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jonraymond21's review against another edition
4.0
If you really care about the primary source of almost everything we know of Pirates, this is your book. If you're only vaguely interested in Pirates, you might want to revisit this after another read.
redheadreading's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting account of the lives of some of the most famous pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy! Given the time it was written in, I was pleasantly surprised at how readable it was.
bookslucyreads's review against another edition
3.0
I am fascinated by pirates which is why I picked this up. I enjoyed it and it was interesting.
bethb3's review against another edition
2.0
Lives of the pirates, with a lot of meandering asides for geography and cultures, but it's Defoe, so what did I expect?
gabi_leoncini's review against another edition
1.0
This involved a lot of skim reading and the only thing I *really* cared about was the Anne Bonny & Mary Read content.
heniaakbar's review against another edition
4.0
A refreshment for my brain, tho the language is quite difficultto comprehend, I endure. This is a great reference ❤
libra17's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published in 1724, probably by the same author more popularly known for writing Robinson Crusoe, A General History of the Pyrates was meant to introduce a then-contemporary audience to the notion of piracy, who pirates were, why mariners became pirates, and what pirates did. The author makes clear from the outset that this is not a compilation of fantastic tales; he goes out of his way to confine himself to known and corroborated facts about the lives of the pirates/crews detailed therein and makes clear that all of these facts come from legal records (such as sworn statements in court) or from personal interviews that he held with relevant individuals (such as the pirates themselves). Due of this, A General History of the Pyrates can be extremely dry at times - even while describing actions that could easily be made lurid, such as various accounts of torture and murder - because, I think, the author wanted to avoid the impression that the treatise was meant to shock and be provocative, which itself would give the impression that it was a work of what we would call yellow journalism.
While accounts of various codes or agreements can make piracy sound appealing (such as the fact that a good number - if not most - pirate crews were actually democratic, making noncombat decisions by vote), the author very specifically does not support the notion of piracy. Various accounts of betrayal, torture, and murder with victims that were both pirates and nonpirates (not to mention actual state execution for piracy), as well as detailing the financial state of many pirate crews (as you can probably surmise, not great) is fairly off-putting, especially as the author spares no detail for delicate readers.
Overall, A General History of the Pyrates was an influential book when it was first published and has gone on to continually influence history and literature today. This book serves as the source material for many if not most accounts of some of the most well known pirates today - such as Edward Teach and Anne Bonny - and influenced the writers of Treasure Island and Peter Pan as they created enduring classics. However, the book is written in a style that will be unfamiliar to modern readers - extremely detailed, with archaic word use and sentence structure - and is deliberately written to convey an impression of anti-sensationalism. As such, it is a difficult read, but I found it an interesting and worthwhile one.
While accounts of various codes or agreements can make piracy sound appealing (such as the fact that a good number - if not most - pirate crews were actually democratic, making noncombat decisions by vote), the author very specifically does not support the notion of piracy. Various accounts of betrayal, torture, and murder with victims that were both pirates and nonpirates (not to mention actual state execution for piracy), as well as detailing the financial state of many pirate crews (as you can probably surmise, not great) is fairly off-putting, especially as the author spares no detail for delicate readers.
Overall, A General History of the Pyrates was an influential book when it was first published and has gone on to continually influence history and literature today. This book serves as the source material for many if not most accounts of some of the most well known pirates today - such as Edward Teach and Anne Bonny - and influenced the writers of Treasure Island and Peter Pan as they created enduring classics. However, the book is written in a style that will be unfamiliar to modern readers - extremely detailed, with archaic word use and sentence structure - and is deliberately written to convey an impression of anti-sensationalism. As such, it is a difficult read, but I found it an interesting and worthwhile one.
suzemews's review against another edition
1.0
I didn't bother finishing this one. It was way too tedious for me.
jamesflint's review against another edition
3.0
an interesting read but it did get kind of tedious by the end
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