There Were Two Pirates

by James Branch Cabell

His name was Jose Gasparilla, and he was the self-proclaimed King of Pirates. He terrorized the waters around Florida, demanding tribute from every merchant ship he encountered. Riches flowed into his tiny island kingdom . . . and yet he longed for a life he could never have, for he had left his beloved Isabel behind in Spain. One day he would return to claim her for his bride, he knew, and she had vowed to wait for him. When he captures a ship and discovers Isabel and her elderly husband aboard, he strikes a deal with the man who stole his bride. For Jose Gasparilla, it means a chance to regain the lost years of his life . . . to live his childhood again and pick a new path, in the Land Without Shadows...

Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

James Branch Cabell was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when they were most popular. For Cabell, veracity was "the one unpardonable sin, not merely against art, but against human welfare."

Reviews

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Cabell's later books, and a short one at that, running at nearly half the word count of his normal novel. The first half of it is as ironic as his best work in the "Biography of the Life of Manuel," neatly revisiting a number of his main themes such as the concept of the true love that cannot be recaptured (known as "domnei" or woman-worship), that one's actions matter not so much as how one's neighbors view those actions, and honoring one's word. The second half skewers the first--returning the main character to that lost love, making those actions have ramifications (at least to some extent), and showing that one's promises can always contain loopholes.

Cabell's work always has several things going on: although you can read the surface of the novel and enjoy it, if you know what he's satirizing it is much more rewarding. There Were Two Pirates is a mature reflection on growing older and trying to reconcile with the kinds of dreams and goals a person makes when he or she is young. Cabell was writing from personal experience, as one who had seen his star rise and then fall in the short space of 20 years. Like his later books--mainly autobiographical memoirs--this book reflects what Cabell had finally grown to understand: (to be anachronistic) that his fifteen minutes of fame were over. In its place, Cabell returned (not that I'm sure he had ever left it) to what he did best: write for himself.