"Mistress of the Seas"

[Sjöröveren]

I just finished reading "Mistress of the Seas" by John Carlova. (Truth be told, I bought it for Red Bess off'n ebay, and I started reading it before she got home from work, and I couldna put it down.) It's a rollicking good read, but it can't decide if it's fiction or non-fiction. The author gives every indication that he considered it to be non-fiction, but most of the details are made up from whole cloth. There are conversations that could not have been documented, and relationships that hold no basis in reality. Example: Anne Bonny tried, unsuccessfully, to spring Stede Bonnet from the hoosegow in Charleston. Yes, she probably bedded him, but a jailbreak? First I've heard of it. Another tall-tale: after escaping the noose due to pregnancy, Anne was spirited away from Crown custody by a personal appeal by Woodes Rogers. Maybe there are some Anne experts out there who can set me straight, but these seem like total fabrications.

That being said, the book reads like a screenplay, and a good one at that. It's very breezy and quite ribald. If you take it for what if really is, fiction, then it's a great read, and highly recommended.

By the way, I see on amazon.com that it will be coming out in the UK in paperback very soon. It's been out of print for many years. Looks like we can again thank POTC for raising general pirate awareness.

[Happy Dan Pew]

I'm no expert on Ms Bonny, but as far as I know, she pretty much disappeared from the records of the time after giving the hangman the slip. But it sounds like a swell book, all the same--I'll keep an eye peeled for it. I love the stores of Bonny and Read. Let us all take a moment to remember the immortal words of Adam Ant: Oh a woman can be captain and a woman can be chief; just like the glorius Amazons, Anne Bonny, Mary Read :)

And yay, POTC. I think all the pirate love was there before, but Johnny and Co made it ok for the man on the street to say so. And, you can get t-shirts with flags and such on 'em more places, too!

[Iron Bess]

I just finished reading "Mistress of the Seas" by John Carlova. (Truth be told, I bought it for Red Bess off'n ebay, and I started reading it before she got home from work, and I couldna put it down.) It's a rollicking good read, but it can't decide if it's fiction or non-fiction. The author gives every indication that he considered it to be non-fiction, but most of the details are made up from whole cloth. There are conversations that could not have been documented, and relationships that hold no basis in reality. Example: Anne Bonny tried, unsuccessfully, to spring Stede Bonnet from the hoosegow in Charleston. Yes, she probably bedded him, but a jailbreak? First I've heard of it. Another tall-tale: after escaping the noose due to pregnancy, Anne was spirited away from Crown custody by a personal appeal by Woodes Rogers. Maybe there are some Anne experts out there who can set me straight, but these seem like total fabrications.

That being said, the book reads like a screenplay, and a good one at that. It's very breezy and quite ribald. If you take it for what if really is, fiction, then it's a great read, and highly recommended.

By the way, I see on amazon.com that it will be coming out in the UK in paperback very soon. It's been out of print for many years. Looks like we can again thank POTC for raising general pirate awareness.

(chuckle)

Well, guess I don't have to read it now.

[Sjöröveren]

Now Bess, surely you understand the difference between a review and the whole damn book! It's jolly good fun! Get yarself a copy, a mug o' somethin refreshing, a big floppy hat and a blanket, go to the beach and relax! So what if it mostly malarky. it's light and frothy, like a Bud Light on a hot day. It ain't the finest, but it'll do for what it is.

[Red Bess]

Maybe there are some Anne experts out there who can set me straight, but these seem like total fabrications.

Sjöröveren, my luv, I do thank you kindly for the book, and I'm looking forward to reading it cover to cover. I'm not an Anne Bonny expert, but I have spent a good deal of time researching her the past couple of years. Mistress of the Seas was written in 1964, and at least one book (and several websites) that I have l read use this book as a reference. I do believe it to be a work of fiction, based primarily on Capt. Johnson's 1724 biography and the transcripts of the 1720 trial. Nothing else I've read indicates that the details of the book are documented as fact.

The best documentation of Anne Bonny's life that I've found is the work of Tamara Eastman, who I understand is writing a new Anne Bonny biography.

[Charity]

Thanks for the good tip!

I will want to buy that someday, but for now i'm bought out LOL.