story works just as well as an adventure story. After commuting Blood's prison sentence to ten years of slavery on the island of Barbados, the English transport him 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. Sabatini really knew how to tell a tale, and his language is rich, ornate, and deeply descriptive. His technique seems more 19th century than early 20th. 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. All in all, the story's great style, engaging adventures, and historical accuracy builds a yarn both fascinating and entertaining.