 1922 dust jacket cover | |
| Author | Rafael Sabatini |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Piracy, justice |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Company |
Publication date | 1922 |
Captain Blood: His Odyssey is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1922.
Sabatini was a proponent of basing historical fiction as closely as possible on history. Although Blood is a fictional character, much of the historical background of the novel is loosely based on fact. [1] A group of Monmouth rebels was indeed condemned to ten years' hard labor in Barbados, very similar to chattel slavery; [2] and the shifting political alliances of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 are used in the novel as a plot device to allow Blood's return to respectability.
Sabatini based the first part of the story of Blood on Henry Pitman, a surgeon who tended the wounded Monmouth rebels and was sentenced to death by Judge Jeffreys, but whose sentence was commuted to penal transportation to Barbados where he escaped and was captured by pirates. [1] Unlike the fictional Blood, Pitman did not join them, and eventually made his way back to England where he wrote a popular account of his ordeal. [3] For Blood's life as a buccaneer, Sabatini used several models, including Henry Morgan and the work of Alexandre Exquemelin, for historical details. [1]
Sabatini first introduced the character Captain Blood in a series of eight short stories in Premier Magazine as Tales of the Brethren of the Main, published from December 1920 to March 1921, and reprinted in Adventure Magazine from January to May 1921, with a novella "Captain Blood's Dilemma", published in Premier Magazine in April 1921 (and Adventure Magazine in October 1921). [lower-alpha 1] The Odyssey -like story arc of these tales was then woven by Sabatini into a continuous narrative in novel form, published as Captain Blood: His Odyssey in 1922. [22]
The protagonist is the sharp-witted Dr. Peter Blood, a fictional Irish physician who had had a wide-ranging career as a soldier and sailor (including a commission as a captain under the Dutch admiral De Ruyter) before settling down to practice medicine in the town of Bridgwater in Somerset. The story is told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator, who enables the reader to see the thoughts and views of many different characters. The narrator—perhaps meant to be Sabatini himself—claims to have acquired the story from the ship's logs of Blood's longtime companion Jeremy Pitt.
The book opens with him attending to his geraniums while the town prepares to fight for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. He wants no part in the rebellion, but while attending to some of the rebels wounded at the Battle of Sedgemoor, Peter is arrested. During the Bloody Assizes, he is convicted by the infamous Judge Jeffreys of treason on the grounds that "if any person be in actual rebellion against the King, and another person—who really and actually was not in rebellion—does knowingly receive, harbour, comfort, or succour him, such a person is as much a traitor as he who indeed bore arms."
The sentence for treason is death by hanging, but King James II, for purely financial reasons, has the sentence for Blood and other convicted rebels commuted to transportation to penal servitude in the Caribbean. Upon arrival on the island of Barbados, Blood is bought by Colonel William Bishop, initially for forced work in the Colonel's prison farms but later hired out by Bishop when Blood's skills as a physician prove superior to those of the local doctors. During his period of slavery, Blood wins the pity and sympathy of Arabella, Colonel Bishop's niece.
When a Spanish force attacks and raids Bridgetown, Blood escapes with a number of other convicts (including former shipmaster Jeremy Pitt, the one-eyed giant Edward Wolverstone, former gentleman Nathaniel Hagthorpe, former Royal Navy petty officer Nicholas Dyke and former Royal Navy master gunner Ned Ogle). The escapees capture the Spaniards' ship and sail away to become some of the most successful pirates in the Caribbean, hated and feared by the Spanish but always sparing English ships. Colonel Bishop, humiliated by Blood's superior abilities and daring escape, devotes himself to capturing and executing Blood.
After the Glorious Revolution, Blood is pardoned. As a reward for saving the colony of Jamaica from a French assault, he is appointed its governor in place of Colonel Bishop, who had abandoned his post to hunt for Blood, and the novel ends with the implication that Blood will not only marry Arabella but will also generously forgive Bishop.
Captain Blood won enormous popularity, but instead of continuing Blood's adventures in sequels, Sabatini wrote fifteen more short stories set during Captain Blood's pirate career. Two of these tales ("The War Indemnity" and "Blood Money") may be viewed as continuations of events of the original novel, but all the stories are contained within the timeframe of Captain Blood (a sidequel). [lower-alpha 2]
Eight of these new stories were published in 1931 as Captain Blood Returns (retitled The Chronicles of Captain Blood in the British publication) along with two of the Tales of the Brethren of the Main that had not been incorporated into Captain Blood. A second collection, The Fortunes of Captain Blood was published in 1936, consisting of six new stories, and one final story, "The Remedy", which takes place almost immediately after Blood's trial before Judge Jeffreys and in which Peter Blood is not the primary character but is prominently figured. It was also included in Sabatini's collection of short stories Turbulent Tales, published in 1946. [22]
The book was especially popular in Russia. Several Russian authors wrote moderately popular sequels, such as Children of Captain Blood by Tatyana Vinogradova, and Captain Blood: His Iliad by Mikhail Popov.[ citation needed ]
The bitter aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion also features prominently in Arthur Conan Doyle's novel Micah Clarke (1889).
In the opening chapter of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel The Club Dumas (1993), two characters discuss their favourite novel by Sabatini; book dealer Lucas Corso declares his preference for Captain Blood.
Alan Moore's comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen incorporates many characters from classic books, including Peter Blood as a member of the Pirates' Conference in The New Traveller's Almanac (2002–2003).
Captain Blood is a 1935 American black-and-white swashbuckling pirate film from First National Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Harry Joe Brown and Gordon Hollingshead, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Ross Alexander. With a screenplay by Casey Robinson, the film is based on the 1922 novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini and concerns an imprisoned doctor and his fellow prisoners who escape their cruel island captivity to become West Indies pirates. An earlier 1924 Vitagraph silent film version of Captain Blood starred J. Warren Kerrigan as Peter Blood. Warner Bros. risked pairing two relatively unknown performers in the lead roles. Flynn's performance made him a major Hollywood star and established him as the natural successor to Douglas Fairbanks and a "symbol of an unvanquished man" during the Great Depression. Captain Blood also established de Havilland, in just her fourth screen appearance, as a major star and was the first of eight films costarring Flynn and de Havilland. In 1938 they would be reunited with Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood. The same year, Rathbone also starred with Flynn in The Dawn Patrol. In 1962, Flynn's son Sean starred in The Son of Captain Blood.
Rafael Sabatini was an Italian-born British writer of romance and adventure novels.
Cocytus or Kokytos is the river of wailing in the underworld in Greek mythology. Cocytus flows into the river Acheron, on the other side of which lies Hades, the underworld, the mythological abode of the dead. There are five rivers encircling Hades: the Styx, Phlegethon, Lethe, Acheron and Cocytus.
The Battle of Sedgemoor was the last and decisive engagement between the Kingdom of England and rebels led by the Duke of Monmouth during the Monmouth rebellion, fought on 6 July 1685, and took place at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset, England, resulting in a victory for the English army.
The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ireland. A group of dissident Protestants led by James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, opposed James largely due to his Catholicism.
A swashbuckler is a genre of European adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordsmanship, acrobatics, and guile, and possesses chivalrous ideals. A "swashbuckler" protagonist is heroic, daring, and idealistic: he rescues damsels in distress, protects the downtrodden, and uses duels to defend his honor or that of a lady or to avenge a comrade.
Tortuga Island is a Caribbean island that forms part of Haiti, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola. It constitutes the commune of Île de la Tortue in the Port-de-Paix arrondissement of the Nord-Ouest department of Haiti.
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator, painter, and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.
Captain Blood may refer to:
In English-speaking popular culture, the modern pirate stereotype owes its attributes mostly to the imagined tradition of the 18th-century Caribbean pirate sailing off the Spanish Main and to such celebrated 20th-century depictions as Captain Hook and his crew in the theatrical and film versions of J. M. Barrie's children's book Peter Pan, Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950 film adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, and various adaptations of the Middle Eastern pirate, Sinbad the Sailor. In these and countless other books, films, and legends, pirates are portrayed as "swashbucklers" and "plunderers". They are shown on ships, often wearing eyepatches or peg legs, having a parrot perched on their shoulder, speaking in a West Country accent, and saying phrases like "Arr, matey" and "Avast, me hearty". Pirates have retained their image through pirate-themed tourist attractions, film, toys, books and plays.
Captain Blood, formerly known as Age of Pirates: Captain Blood, is a cancelled action-adventure game based on the novels by Rafael Sabatini about the titular Captain Blood. The player will assume the role of the Captain, following his adventures in 1685 Spanish Main. This game had been rated by the PEGI rating board and was to be released by 1C. The full 1.0 version of the game has been leaked after 10 years of gathering dust and is available on torrent sites. Source code of game engine was released on GitHub under GPLv3 on November 28, 2022.
Adventure was an American pulp magazine that was first published in November 1910 by the Ridgway company, a subsidiary of the Butterick Publishing Company. Adventure went on to become one of the most profitable and critically acclaimed of all the American pulp magazines. The magazine had 881 issues. Its first editor was Trumbull White. He was succeeded in 1912 by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman (1876–1966), who edited the magazine until 1927.
The Sea Hawk is a 1924 American silent adventure film about an English noble sold into slavery who escapes and turns himself into a pirate king. Directed by Frank Lloyd, the screen adaptation was written by J. G. Hawks based upon the 1915 Rafael Sabatini novel of the same name. It premiered on June 2, 1924, in New York City, twelve days before its theatrical debut.
Charles II of England has been portrayed many times.
James II of England is a character in the novel The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo. James appears in Geoffrey Trease's 1947 novel, Trumpets in the West, which depicts him as a villain. He was portrayed by Josef Moser in the 1921 Austrian silent film The Grinning Face and by Sam De Grasse in the 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs.
Captain Pirate is a 1952 American technicolor adventure film directed by Ralph Murphy and starring Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina and John Sutton. The swashbuckler was based on the 1931 Rafael Sabatini novel Captain Blood Returns and was made and distributed by Columbia Pictures. This was the final film directed by Murphy.
Fortunes of Captain Blood is a 1950 pirate film directed by Gordon Douglas. Based on the famous Captain Blood depicted in the original 1922 novel and subsequent collections of stories written by Rafael Sabatini, Fortunes was produced by Columbia Pictures as yet another remake about the notorious swashbuckler.
Captain Blood is a 1924 American silent adventure film based on the 1922 novel Captain Blood, His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini. Produced and distributed by the Vitagraph Company of America, the film is directed by David Smith, brother of Vitagraph founder Albert E. Smith. Early silent film hero J. Warren Kerrigan stars along with resident Vitagraph leading actress Jean Paige, who was also married to Albert E. Smith.
Sir Henry Morgan was a Welsh pirate, privateer and buccaneer. He made himself famous during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements. He earned a reputation as one of the most notorious and successful privateers in history, and one of the most ruthless among those active along the Spanish Main.
Captain Blood Returns is a 1931 British historical adventure novel by the Anglo-Italian writer Rafael Sabatini. It is the second in Sabatini's trilogy about the character after Captain Blood (1922) and was followed by The Fortunes of Captain Blood (1936).
Captain Blood public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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