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114 reviews for:
Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
John Steinbeck
3.32 AVERAGE
114 reviews for:
Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
John Steinbeck
3.32 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Last time I read Steinbeck was in high school. As was then, as is now, I struggled with his style of writing but did enjoy the swashbuckling Henry and how he succumbed to basic human desires of greed and want.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Pirate adventure cum existential crisis. Slightly manic in some points, others slow moving and delicately detailed. This book enthralled me, maybe because it's goofy. Steinbeck is king of twentieth century white dude authors by a long shot. 5/5 for sure
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Colonisation
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
John Steinbeck is my second most read author with a total of fifteen separate titles. He's likely my favorite author because I connect the the subject of so many of his works; the poor and the downtrodden. Steinbeck tells those stories with expertise and that's one of the problems with Cup of Gold. The story of buccaneer Henry Morgan is so far removed from Steinbeck's bread and butter Depression Era story that it's almost hard to believe this is, in fact, a Steinbeck text. It's a little baffling that retelling the storied life of a pirate could be so boring but it is. I couldn't wait to get to the end.
Reading occasion: January theme - Firsts.
Reading occasion: January theme - Firsts.
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What an odd first novel. There some more serious themes and some very striking prose here and there, but they are woven into a kind of adventure story. The mixture is messy; readable, but very awkward.
Sir Henry Morgan was a famous Welsh pirate with unofficial government blessing. He put together huge fleets for major raids on fortified Spanish towns in the Americas in the 1660's, most famously raiding, in 1671, the central city in Panama where all the gold and silver from Pacific side Spanish mines was held, before transfer across the Isthmus to the Caribbean. He was called to trial in England when his raids continued despite a Spanish-English treaty, then, when the treaty collapsed, awarded a governorship in the Caribbean and knighted by Charles II. He was the subject of a contemporary biography that characterized him as a one-time indentured servant who turned himself into an infamous ruthless pirate, horribly treating the Spanish and his own men. He sued for libel and won, but the mythology has stuck. (He was likely navy sailor with connections. He had two uncles with successful military careers, and one was an English governor in the Caribbean. He married that uncle's daughter, his first cousin.)
Steinbeck is writing fiction, taking characters from his own life and putting them into this pirate story. But he pointedly ties to the real history and the mythology. This is such an odd book. There is a sort of druid priest, a dreamy lonely landlord of indentured and permanent slaves lost in this deep reading, a sort of fierce Spanish heroin who defeats our pirate with a pin used in place of a sword, and sends him into spiraling uncertainty. And this pirate, who conquers his slave owner, women, the economic barriers, and the ruthless recruits, still spirals into doubt. It's just odd. I was struck by the sense of reading a really arrogant author, like male-arrogant. It's not the kind of thing I would expect of a future Nobel Prize winner, but it is maybe revealing in ways his later works don't show.
Unlike [b:Il Filostrato|3582975|Il Filostrato|Giovanni Boccaccio|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3625231] (which I read at the same time), this comes with a terrific introduction, which I read afterward. [a:Susan F. Beegel|118022|Susan F. Beegel|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] goes into where Steinbeck was coming from with this novel, what his influences and inspirations were, what this determined author was doing in writing his first novel, and why it came out this awkward way. I think I found this better than the book. It's here I learned that this is essentially an allegory of some dark aspects of American capitalism, the 1920's robber barons being the contemporary pirates (and it was published a two months before the stock market crash).
While I'm happy to recommend Beegel's intro, I can't recommend the book. It's not terrible, but it was disappointing for me. I was toying with reading through Steinbeck's work. But I'm not sure I like the author who wrote this, and I'm not sure I will do that now.
-----------------------------------------------
51. Cup of Gold : A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History by John Steinbeck
introduction Susan F. Beegel, 2008
published: 1929
format: 227-page Penguin Classics paperback, published 2008
acquired: 2020
read: Sep 21 – Oct 23
time reading: 8:34, 2.3 mpp
rating: 3
locations: 17th-century Wales, Caribbean, Panama
about the author: 1902-1968, born in Salinas, CA
Sir Henry Morgan was a famous Welsh pirate with unofficial government blessing. He put together huge fleets for major raids on fortified Spanish towns in the Americas in the 1660's, most famously raiding, in 1671, the central city in Panama where all the gold and silver from Pacific side Spanish mines was held, before transfer across the Isthmus to the Caribbean. He was called to trial in England when his raids continued despite a Spanish-English treaty, then, when the treaty collapsed, awarded a governorship in the Caribbean and knighted by Charles II. He was the subject of a contemporary biography that characterized him as a one-time indentured servant who turned himself into an infamous ruthless pirate, horribly treating the Spanish and his own men. He sued for libel and won, but the mythology has stuck. (He was likely navy sailor with connections. He had two uncles with successful military careers, and one was an English governor in the Caribbean. He married that uncle's daughter, his first cousin.)
Steinbeck is writing fiction, taking characters from his own life and putting them into this pirate story. But he pointedly ties to the real history and the mythology. This is such an odd book. There is a sort of druid priest, a dreamy lonely landlord of indentured and permanent slaves lost in this deep reading, a sort of fierce Spanish heroin who defeats our pirate with a pin used in place of a sword, and sends him into spiraling uncertainty. And this pirate, who conquers his slave owner, women, the economic barriers, and the ruthless recruits, still spirals into doubt. It's just odd. I was struck by the sense of reading a really arrogant author, like male-arrogant. It's not the kind of thing I would expect of a future Nobel Prize winner, but it is maybe revealing in ways his later works don't show.
Unlike [b:Il Filostrato|3582975|Il Filostrato|Giovanni Boccaccio|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3625231] (which I read at the same time), this comes with a terrific introduction, which I read afterward. [a:Susan F. Beegel|118022|Susan F. Beegel|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] goes into where Steinbeck was coming from with this novel, what his influences and inspirations were, what this determined author was doing in writing his first novel, and why it came out this awkward way. I think I found this better than the book. It's here I learned that this is essentially an allegory of some dark aspects of American capitalism, the 1920's robber barons being the contemporary pirates (and it was published a two months before the stock market crash).
While I'm happy to recommend Beegel's intro, I can't recommend the book. It's not terrible, but it was disappointing for me. I was toying with reading through Steinbeck's work. But I'm not sure I like the author who wrote this, and I'm not sure I will do that now.
-----------------------------------------------
51. Cup of Gold : A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History by John Steinbeck
introduction Susan F. Beegel, 2008
published: 1929
format: 227-page Penguin Classics paperback, published 2008
acquired: 2020
read: Sep 21 – Oct 23
time reading: 8:34, 2.3 mpp
rating: 3
locations: 17th-century Wales, Caribbean, Panama
about the author: 1902-1968, born in Salinas, CA
You can tell that this is Steinbeck’s first novel because the story really is all over the place… I mean, what is Merlin (yes, the wizard from the Arthurian legends) doing in there? And the whole plot about the woman saint? A much better title would have been “A life of sir Henry Morgan, whiny child who thinks he’s a buccaneer”
And people actually thought that this was non fiction! Kinda sounds like I didn’t enjoy it, but the writing was good of course and there were some enjoyable bits here and there. If Steinbeck would have been able to rewrite it, I think it could have been a 5 star book.
And people actually thought that this was non fiction! Kinda sounds like I didn’t enjoy it, but the writing was good of course and there were some enjoyable bits here and there. If Steinbeck would have been able to rewrite it, I think it could have been a 5 star book.