Captain Blood
1922
He was a physician who heal a wounded man, and that single act of mercy cost him everything. Peter Blood, an Irish doctor living quietly in 1680s England, finds himself transported to a Jamaican slave plantation after the bloodthirsty Judge Jeffreys sentences him for the crime of treating a rebel. But Blood is no ordinary convict. When a Spanish raiding party attacks Port Royal, he seizes his moment, steals their ship, and escapes into the Caribbean to become the most feared pirate captain on the Spanish Main. Yet for all his plunder, for all his daring raids against Spain's treasure fleets, one prize remains forever beyond his grasp: the woman he loves cannot love a thief. Captain Blood is swashbuckling adventure at its finest, a novel that races across the Caribbean with sword fights, ship battles, and a wit as sharp as a blade. Sabatini writes with tremendous verve, making you believe, for a glorious few hundred pages, that piracy was the most noble profession a man could choose. It is the ancestor of every pirate story told since.
Editions
X-Ray
“A man must sometimes laugh at himself or go mad,’ said he. ‘Few realize it. That is why there are so many madmen in the world.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“It came to Mr. Blood, as he trudged forward under the laden apple-trees on that fragrant, delicious July morning, that man”
— Rafael Sabatini
“But they were fated to misunderstand each other.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“Open the history of the past at whatsoever page you will and there you shall find coincidence at work bringing about events that the merest chance might have averted. Indeed, coincidence may be defined as the tool used by Fate to shape the destinies of men and nations.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“It is not human to be wise,’ said Blood. ‘It is much more human to err, though perhaps exceptional to err on the side of mercy.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“An intelligent observation of the facts of human existence will reveal to shallow-minded folk who sneer at the use of coincidence in the arts of fiction and drama that life itself is little more than a series of coincidences. Open the history of the past at whatsoever page you will, and there you shall find coincidence at work bringing about events that the merest chance might have averted. Indeed, coincidence may be defined as the very tool used by Fate to shape the destiny of men and nations. Observe it now at work in the affairs of Captain Blood and of some others.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“Laughter broke from them. It spread into a roar of acclamation; for bluff is a weapon dear to every adventurer.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“Peter Blood judged her- as we are all prone to do- upon insufficient knowledge.””
— Rafael Sabatini
“Life can be infernally complex,’ he said.””
— Rafael Sabatini
