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Rating: 
Summary: A Perfect Manual for Morbid Maniacs
Review: As in the case of all Daniel Defoe books, the work is of exceptional quality though in places, the tone is unusually harsh & chillingly descriptive of the havoc that a twisted mind can wreak in the world.
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Summary: Pirates
Review: I didn't like this book. Although historically acurate it contains very general and lacks detail.
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Summary: I Like This Pirate Book no matter what the critics say!!
Review: I read, write, and study PIRATES! As with most history, one often does not know what is an actual fact or one person's account of an historical event. This book was written in 1724 towards the end of the "Golden Age of Piracy" that included pirates in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea. This book is Capt. Charles Johnson's account of famous and infamous pirates most people know (Ed Teach--Blackbeard, William Kidd, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read)and many that most people have not heard of (Worley, Anstis, Vane, Lowther, Lowe, etc.). The accounts sound plausible, but it is unknown where the author found him information in the 1700's. I would guess it came orally as well as from newspaper clippings. The book may be difficult for many to read, because it is written in long rambly sentences which was the style then. I would recommend this book to history buffs. For your children I would recommend a delightful novel that combines slave children and pirates: The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo that is about Blackbeard's time spent terrorizing Charleston, SC. (Don't worry mom and dad, no one was killed, tortured, or mutilated. The worse thing that happened to Charlestonians was that they were scared they would be killed, tortured, or mutilated by the piraty men!)
Rating: 
Summary: Defoe? Really?
Review: Officially, this book is taken for the work of Captain Charles Johnson. It is a compilation of narratives about various individual pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy, names like Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts (the dread pirate Roberts, from Princess Bride fame), Anne Bonny et al. The conclusion that Defoe and Johnson were one and the same has come under fire these last few years and is not the accepted fact it once was. This text includes portions of the original volumes by Johnson, but not the whole, although it can be argued that it includes the stories that most readers would want. There is also some question about the validity of the stories, but we may never know whether they are true or fiction. P-)
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Summary: Vivid and graphic.
Review: Originally published in 1724, Captain Charles Johnson's "A History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates" is a vivid and graphic account of the exploids of a dozen English and Welsh pirates. Captain Johnson, who was once thought to be Daniel Defoe, dramatically relates the fights, rapes, and murders of these sea-going criminals. Surprisingly, two of the 12 pirates were women--Anne Bonny and Mary Reed. The latter was once battling other pirates who were boarding her ship. Reed "called to those under deck to come up and fight like men, and finding that they did not stir, fired her arms down the hole amongst them, killing one and wounding others." Maritime historians will enjoy this book.
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Summary: Fast fun reading
Review: This book contains short biographies of pirates. It was first published in 1724, but these stories read fast despite the antiquated language. The biographies focus on the most interesting parts of each pirate's life instead of dry facts. There are plenty of more "serious" facts here, but the biography goes into more detail just when the reader is getting curious. So we are told any interesting anecdotes about each pirate in the course of reading their biographies.
For example the biography of Anne Bonny tells about her life and exploits as a pirate. But we also are treated to a description of the bedroom farce by which Anne's mother, a household servant, was discovered by the lady of the house to be having an affair with the man of the house. She caught the maid accidentally because of a prank involving spoons hidden in the bed sheets. This event doesn't take place during Anne's life. (It involves her conception, and leads into why her father left for the New World.) But really we are told about it because it is a good entertaining story.
So this book is highly readable and entertaining despite the language. This is a good book for you if you are into pirates, history, or the adventure genre (this book is factual, but it inspired many fictions).
Rating: 
Summary: Probably the best pirate book ever written
Review: This book is a must-read for any pirate fan out there. Most of the stories in the book are completely true, and from a source closer to the scene than any modern book. I don't know why anyone would seriously critique this book, for it is what it is - a piece of history and a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: The editor messed up the original book
Review: This Cordingly editor messed up a real classic. If you want to read something that is very different from what the original book was, then read this one. It is sad to see pieces of the classics reprinted as the editor thinks fit according to his personal taste, inserting the pirates of the 1724 edition, taking some of the 1726 edition, mixing them in a blender, and offering the results for sale only to make some money. The illustrations are also misleading, adding them as if they were part of the original book, and including several of the 1900's. If you are interested in reading the real thing, refer to a first leaguer such as Manuel Schonhorn, who edited the 1726 edition of Johnson's. It was published by Dover Publications, first printed in 1972, and again in 1999. If you don't want to buy things that don't work, nor be misleaded, then save yourself some dollars in poor books and spend them wisely. P.D. Now that I have both books, I will get rid of Cordingly's version, storing it away in the athic.
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Summary: This amost interesting pirate
Review: This is amost interesting book since the first chapter cocerns the pirate Henry Avery so I did not get past the first chapter since my name is Henry Avery.
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Summary: Not the Original
Review: This is yet another of the knock-offs of Captain Charles Johnson's General History of Pirates. It includes narratives of all the old favorites: Blackbeard, Kidd, Roberts, Bonny and others. As usual, Johnson's prose is preserved and some of the original illustrations grace the pages. The editor/publisher has includes a glossary, bibliography and notes to the original text. However, the down side of this particular volume is that it includes only a subset of Johnson's original writings. And, there is no added index with which to quickly reference particular names and such. While I don't quite agree that the editor has ruined the original, I do find that this version falls short of its potential. P-)
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