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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
This is a book about pirates, treasure, swordfights, betrayal, cannonballs, Caribbean islands, the roaring main, and ladies in fetching corsets.
The last thing you'd expect from such a book is for it to get tiresome and repetitive, to trudge through the same formulaic episodes again and again, to gloss over the kick-ass rapier duels in order to linger on the minutiae of colonial administration - and yet this is what happens.
Here's every chapter of this book, pretty much: Captain Blood is in a sticky situation. Nobody thinks he can get out of it alive. Captain Blood comes up with a plan just crazy enough to work. The plan works. Everyone talks about how amazing Captain Blood is.
This is great the first few times. But the protagonist's relentless suavity and brilliance starts to get old, and eventually becomes downright irritating. I mean, this guy can do no wrong. From his piercing blue eyes (described in numerous faintly erotic passages) to his impeccable fashion sense, from his unerring eye for strategy to his skills as a miracle healer, Peter Blood is perfect.
He can't lose a fight. Two seventy-gun Spanish warships? No problem, consider those puppies sunk. Invincible stone fortress? Flattened. Drunken pirate king with a cutlass? Dead in two sentences.
It starts to get ludicrous. Captain Blood is eloquent, handsome, and has a finely calibrated sense of honor. His enemies are unfailingly ugly, vicious, small-minded brutes. And then there's the love interest, Arabella, as boring as she is "slim, cool, and beautiful."
Captain Blood is a good read for putting in context why writers and readers turned increasingly over the course of the 20th century toward the flawed, fallible hero (or in some cases anti-hero). He or she is much more interesting. Captain Blood, vaulting from triumph to triumph despite the odds stacked against him, quickly grows dull.
That said, you can also see why this book has survived when most of its ilk are forgotten. Sabatini is a better-than-average writer in the adventure genre, though he expends most of his energy in long scenes of two men declaiming angrily at one another, or the aforementioned hot-and-bothered descriptions of Captain Blood. And it's a prototypical pirate adventure tale, employing every sturdy cliche - in fact, it's probably responsible for creating a lot of those cliches.
Suggested further reading would be Richard Hughes' [b: A High Wind in Jamaica|188458|A High Wind in Jamaica|Richard Hughes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388190660s/188458.jpg|2166961], written about seven years later, which subverts every expectation of the pirate genre while still involving lots of bloodshed, subterfuge, and seafaring.
The last thing you'd expect from such a book is for it to get tiresome and repetitive, to trudge through the same formulaic episodes again and again, to gloss over the kick-ass rapier duels in order to linger on the minutiae of colonial administration - and yet this is what happens.
Here's every chapter of this book, pretty much: Captain Blood is in a sticky situation. Nobody thinks he can get out of it alive. Captain Blood comes up with a plan just crazy enough to work. The plan works. Everyone talks about how amazing Captain Blood is.
This is great the first few times. But the protagonist's relentless suavity and brilliance starts to get old, and eventually becomes downright irritating. I mean, this guy can do no wrong. From his piercing blue eyes (described in numerous faintly erotic passages) to his impeccable fashion sense, from his unerring eye for strategy to his skills as a miracle healer, Peter Blood is perfect.
He can't lose a fight. Two seventy-gun Spanish warships? No problem, consider those puppies sunk. Invincible stone fortress? Flattened. Drunken pirate king with a cutlass? Dead in two sentences.
It starts to get ludicrous. Captain Blood is eloquent, handsome, and has a finely calibrated sense of honor. His enemies are unfailingly ugly, vicious, small-minded brutes. And then there's the love interest, Arabella, as boring as she is "slim, cool, and beautiful."
Captain Blood is a good read for putting in context why writers and readers turned increasingly over the course of the 20th century toward the flawed, fallible hero (or in some cases anti-hero). He or she is much more interesting. Captain Blood, vaulting from triumph to triumph despite the odds stacked against him, quickly grows dull.
That said, you can also see why this book has survived when most of its ilk are forgotten. Sabatini is a better-than-average writer in the adventure genre, though he expends most of his energy in long scenes of two men declaiming angrily at one another, or the aforementioned hot-and-bothered descriptions of Captain Blood. And it's a prototypical pirate adventure tale, employing every sturdy cliche - in fact, it's probably responsible for creating a lot of those cliches.
Suggested further reading would be Richard Hughes' [b: A High Wind in Jamaica|188458|A High Wind in Jamaica|Richard Hughes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388190660s/188458.jpg|2166961], written about seven years later, which subverts every expectation of the pirate genre while still involving lots of bloodshed, subterfuge, and seafaring.
This book is rather soft, it's sprinkled with quality humor and it presents rather chiseled characters. The unoriginality coming from copying the adventures of Henry Morgan is, then, to be ignored as there is still much room for improvisation between them and the author takes advantage of that. Like in [b:Scaramouche|938105|Scaramouche|Rafael Sabatini|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387767649s/938105.jpg|1370942], the author mixes quite different professions for the greater exotic impact.
This was exactly what I was looking for when I decided I wanted a story about pirates. Adventure, drama, romance: all of that.
I wish the commentary on enslavement had gone further, and some of the language might put some people off. However, I genuinely had a great time reading this. It was just really fun.
I wish the commentary on enslavement had gone further, and some of the language might put some people off. However, I genuinely had a great time reading this. It was just really fun.
4.5★
With the world in crisis, this is the sort of escapist reread I needed!
Unjustly convicted after the Monmouth rebellion for an act of humanity,Dr Peter Blood is transported to the Caribbean & becomes a slave to the cruel Colonel Bishop. The colonel has a lovely niece...
On about my tenth read I still loved this book, although it doesn't hold up to rereading as well as the author's [b:Scaramouche|938105|Scaramouche (Scaramouche, #1)|Rafael Sabatini|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387767649l/938105._SY75_.jpg|1370942] did. The hero and heroine are both appealing characters I loved the physical description of Arabella - I could see her in front of me. So far all the Sabatini's I have read have given his heroines very varied descriptions.
While there are exciting parts where I could scarcely bear to put the book down, there are also parts that drag. Sadly the heroine appears only in Peter's thoughts for large chunks of the book. I knocked half a ★ off my rating, but keep in mind if you are more a reader of the historical than the historical romance genre things that bothered me may not bother you.
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With the world in crisis, this is the sort of escapist reread I needed!
Unjustly convicted after the Monmouth rebellion for an act of humanity,Dr Peter Blood is transported to the Caribbean & becomes a slave to the cruel Colonel Bishop. The colonel has a lovely niece...
On about my tenth read I still loved this book, although it doesn't hold up to rereading as well as the author's [b:Scaramouche|938105|Scaramouche (Scaramouche, #1)|Rafael Sabatini|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387767649l/938105._SY75_.jpg|1370942] did. The hero and heroine are both appealing characters
Spoiler
although man, Blood really needs to let go! One remark by Arabella colours his actions for chapters. And chapters. And...While there are exciting parts where I could scarcely bear to put the book down, there are also parts that drag. Sadly the heroine appears only in Peter's thoughts for large chunks of the book. I knocked half a ★ off my rating, but keep in mind if you are more a reader of the historical than the historical romance genre things that bothered me may not bother you.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshessonovel.wordpress.com
adventurous
Swashing! Buckling! What a fun, light bit of entertainment. As a longtime ardent fan of the naval adventure stories of Patrick O'Brien, I was disposed to like this book. But still, it was a surprisingly enjoyable read. Or in my case listen, as I got this as an audiobook. Peter Blood is a former soldier retired to country life as a doctor in 17th century England. When called to treat a man wounded in the Monmouth Rebellion, he is arrested for treason by the king's men. Shipped to the Caribbean, he finds himself the property of a cruel landowner who happens to have a gorgeous niece. The rest of the plot is completely expected, but still enjoyable. He escapes his slavery, takes to the life of a pirate and somehow must find a way to win the lovely Arabella. Written in the 1920s, there are some nasty racist attitudes (the white slaves are terribly oppressed, noble figures; but the black slaves are beneath the author's real notice). The writing can seem pedestrian (I lost count of how many times Blood was described as having "startling blue eyes in a tawny face"), but in action and plotting, Sabatini excels. It was also filmed as great action film featuring Errol Flynn in his first starring role.
A good, simple pirate story. The love interest side plot seems to come and go at random times, and the book would benefit from a single villain, rather than rotating three or four, but memorable characters on a fun adventure makes this a great book.
A fun read! Captain Blood is impossibly admirable and dashing. It's a well-done story with clear good guys and bad guys. Sometimes that's just what a reader needs.
The book got water damage and that made me not want to continue. I decided to wait to buy a new copy because it was pretty interesting. I'm on a book buying ban rn so it might be a while before I buy it again
I was intrigued and swept up by this book immediately. Peter Blood is an entirely likeable and entertaining character. While I knew the outcome of this book from previous reading and allusion to Blood, I was still interested in finding the means to the end. The adventures read like a comic book – with action and deception working hand in hand to further Blood’s career. I was rooting for him through out the entire book because of his gallantry, wits, morality (even as a pirate) and his panache.
I was also attracted to the strong female character of Arabella Bishop. Her development as a character, even though she wasn’t included in much of the book, was wonderful. She reminded me very much of Elizabeth Bennet.
I was also attracted to the strong female character of Arabella Bishop. Her development as a character, even though she wasn’t included in much of the book, was wonderful. She reminded me very much of Elizabeth Bennet.