recomended pirate books?

[Barracuda Beth]

Which pirate book or novel,would you recomend that is good for reading?

[Captain McCool]

Novels:

"The Guardship," James L. Nelson

"The Blackbirder," James L. Nelson

"The Pirate Round," James L. Nelson

"The Only Life that Mattered," James L. Nelson

"On Stranger Tides," Tim Powers

"Captain Blood," Rafael Sabatini

"Flint & Silver," John Drake (a prequel to Treasure Island)

And of course, "Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson

There's also the phenomenal "Aubreyad" series of books by Patrick O'Brian. Not actually Pirate in nature, but still, amazingly well written historical novels about the Napoleonic Wars at sea. This is the series upon which the movie "Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World" is based.

And these are only the ones I've read. Here's a great resource for more, through No Quarter Given's website:

http://www.noquarter...n.net/bibl8.htm

As for non-fiction, I'll leave that to those vastly more qualified than myself.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Captain McCool

[Tartan Jack]

What are you interested in?

Modern vision of a "classic" pirate?

Classic pirate literature?

Historical fiction (historically accurate fiction)?

History books?

Each piracy-genre has it's own "must reads."

On of the best history books of recent years on the "classic" 17-teens pirates is Colin Woodward's "Republic of Pirates," which is an accurate tale of what really happened yet is quite engaging and readable for a non-historian/scholar. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in pirates, to at LEAST have a good idea of the reality that underlies and is constantly referenced in the better literature of all ages since.

For classic films, I'd recommend these 5 as "musts:"

(Heck, you'd "catch" references in Pirates of the Caribbean better once you've seen them)

- Captain Blood

- The Black Swan (my personal favorite)

- The Black Pirate (Douglas Fairbanks, b/w and silent- but the first pirate mega-hit!)

- The Crimson Pirate (a none-to-historically accurate comedy, but VERY enjoyable)

- The Sea Hawks

Those are THE biggest "classic" pirate films.

[Capn Bob]

Fiction?

In addition to those titles already mentioned, add:

The Pyrates, by George MacDonald Fraser.

[Daniel]

If you read only one nonfiction book about pirates, make it Douglas Botting's The Pirates, from Time Life books. Very readable, outstanding illustrations. Some mistakes, but they all have mistakes. If you want more, then David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag should be next. It's a lot more detailed and interesting. If you're really dedicated and want to find out the nitty-gritty of pirate life, read Charles Johnson's General History of the Pirates (many libraries still have it listed under Daniel Defoe); it's challenging, but great reading. You can read it on line, in two volumes, at the Eastern North Carolina Digital Library.

For novels, Stevenson's Treasure Island has never been surpassed (not even by me, alas). Most of the other novels recommended here are good too. But for my money, Sabatini's The Sea Hawk is even better than Captain Blood.

[Bright]

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Edited October 2, 2012 by Bright

[Elena]

I'd recommend another pirate novel I loved - The Pirate by Sir Walter Scott.

And there is also Frederick Marryat with his books...

If you want Navy instead, then it's Hornblower series and Aubrey-Mathurin series... And Richard Dana's interesting "Two years before the Mast", and Bougainville's travels of "La Boudeuse" (including how the botanist's servant was a woman in disguise)

Edited October 2, 2012 by Elena

[Red John]

Two Years Before the Mast is available for free on Kindle downloads . . . lots of books that are old enough to be out of copyright are there, a lot that you see Dover (great folks!) or other houses republishing. Not to encourage not buying repubs from the good folks kind enough to do that for folks like us, but if you have one or two that you wouldn't buy anyway, but want to check out, no harm done and maybe some good gained for those of us in the trade, or, rather, "on the account" . . .

[michaelsbagley]

I would second the recommendation from McCool, for fiction with a pretty decent historical flair, I really enjoyed the James L Nelson series "The Guardship", "The Blackbirder", and "The Pirate Round". Almost any of the three could be read independently as a standalone(except for maybe the last one), but they are best as a series.

[madPete]

All of Nelson's books are awesome. I started with The Pirate Round and read everything of his I could get my hands on.

Hey maybe we could invite him to FTPI!! he does events ye know...

mP

[danieldesu]

Pericles, by William Shakespeare....