Rating: 
Summary: The Way It Used to Be
Review:
Captain Blood is the quintessential pirate story and those who
appreciate it are advised to read also the short stories of this
character in "The Fortunes of Captain Blood" and "Captain Blood
Returns." The "Sea Hawk" is also excellent - but I didn't care
much for "Scaramouche"!
It says a lot about our current age that these books have been subjected to political critiques. Some of the reviewers took issue with the lack of feminine involvement or the "racism"
in the lead novel. Gentlemen, this was before ladies wore
trousers and also before our current obsession with topic number two. Forget the politics.
Thanks to the reviewer who pointed out that this edition of
"Captain Blood" has been abridged. Go for the unmutilated version.
Rating: 
Summary: Pirates in the Caribbean!
Review: A gentlemanly Irish physician is inadvertently (and innocently) swept up in the aftermath of a rebellion against the king and condemned, thereby, to a life of slavery in the English colonies across the sea. There, on a Caribbean Island plantation, the good Dr. Peter Blood, toils under the hot sun and the hotter eyes of his master's lovely daughter Arabella. A chance raid by Spaniards affords Blood his opportunity to escape and from there it is but a short jump into a life of piracy and crime upon the high seas. But Blood is a pirate with a sense of honor and a longing for the lady he left behind on the abandoned plantation. How this all works out and how Blood distinguishes himself against his enemies is the subject of this very enjoyable historical adventure. I read it years ago when I was a boy and remembered it fondly. Recently picking it up again, with the idea of convincing my own son to read it, I was struck by how enjoyable it still was, though it lacked the depth and dimension I have come to prefer in the reading material of my more mature years. Unfortunately, my son elected not to follow in my footsteps, as he advises me he has no interest whatsoever in pirates. A pity since they made for some really great adventures in fiction if not, perhaps, in fact, and I had hopes he'd share some of these with me. But he prefers a good fantasy any day, as he likes to put it. As though the adventures of Blood and his ilk were not fantastic enough! If you like well-turned adventure tales, written in clean, direct prose and conjuring up long-lost times and worlds, try this one. I don't think you'll regret it. -- SWM
Rating:
Summary: a good old fashioned adventure
Review: From start to finish it was a pleasant read with terrific crisp action and prose. The real surprise was the wonderfully intricate characters. Here the author betrays a real eye for the human race and he has fun with it. This is one of those books I'd recommend to just about anyone.
The *only* downside is it reflects some of the racism of the time (a la huck finn) so younger readers may need some help putting it in context.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dated Adventure Story
Review: Having finished Scaramouche not long ago, I looked forward to reading another Sabatini adventure tale. The writing is standard Sabatini. It is crisp and clear and he knows how to tell a good story.What was dissapointing is that the story has not aged well. It feels like something that was written in the 1920's. The characters lack any depth or nuance. Every thing is black and white. The story line is simplistic and predictable. Captain Blood is an Adventure Tale and not really an Adventure Novel. I love the adventure stories of this time period (ie. Buchan, PC Wren or Ouida) but the craft and art of the adventure novel has moved far beyond Sabatinis adventure tales of the 1920's. If you are looking for good sea stories, stick with Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey and Maturin series or CS Foresters' Hornblower Series. Captain Blood is interesting because it a precursor to much greater novels.
Rating:
Summary: Underwhelming
Review: I do love Sabatini, and I've read almost everything he's written, so it came as something of a disappointment to me to be less than blown away by the qualities of "Captain Blood." I have recently been making my way through his works and having heard so much good stuff about "Captain Blood," I was naturally looking forward to it. However, I was somewhat underwhelmed after finishing the story. Now, don't get me wrong, it's quite entertaining, and as one previous reviewer says, "it beats TV any day." But after the story got off to a rip-roaring start, with Blood falsely imprisoned during the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion and sent off to the Caribbean as indentured slave labor, it sort of putters off into a series of loosely connected episodes with Blood facing off against a collection of uninteresting bad guys (who, altogether, are about as threatening as paper tigers). I was also disappointed to see that Arabella Bishop, the alleged love interest, hardly shows up at all. (They greatly expanded her role in the movie, and one can definitely see why.) I suppose I was expecting a story of the scope and interest of Sabatini's "The Sea Hawk," which I highly recommend. "The Sea Hawk" has a far more compelling plotline, as well as a much more interesting hero and villain, and the heroine actually has a chance to do something. So, if you're interested in pirates and old-fashioned romantic fiction, go, get thee a copy of "The Sea Hawk"! "Captain Blood" makes a fine airport read, but I've seen Sabatini do better.
Rating:
Summary: Underwhelming
Review: I do love Sabatini, and I've read almost everything he's written, so it came as something of a disappointment to me to be less than blown away by the qualities of "Captain Blood." I have recently been making my way through his works and having heard so much good stuff about "Captain Blood," I was naturally looking forward to it. However, I was somewhat underwhelmed after finishing the story. Now, don't get me wrong, it's quite entertaining, and as one previous reviewer says, "it beats TV any day." But after the story got off to a rip-roaring start, with Blood falsely imprisoned during the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion and sent off to the Caribbean as indentured slave labor, it sort of putters off into a series of loosely connected episodes with Blood facing off against a collection of uninteresting bad guys (who, altogether, are about as threatening as paper tigers). I was also disappointed to see that Arabella Bishop, the alleged love interest, hardly shows up at all. (They greatly expanded her role in the movie, and one can definitely see why.) I suppose I was expecting a story of the scope and interest of Sabatini's "The Sea Hawk," which I highly recommend. "The Sea Hawk" has a far more compelling plotline, as well as a much more interesting hero and villain, and the heroine actually has a chance to do something. So, if you're interested in pirates and old-fashioned romantic fiction, go, get thee a copy of "The Sea Hawk"! "Captain Blood" makes a fine airport read, but I've seen Sabatini do better.
Rating:
Summary: Carribean Adventure
Review: I have 10 of the novels of Rafael Sabatini. Being a writer myself, I am constantly learning from this gentleman the proper use of the English language. Sabatini applies Occam's Razor to the language, evoking the most meaning from the fewest words. I have found myself often buried in the dictionary, looking up the meaning of wonderful, evocative words which have been forgotten in today's over-technical writing style. I have often just had to put a book of his down to figure out how he expressed this or that scene, or emotion, in so few words. Reading his novels is a writers delight!
This book is set in the late 17th century, when Spain ruled the seas of the Carribean. It is about Peter Blood, a physician who is sent as a slave to the island of Barbados, and who winds up leading a group of pirates out of Tortuga, in all sorts of interesting adventures on the sea, usually against Spanish shps.
All of Sabatini's novels are romances, and this is no exception. Peter Blood is a man of intelligence and refinement, holding a high sense of honor, and Sabatini makes you really like and identify with the character.
I had my atlas out while reading this one and learned all about the Carribbean and its islands, the Spanish Main, and naval warfare.
This is a delightful, superbly written book,a real page turner.
Rating:
Summary: Library Binding is not all it seems
Review: I have loved Sabatini ever since I read The Sea Hawk in 7th grade. His stories are full of swashbuckling and high adventure. I hadn't read Captain Blood for a while, so I took it out of the library. I remembered how much I loved it, so I went down to the book store to order it in hardback to add to my collection. Imagine my surprise to discover that it may be library binding, but not edition. The book has been edited. Whole scenes cut that sometimes may seem incidental when they occur, but actually contribute in some way to the character development and choices made by the character. I would not advise buying this edition if you are a fan of the book. If you have seen the movie and just want to know what the book was really like, there is enough in there to give the flavor. But I advise all Sabatini fans to avoid it and look for an unabridged copy.
Rating:
Summary: Entertainment on Every Page
Review: Rafael Sabatini struggled for years as a writer before striking it big with his fabulous historical fiction stories. His breakthrough, according to the elaborate introduction written by Gary Hoppenstand, came with "Scaramouche: A Romance of the French Revolution" in 1921. Immediately following this novel was "Captain Blood: An Odyssey." These two books alone sealed Sabatini's success with an audience hungry for adventure tales. Hoppenstand argues that 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 fights back against upper class nobles and landowners), but the story works just as well as an adventure story. Penguin Classics has graciously reprinted "Captain Blood" for the modern reader, and deserves a hearty round of applause for bringing this great yarn to our attention. The only thing Irishman Peter Blood wants is to be left alone. A trained physician living in Bridgewater, England in the 17th century, Blood spends his days healing the sick, smoking his pipe, and reminiscing about his ten-year stint as an adventurer throughout Europe. When the Duke of Monmouth organizes a rebellion against the tyranny of James Stuart, the King of England, Blood refuses to have anything to do with it despite suffering the abuse of those locals who wholeheartedly support the campaign. Blood's undoing comes when he assists an injured rebel after the royal army crushes the upstarts. Blood sees no contradiction in offering aid to an injured man, but the English soldiers who arrest him insist he is a traitor to the Stuart monarchy. They charge Blood for his "crimes" and sentence him to death by hanging. After commuting the sentence to ten years of slavery on the island of Barbados, the English transport Blood 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 employed by Sabatini. This guy really knows how to tell a tale, and his language is rich, ornate, and deeply descriptive. His technique seems more 19th century than early 20th. The texture of Sabatini's language adds considerably to the story without becoming too overweening. In a time when language became more functional and therefore less complex, Sabatini strove for authenticity by using older words and lengthier terminology. 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. A few improbabilities mar the otherwise pristine veneer of "Captain Blood." There are certain battles that take place on the high seas that would make it impossible for Blood to accomplish the sort of things he pulls off. The total evilness of the pirate captain's foes presents a few problems as well. The Spanish Admiral Don Esteban, for example, assumes a Captain Ahab like attitude towards Blood after the pirate repeatedly defies the Spanish fleet. It seems unlikely that Esteban would resort to blatant piracy himself to seek personal revenge against one criminal. Despite these few small problems, the story's great style, engaging adventures, and historical accuracy builds a yarn both fascinating and entertaining. I was about half way through the book before I realized that this is my first pirate adventure novel. What a way to start! I enjoyed it thoroughly on a purely entertainment level, and after reading one book by Rafael Sabatini I would definitely read another. "Captain Blood" is a great way to pass a few hours and undeniably beats spending a like amount of time watching mindless sitcoms on television.
Rating:
Summary: Ought to be required reading in high school
Review: Saw the movie, loved the movie; read the book, loved it just as much! This was as just as much fun to read as THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. Lots of action and moments fraught with danger. The great part about the book is that it lets you in on all the parts you don't see in the movie: how Blood became the scourge of the Caribbean, the inner mental workings of Peter and Arabella, etc. And, oh how I wish they would have brought out in the movie that his ship was named "Arabella" (so romantic!). A must have for recreational reading... and re-reading... and RE-reading!
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