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Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas
In the first-ever Seven Seas history of the world's female buccaneers, Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas tells the story of women, both real and legendary, who through the ages sailed alongside-and sometimes in command of-their male counterparts. These women came from all walks of life but had one thing in common: a desire for freedom. History has largely ignored these female swashbucklers, until now. Here are their stories, from ancient Norse princess Alfhild and warrior Rusla to Sayyida al-Hurra of the Barbary corsairs; from Grace O'Malley, who terrorized shipping operations around the British Isles during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; to Cheng I Sao, who commanded a fleet of four hundred ships off China in the early nineteenth century. Author Laura Sook Duncombe also looks beyond the stories to the storytellers and mythmakers. What biases and agendas motivated them? What did they leave out? Pirate Women explores why and how these stories are told and passed down, and how history changes depending on who is recording it. It's the most comprehensive overview of women pirates in one volume and chock-full of swashbuckling adventures that pull these unique women from the shadows into the spotlight that they deserve.
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First published April 1, 2017
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June 28, 2018
As a longtime pirate aficionado and an even more longtime women's history aficionado, I was pretty stoked to find a copy of Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers who Ruled the Seven Seas at Porter Square Books this summer. I'd missed the author event, which I was bummed to find out about after the fact, but the book was signed, so I happily shelled out for the slim little purple hardcover.
I had great hopes for learning a few new things when I brought this book to Maine last weekend, or at least to have some fun revisiting the things I already know. Fifteen years of on-and-off piratical reading means I'm already fairly familiar with the stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, of Grace O'Malley, and of Cheng Yisao, who are basically the Big Four of female pirates who occasionally get talked about.
In respect to the number of lady pirates whose stories are addressed, the book does not disappoint. The author, Laura Sook Duncombe, doesn't want to leave anybody out, and seems of the mind that more pirates are better than fewer, even if some are apocryphal, or outright fictional, or if they stretch the definition of "piracy" a little — for example, most of her ancient world examples are queens for whom raiding was considered a more or less legitimate form of warfare. This is fine and I think it was a good choice, since I also think more lady pirates is better reading than fewer lady pirates. As a result, I learned about a whole bunch of interesting women whose stories I hadn't previously heard of — Mary Wolverston, Lady Killigrew in Cornwall, whose entire family was engaged in piracy and fencing (not the swords kind) in the Elizabethan era; the New York river pirate called Sadie the Goat (a nickname that has only improved with age, as Sadie is indeed the #GOAT); Sayyida al-Hurra, a Barbary Coast pirate queen of the early 16th century; and many others.
What is disappointing about this book, though, is that there is still not enough lady pirate history, in that the amount of page space dedicated to actually telling the reader about lady pirate history is heavily diluted with a lot of editorializing, moralizing, and trying to guess at/manage the reader's impressions. This is bad enough when Duncombe's reactions to things align with my own, since there is far too much of it; when we disagree on stuff, it becomes wildly distracting. I found much of Duncombe's editorializing to be frankly quite condescending (albeit condescending in a different way than you'll be condescended to if you're reading books on maritime history by old white dude naval historians who address these figures).
The first example that really, really annoyed me was during the recounting of the "War of the Three Jeannes," a conflict in medieval Brittany that I'd inexcusably never heard of but is exactly the sort of vicious war of succession that is exactly what people read about medieval European history for. After her husband is killed, one of the Jeannes, Jeanne de Clisson, brings her sons to Nantes to show them that their father's head had been mounted on a pike for public display. To this, Duncombe says "To a modern reader it seems a bit puzzling, to say the least, that Jeanne would choose to expose her young sons to such violence."
Like... actually, lady, as a modern reader, I already got past the sentences where King Philip put the dude's head on a pike for public display, which would expose everyone in Nantes to it, and while I am not a medievalist, I have also not lived under a rock for my whole life and I am familiar with the general concept of the Middle Ages. So no, it's not puzzling to me at all that the nobility of 14th-century Brittany would raise their children under different standards than those used by middle-class 21st-century Americans who have access to knowledge from the field of child development psychology, a field that was established in the 1920s.
This is what I mean by condescending. I don't have a problem with Duncombe relating her own opinions — I'd never chastise a woman for expressing her opinion in a book about female pirates — but you come at me trying to feed me my own opinions, you'd better not miss and you'd REALLY better not miss THIS HARD. And frankly, you probably just shouldn't ever try to tell me my own opinions on stuff anyway even if you're correct, because I hate it.
But even more awkward than the assumption that the reader has never heard of the Middle Ages are Duncombe's attempts to spin the history of women engaging in piracy as something that is uncomplicatedly FEMINIST AND EMPOWERING AND YAY. There are certainly shades of this in why people are interested in stories about pirates and other outlaws and about why women would be interested in stories of women pirates particularly. But Duncombe has fallen victim to the romance of it too hard to write about historical piracy with any sort of credibility, because when you start writing about piracy as a real thing that has happened, you quickly run up against the complication that, while feminism is good, piracy is actually bad. Duncombe writes things like "The heart of piracy is freedom" and it's like, that word "heart" is doing a lot of work there, because the core concept of piracy is "using boats to steal stuff." Freedom and following your dreams and escaping the confines of society are associations we have with piracy that are a part of why regular people who would probably not enjoy being the victims of crimes are often nonetheless fascinated with stories about criminals, whether it's pirates, gangsters, Western outlaws (not the same thing as cowboys; cowboy is an entirely legal profession that involves herding cattle), bank robbers, or what have you.
The constant attempts to get inside historical figures' heads by randomly speculating and imputing high-minded values to them, such as "valuing freedom above all else" and the desire to do your own thing and what have you, are at best heavy-handed and annoying, like, it's OK to admit that they're criminals and that's what we find interesting about them; no need to try to pretend Anne Bonny is Mother Jones. It all comes off a bit "In 18th-century England, women weren't allowed to wear pants or to murder people and steal their stuff, maaan, think about it ::bong rip::". Duncombe seems to want to revel in stories of women transgressing the social boundaries of hundreds of years ago without having to deal with the bit where these women's careers are still transgressive of norms we have today, like that stealing people's boats isn't nice and neither is shooting them, with the result that it sort of ruins the actual transgressive thrill of reading about crime that is why I picked up a book about pirates in the first place and not one about, say, suffragettes or labor activists.
The worst offense here comes when Duncombe gets to the end of relating to us the deliciously macabre story of the apocryphal streetwalker-turned-pirate Maria Cobham, a tour de force of over-the-top Gothic brutality in which the young Maria discovers that she LOVES MURDER and is just SO GOOD AT MURDER and gets more and more into committing INCREASINGLY GRUESOME MURDERS, all while her pirate husband who got her into this life is starting to go off the whole murder thing. They eventually get away with all of it and pull off ONE LAST MAJOR HEIST and use the proceeds to settle down in the French countryside and thumb their nose at the entire world by integrating seamlessly into respectable society and never having to account for their deeds. IT IS A GREAT STORY, and if you like reading about wacky morbid criminal shenanigans, you will enjoy it thoroughly. Duncombe promptly laments that Cobham "hits a discordant note in the ballad of pirate women" because she is "hard to root for," what with having been "a vicious, ruthless woman who was not drawn to the freedom or adventure of piracy so much as the murder."
Girl. I say this with love, because you are clearly deeply committed to feminism and apparently friends with Jia Tolentino: YOU ARE WRITING THE WRONG BOOK HERE. You are raining on my Reading About Criminals parade with your moralizing, and if you want to put a spin of deep ideological commitment to freedom and liberty on stories of women doing crimes, I would suggest you find a way to get interested in any of the many female political activists and revolutionaries who engaged in violence and terrorism whose stories are also not told nearly enough, instead of dancing awkwardly around the entire idea of what piracy is. I'm sure there's a market for books about female political assassins just as much as there is for female pirates! 'Cause right now, you sound like this:
Probably the best thing about the whole book is that Duncombe does religiously cite her sources, so it's easy to find further reading on all the many and varied stories that are touched on so shallowly in the book itself. I now know of a lot more interesting female pirate(ish) characters who may or may not have existed, and I have an extensive Further Reading list for all of them, all in one handy bundle with a very attractive purple cover. So that's good to have on hand even if I know I will never read the actual body text of this again.
And I agree with the author and with probably every other lover of pirate stories that it's a shame none of these histories have been turned into decent movies. I think I'd love a souped-up costume drama TV series on the Killigrews of Cornwall, especially. Organized crime families make for some of the best TV series out there already; surely someone could pull it off without screwing it up.
Originally posted at Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of girl power?
I had great hopes for learning a few new things when I brought this book to Maine last weekend, or at least to have some fun revisiting the things I already know. Fifteen years of on-and-off piratical reading means I'm already fairly familiar with the stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, of Grace O'Malley, and of Cheng Yisao, who are basically the Big Four of female pirates who occasionally get talked about.
In respect to the number of lady pirates whose stories are addressed, the book does not disappoint. The author, Laura Sook Duncombe, doesn't want to leave anybody out, and seems of the mind that more pirates are better than fewer, even if some are apocryphal, or outright fictional, or if they stretch the definition of "piracy" a little — for example, most of her ancient world examples are queens for whom raiding was considered a more or less legitimate form of warfare. This is fine and I think it was a good choice, since I also think more lady pirates is better reading than fewer lady pirates. As a result, I learned about a whole bunch of interesting women whose stories I hadn't previously heard of — Mary Wolverston, Lady Killigrew in Cornwall, whose entire family was engaged in piracy and fencing (not the swords kind) in the Elizabethan era; the New York river pirate called Sadie the Goat (a nickname that has only improved with age, as Sadie is indeed the #GOAT); Sayyida al-Hurra, a Barbary Coast pirate queen of the early 16th century; and many others.
What is disappointing about this book, though, is that there is still not enough lady pirate history, in that the amount of page space dedicated to actually telling the reader about lady pirate history is heavily diluted with a lot of editorializing, moralizing, and trying to guess at/manage the reader's impressions. This is bad enough when Duncombe's reactions to things align with my own, since there is far too much of it; when we disagree on stuff, it becomes wildly distracting. I found much of Duncombe's editorializing to be frankly quite condescending (albeit condescending in a different way than you'll be condescended to if you're reading books on maritime history by old white dude naval historians who address these figures).
The first example that really, really annoyed me was during the recounting of the "War of the Three Jeannes," a conflict in medieval Brittany that I'd inexcusably never heard of but is exactly the sort of vicious war of succession that is exactly what people read about medieval European history for. After her husband is killed, one of the Jeannes, Jeanne de Clisson, brings her sons to Nantes to show them that their father's head had been mounted on a pike for public display. To this, Duncombe says "To a modern reader it seems a bit puzzling, to say the least, that Jeanne would choose to expose her young sons to such violence."
Like... actually, lady, as a modern reader, I already got past the sentences where King Philip put the dude's head on a pike for public display, which would expose everyone in Nantes to it, and while I am not a medievalist, I have also not lived under a rock for my whole life and I am familiar with the general concept of the Middle Ages. So no, it's not puzzling to me at all that the nobility of 14th-century Brittany would raise their children under different standards than those used by middle-class 21st-century Americans who have access to knowledge from the field of child development psychology, a field that was established in the 1920s.
This is what I mean by condescending. I don't have a problem with Duncombe relating her own opinions — I'd never chastise a woman for expressing her opinion in a book about female pirates — but you come at me trying to feed me my own opinions, you'd better not miss and you'd REALLY better not miss THIS HARD. And frankly, you probably just shouldn't ever try to tell me my own opinions on stuff anyway even if you're correct, because I hate it.
But even more awkward than the assumption that the reader has never heard of the Middle Ages are Duncombe's attempts to spin the history of women engaging in piracy as something that is uncomplicatedly FEMINIST AND EMPOWERING AND YAY. There are certainly shades of this in why people are interested in stories about pirates and other outlaws and about why women would be interested in stories of women pirates particularly. But Duncombe has fallen victim to the romance of it too hard to write about historical piracy with any sort of credibility, because when you start writing about piracy as a real thing that has happened, you quickly run up against the complication that, while feminism is good, piracy is actually bad. Duncombe writes things like "The heart of piracy is freedom" and it's like, that word "heart" is doing a lot of work there, because the core concept of piracy is "using boats to steal stuff." Freedom and following your dreams and escaping the confines of society are associations we have with piracy that are a part of why regular people who would probably not enjoy being the victims of crimes are often nonetheless fascinated with stories about criminals, whether it's pirates, gangsters, Western outlaws (not the same thing as cowboys; cowboy is an entirely legal profession that involves herding cattle), bank robbers, or what have you.
The constant attempts to get inside historical figures' heads by randomly speculating and imputing high-minded values to them, such as "valuing freedom above all else" and the desire to do your own thing and what have you, are at best heavy-handed and annoying, like, it's OK to admit that they're criminals and that's what we find interesting about them; no need to try to pretend Anne Bonny is Mother Jones. It all comes off a bit "In 18th-century England, women weren't allowed to wear pants or to murder people and steal their stuff, maaan, think about it ::bong rip::". Duncombe seems to want to revel in stories of women transgressing the social boundaries of hundreds of years ago without having to deal with the bit where these women's careers are still transgressive of norms we have today, like that stealing people's boats isn't nice and neither is shooting them, with the result that it sort of ruins the actual transgressive thrill of reading about crime that is why I picked up a book about pirates in the first place and not one about, say, suffragettes or labor activists.
The worst offense here comes when Duncombe gets to the end of relating to us the deliciously macabre story of the apocryphal streetwalker-turned-pirate Maria Cobham, a tour de force of over-the-top Gothic brutality in which the young Maria discovers that she LOVES MURDER and is just SO GOOD AT MURDER and gets more and more into committing INCREASINGLY GRUESOME MURDERS, all while her pirate husband who got her into this life is starting to go off the whole murder thing. They eventually get away with all of it and pull off ONE LAST MAJOR HEIST and use the proceeds to settle down in the French countryside and thumb their nose at the entire world by integrating seamlessly into respectable society and never having to account for their deeds. IT IS A GREAT STORY, and if you like reading about wacky morbid criminal shenanigans, you will enjoy it thoroughly. Duncombe promptly laments that Cobham "hits a discordant note in the ballad of pirate women" because she is "hard to root for," what with having been "a vicious, ruthless woman who was not drawn to the freedom or adventure of piracy so much as the murder."
Girl. I say this with love, because you are clearly deeply committed to feminism and apparently friends with Jia Tolentino: YOU ARE WRITING THE WRONG BOOK HERE. You are raining on my Reading About Criminals parade with your moralizing, and if you want to put a spin of deep ideological commitment to freedom and liberty on stories of women doing crimes, I would suggest you find a way to get interested in any of the many female political activists and revolutionaries who engaged in violence and terrorism whose stories are also not told nearly enough, instead of dancing awkwardly around the entire idea of what piracy is. I'm sure there's a market for books about female political assassins just as much as there is for female pirates! 'Cause right now, you sound like this:
Probably the best thing about the whole book is that Duncombe does religiously cite her sources, so it's easy to find further reading on all the many and varied stories that are touched on so shallowly in the book itself. I now know of a lot more interesting female pirate(ish) characters who may or may not have existed, and I have an extensive Further Reading list for all of them, all in one handy bundle with a very attractive purple cover. So that's good to have on hand even if I know I will never read the actual body text of this again.
And I agree with the author and with probably every other lover of pirate stories that it's a shame none of these histories have been turned into decent movies. I think I'd love a souped-up costume drama TV series on the Killigrews of Cornwall, especially. Organized crime families make for some of the best TV series out there already; surely someone could pull it off without screwing it up.
Originally posted at Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of girl power?
May 11, 2017
I REALLY wanted to love this book, but I can't. It reads like it's written by an average intelligence 15 year old high school student, peppered with cliches and tangents. It's all over the place, and does not read like a nonfiction book should - you know, with facts, details, and relevant information. The author's passion to turn every pirate story into something about feminism is tiresome even to this outspoken, loud, "nasty" feminist. It was an absolute struggle to get through this short book, which would be even shorter if you removed all irrelevant tangents, fictional stories about pirates, unfounded speculation, and a random last chapter devoted to summarizing every movie that features a female pirate (yes, you can even read all about Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann in this book that somehow managed to get published).
June 18, 2017
Disappointed. That's what I am right now.
LADY PIRATES.
THAT COVER.
And yet.
It was a slog to get through even being as short as it is. More than giving accounts of the lives of these women (or the legends of their lives for those there is no 'verifiable historical records' blahblahblah) it spent a lot of time on the men around them or the men who wrote the accounts and how they probably manipulated those accounts to their own purposes.
This could have been a really entertaining as well as informative book, but instead it reads a bit more like a student who is trying to hammer in the point of men controlling the history of women. THEY PROBABLY WROTE DOWN THAT SHE KILLED HERSELF BECAUSE IT WAS A FITTING PUNISHMENT FOR THINKING SHE COULD DO A THING.
Like, we get it. We get that's a thing that happened and still happens. It doesn't need to take over the stories you're trying to tell as well. Then the point you're trying to make overshadows and undermines the subjects of the book.
LADY PIRATES.
THAT COVER.
And yet.
It was a slog to get through even being as short as it is. More than giving accounts of the lives of these women (or the legends of their lives for those there is no 'verifiable historical records' blahblahblah) it spent a lot of time on the men around them or the men who wrote the accounts and how they probably manipulated those accounts to their own purposes.
This could have been a really entertaining as well as informative book, but instead it reads a bit more like a student who is trying to hammer in the point of men controlling the history of women. THEY PROBABLY WROTE DOWN THAT SHE KILLED HERSELF BECAUSE IT WAS A FITTING PUNISHMENT FOR THINKING SHE COULD DO A THING.
Like, we get it. We get that's a thing that happened and still happens. It doesn't need to take over the stories you're trying to tell as well. Then the point you're trying to make overshadows and undermines the subjects of the book.
June 12, 2018
This book ...is hard to rate. I see a LOT of 2 star ratings on the front page here and I definitely agree with what they are saying, although I did manage to get enough enjoyment out of this to bump it up to 3 stars instead. My main reason for doing that is because I DID learn a lot of cool things from this book and there is a lot of good information in here ...but it's so disorganized and buried in the author's varied ranting that it's kind of hard to find at times. I did like the fact that she wrote all the sections chronologically though, I hate when books like this skip around between time periods.
Honestly I think the main problem here is that the author didn't have enough information for a full length book, but instead of just accepting that and writing a novella she decided to cram filler sections in everywhere to pad everything out. This book could have been 100 pages shorter and it would have been much better. I understand the need for SOME context into the times these women were living in but when you spend literally half the chapter telling me the history of communism in 20th century China in a book that is supposed to be about PIRATES we've got a problem. Also I know a lot of people are completely ignorant about history, but if you're writing a history themed book then assume your audience has an interest and some basic knowledge and don't talk down to them so much.
Another thing the author does to mindlessly fill space is constantly tell us that this information comes from second hand accounts that were written by men who probably changed these women's stories because sexism. Which like ...I don't even disagree with this! It's definitely true [in some cases]! But you don't need to spend several paragraphs discussing it in every. single. chapter. Maybe just have like a blanket statement in the introduction about women historically not being able to tell their own stories and move on.
And the whole thing is made even more hilarious because the author then proceeds to push her own views on the women she is writing about and speculate wildly about the motivations behind all of their decisions for several pages. Also she keeps trying to like ...make them nicer I guess? Listen, every woman in history does not have to be a good role model and these women are PIRATES. They literally run around stealing from and killing people. That is what pirates do. Some are definitely better or worse than others, but the fact that she kept trying to turn women pirates into some kind of a morality tale was just baffling [as well as hypocritical since she was getting mad at other historians for doing basically the same thing, although to very different ends].
Also, while I know that we can't 100% say for certain if a lot of these women were real, she added pirates that were definitely fictional. Like there were at least two stories that we confirmed as fiction during the time period they took place and SHE STILL PUT THEM IN THERE. Then there's a chapter about the end that is supposed to be about female pirates in movies but somehow ends up talking about Thelma & Louise and some romcom that I don't even remember the name of? I swear she's got ADD and no editor because she just cannot stay on track.
Ok, after reading all that you're probably sitting here like 'so WHY are you giving it 3 stars?' and the answer really is just that there was a lot of good information and also she cites all her sources so it's easy to go do some extra reading on your own if you want to. I really feel like this could have been a 5 star book if she had just cut literally half of it out and I am going to choose to remember the actual informational half of the book and say this is a 2.5 rounded up to 3.
Honestly I think the main problem here is that the author didn't have enough information for a full length book, but instead of just accepting that and writing a novella she decided to cram filler sections in everywhere to pad everything out. This book could have been 100 pages shorter and it would have been much better. I understand the need for SOME context into the times these women were living in but when you spend literally half the chapter telling me the history of communism in 20th century China in a book that is supposed to be about PIRATES we've got a problem. Also I know a lot of people are completely ignorant about history, but if you're writing a history themed book then assume your audience has an interest and some basic knowledge and don't talk down to them so much.
Another thing the author does to mindlessly fill space is constantly tell us that this information comes from second hand accounts that were written by men who probably changed these women's stories because sexism. Which like ...I don't even disagree with this! It's definitely true [in some cases]! But you don't need to spend several paragraphs discussing it in every. single. chapter. Maybe just have like a blanket statement in the introduction about women historically not being able to tell their own stories and move on.
And the whole thing is made even more hilarious because the author then proceeds to push her own views on the women she is writing about and speculate wildly about the motivations behind all of their decisions for several pages. Also she keeps trying to like ...make them nicer I guess? Listen, every woman in history does not have to be a good role model and these women are PIRATES. They literally run around stealing from and killing people. That is what pirates do. Some are definitely better or worse than others, but the fact that she kept trying to turn women pirates into some kind of a morality tale was just baffling [as well as hypocritical since she was getting mad at other historians for doing basically the same thing, although to very different ends].
Also, while I know that we can't 100% say for certain if a lot of these women were real, she added pirates that were definitely fictional. Like there were at least two stories that we confirmed as fiction during the time period they took place and SHE STILL PUT THEM IN THERE. Then there's a chapter about the end that is supposed to be about female pirates in movies but somehow ends up talking about Thelma & Louise and some romcom that I don't even remember the name of? I swear she's got ADD and no editor because she just cannot stay on track.
Ok, after reading all that you're probably sitting here like 'so WHY are you giving it 3 stars?' and the answer really is just that there was a lot of good information and also she cites all her sources so it's easy to go do some extra reading on your own if you want to. I really feel like this could have been a 5 star book if she had just cut literally half of it out and I am going to choose to remember the actual informational half of the book and say this is a 2.5 rounded up to 3.
September 26, 2017
This was a short but hard-to-read book that belies its whimsical title and well-designed book jacket. I chose this book after the author's appearance on NPR's This American Life where she was interviewed about a specific Chinese pirate queen. Based on the entertaining story she told on the radio show, I was expecting some informative and entertaining pirate yarns, but instead got a treatise on how there really aren't enough female pirate stories to tell. For almost every instance of female piracy, the author tells us that we can't be sure they really existed, or that they were really pirates, or if they are real, the sources cannot be relied upon to be accurate or unbiased. What we end up with is a disjointed mishmash of paragraphs that support any number of ideas. Instead of focusing exclusively on the title subject. Themes addressed include politics, feminism, cinematography, suffrage, methods of recording history, general crime, war, race relations, and immigration. These themes are at best only tangentially connected to stories of female pirates. In fact, probably because of a dearth of information, the author classifies many woman as pirates where others may not. Criminals, royals, warlords, street thugs, revolutionaries, convicts, and opportunistic wives and mistresses are included for deeds that most would not say were purely piratical. In her chapters lumping similar pirate women by geography or era, the author also often includes a clearly defined fictional tale of a female pirate, and gives it the same attention as a real historical figure. I don't know what the author was trying to convey... If it was to tell us stories of female pirates, she gives so many disclaimers as to the veracity of their existence, I had a hard time following the narrative. If it was to correct the wrongs of historians who did not report enough about female pirates, then she needs more proof that they truly existed in enough numbers or importance to support her stance. If it was to support a certain sympathetic or cautionary attitude toward these female pirates, then a more directed or cohesive argument should have been put forth. And, if it was to insert herself as an authority on the subject, which she certainly is entitled to given her clearly vast research on the subject, she needed to assert more definitively her case without constantly asking questions about the value or truth of her sources or her conclusions.
April 9, 2018
This is more a book about the IDEA of female pirates. My biggest gripe with this book is that it sells itself as a history of female pirates. What it ends up being is a regurgitation of all the female pirates that MAY have existed, and many who most certainly did not (which the author admits). The only pirate I've ever really known much about was Cheng I Sao, and even with her we don't know her real name or specific details of the beginning of end of her life. I had the impression that the author had written this as part of a thesis...it reads like a term paper.
Ambitious but failed to hit the mark.
Ambitious but failed to hit the mark.
January 19, 2020
Fantastic. I want movies/tv shows about everyone of these women.
December 22, 2024
كتاب صغير ويؤرخ للقراصنة الإناث عبر حقب تاريخية مختلفة ومرتبة زمنيًا..
الكتاب كان أبسط من اللازم؛ لا يذكر معلومات كافية كثيرة وأحيانا لا توجد حتّى معلومات مؤكدة وأحيانًا لا يعرف إلا النزر القليل عن حياة النساء المذكورات في الكتاب وتتضارب امعلومات وتتحول أحيانًا قصص بعضهن إلى ما يشبه خرافة محلية، وذلك لشحِّ المصادر وانعدام توثيق أغلب القصص المذكورة.
لكنه عمومًا ممتع كقراءة خفيفة وسريعة.
الكتاب كان أبسط من اللازم؛ لا يذكر معلومات كافية كثيرة وأحيانا لا توجد حتّى معلومات مؤكدة وأحيانًا لا يعرف إلا النزر القليل عن حياة النساء المذكورات في الكتاب وتتضارب امعلومات وتتحول أحيانًا قصص بعضهن إلى ما يشبه خرافة محلية، وذلك لشحِّ المصادر وانعدام توثيق أغلب القصص المذكورة.
لكنه عمومًا ممتع كقراءة خفيفة وسريعة.
June 21, 2021
Pirate Women was just one of those really fun reads about a topic that I don’t really get to learn about unless I watch the History Channel all the time. I actually came across Pirate Women in a local bookstore and immediately looked it up in my library to see if they had an audiobook version that I could borrow. Luckily, they did! We all know that there are many women who have made discoveries or did something great in their lives and not be credited for it; at least not until way after they’ve died. So I enjoy learning about historical women; it’s just unfortunate that history for the most part is not only white washed but it’s also male washed (is that a term?). Duncombe not only told the stories of these women, but she also delved deeper to try and find out what motivated them to become pirates. I really enjoyed this one!
May 4, 2018
I expected the book to be a series of short biographies of female pirates throughout history but Duncombe is instead as interested in the idea of female pirates in their respective cultural contexts as the women themselves. The early chapters are surprisingly dull as Duncombe discusses Viking and Ottoman society with little attention to the female pirates of these time periods. The book becomes more dramatic during the Golden Age of Piracy as Anne Bonny and Mary Read are better documented than their predecessors. The section of the 19th century discusses some fascinating and little known Australian and Canadian pirates as well as a fictional tale of a Canadian woman pirate that is often mistaken for historical fact.
In the introduction, Duncombe describes herself as a storyteller rather than a historian but the book does not entirely succeed as either storytelling or history. The historical analysis is superficial and the dry tone of the book often detracts from the storytelling. Nevertheless, Duncombe provides an interesting study of the appeal of fictional pirate stories with female characters. The book also brings some fascinating historical figures out of obscurity. The audiobook is read in an unhelpful monotone by Hillary Huber who is far more expressive in her readings of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels.
In the introduction, Duncombe describes herself as a storyteller rather than a historian but the book does not entirely succeed as either storytelling or history. The historical analysis is superficial and the dry tone of the book often detracts from the storytelling. Nevertheless, Duncombe provides an interesting study of the appeal of fictional pirate stories with female characters. The book also brings some fascinating historical figures out of obscurity. The audiobook is read in an unhelpful monotone by Hillary Huber who is far more expressive in her readings of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels.
July 19, 2018
I do not understand what this book was trying to do. It seemed academic in tone but then it was full of opinions and biases? It was a lot of historiography and unnecessary context and tangents. Stories of fictional female pirates were written of alongside real pirates, and the author's opinion was so strong that it made it hard to read. I understand that she is trying to tell stories of women that are not prioritized in the historic record but she is going overboard to the point where she is trying to convince me that this female murderer just made bad choices in life. There also were only two chapters on Chinese pirates and the way they were written about was very....I don't know, it seems like she didn't do enough research on China but I'm not Chinese and cannot speak on this definitively. Weird book. Made me want to research more from other authors.
July 28, 2017
First off, let me state that as a female, I fully believe that women can conquer the world if they so choose, which is why I picked up this book. I mean, women pirates, heck yah! Unfortunately, this was a DNF. From the Intro on, this felt more like a dry as dust history lesson interspersed with diatribes on the author's personal views of the oppressive nature of men and how women are misrepresented throughout history. She can't seem to help but attribute every male writer with nefarious motives in what they write regarding women and women pirates. I soon became weary of her constant male bashing. No, history didn't always favor women, but it's not all hidden agendas and misogyny either. Take what she says with a grain of salt.
July 23, 2017
To give you an idea how tangential and poorly organized this book "about pirate women" is, topics discussed include: the communist revolution in China, the creation of the transcontinental railroad, and Thelma and Louise...
December 29, 2024
Lo encontré súper interesante, más que nada porque no había leído sobre piratas y menos sobre mujeres piratas, entonces fue un viaje en el que conocí a muchas mujeres que tienen una historia fascinante que se ha suprimido o ignorado en la Historia.
A pesar de que la autora no es historiadora, hizo un trabajo importante al recopilar estas historias de mujeres piratas reales y ficticias. Aunque si me hubiera gustado que se enfocara más en las historias en sí, porque se toma demasiado tiempo en explicar elementos del contexto histórico (no menos importante) que pudieron haber sido una nota a pie de página, y así poder centrarse en la historia que está tratando de rescatar.
A pesar de que la autora no es historiadora, hizo un trabajo importante al recopilar estas historias de mujeres piratas reales y ficticias. Aunque si me hubiera gustado que se enfocara más en las historias en sí, porque se toma demasiado tiempo en explicar elementos del contexto histórico (no menos importante) que pudieron haber sido una nota a pie de página, y así poder centrarse en la historia que está tratando de rescatar.
August 12, 2017
Rating: 1.8 / 5
The difficult part about reviewing this book is that its advantages and drawbacks are one and the same, depending on how you look at them. For one thing, I think it's admirable that the author took it upon herself to write a book about a topic so marginalized in the general knowledge of humanity; but, at the same time, I regret and was irritated by the lack of factual information to support the endeavor. On the one hand, in the introduction the author makes it clear that the term "piracy" is an unclear one; but, on the other hand, does that really justify what a reader will later on find out to be the stories of women throughout different eras that are only loosely connected by some naval exploits (some not directly ever stepping foot on a ship themselves, it should be added)?
She connects more well-known historical facts and data in loose connection to her "pirate" tales, but...well, it pissed me off, quite frankly, that she would connect the career of a female pirate like Sayyida al-Hurra to Suleiman the Magnificent's decision to marry Hurrem (Roxelena) and break a centuries-old Ottoman tradition. There's just...no legitimate connection there, and it's maddening that the author would think to write about the two side-by-side as causal events, at the same time whilst claiming that they may or may not have any connection whatsoever.
In the introduction, again, the author claims that she's not out to write a biography because she's not a historian, but boy does she sound like she's trying to be! Her writing suggests a know-it-all attitude about historical events, with just enough "tact" (if you want to call it that) of stepping back for a moment and saying, "Or so it would seem, based on blah blah blah vague sources."
I could go on and on, but why bother? If I could barely get through the book (and I didn't) without feeling pissed off, then what's to say I'll have success with this review (which I'm not). The only thing I want to say before ending off is that I really tried to like this book. No, seriously, I tried. For all of the above and many more instances in the seventy or so pages that I managed to get through, I tried to excuse the author's mistakes and appreciate the work for what it was. But, the thing is, I don't know what exactly she was going for, because it's neither historical fiction or nonfiction, so I've decided to classify it as both. When studying history, which is what I hoped to get from this book but did not, I expect facts, or, at the very least, as close as one can come to facts without lending too much of their bias to the text and making connections that just aren't there. The author has fallen into this trap though, and, for that, I'm penalizing this book hereafter.
I can't really recommend this to anyone, since I'm not sure what exactly the target audience, or even purpose of this book, is supposed to be.
The difficult part about reviewing this book is that its advantages and drawbacks are one and the same, depending on how you look at them. For one thing, I think it's admirable that the author took it upon herself to write a book about a topic so marginalized in the general knowledge of humanity; but, at the same time, I regret and was irritated by the lack of factual information to support the endeavor. On the one hand, in the introduction the author makes it clear that the term "piracy" is an unclear one; but, on the other hand, does that really justify what a reader will later on find out to be the stories of women throughout different eras that are only loosely connected by some naval exploits (some not directly ever stepping foot on a ship themselves, it should be added)?
She connects more well-known historical facts and data in loose connection to her "pirate" tales, but...well, it pissed me off, quite frankly, that she would connect the career of a female pirate like Sayyida al-Hurra to Suleiman the Magnificent's decision to marry Hurrem (Roxelena) and break a centuries-old Ottoman tradition. There's just...no legitimate connection there, and it's maddening that the author would think to write about the two side-by-side as causal events, at the same time whilst claiming that they may or may not have any connection whatsoever.
In the introduction, again, the author claims that she's not out to write a biography because she's not a historian, but boy does she sound like she's trying to be! Her writing suggests a know-it-all attitude about historical events, with just enough "tact" (if you want to call it that) of stepping back for a moment and saying, "Or so it would seem, based on blah blah blah vague sources."
I could go on and on, but why bother? If I could barely get through the book (and I didn't) without feeling pissed off, then what's to say I'll have success with this review (which I'm not). The only thing I want to say before ending off is that I really tried to like this book. No, seriously, I tried. For all of the above and many more instances in the seventy or so pages that I managed to get through, I tried to excuse the author's mistakes and appreciate the work for what it was. But, the thing is, I don't know what exactly she was going for, because it's neither historical fiction or nonfiction, so I've decided to classify it as both. When studying history, which is what I hoped to get from this book but did not, I expect facts, or, at the very least, as close as one can come to facts without lending too much of their bias to the text and making connections that just aren't there. The author has fallen into this trap though, and, for that, I'm penalizing this book hereafter.
I can't really recommend this to anyone, since I'm not sure what exactly the target audience, or even purpose of this book, is supposed to be.
February 25, 2017
Pirate Women covers the history of women who were pirates, in fact and in fiction, and when it comes to pirates, fact and fiction are never very far apart. What is remarkable about the story of women pirates is that there have been so many who fit into the admittedly large and hard to define category. Still, I dare anyone to quibble with any of Duncombe's choices -- all the women portrayed were on the wrong side of the law. They robbed, kidnapped, maimed, and murdered, everything you'd expect of a pirate. In the course of the book, we also learn a good deal about the men who were pirates, but women always take center stage. The most successful pirate ever, the one who commanded the most underlings and the most ships, stole the most, and even lived to die of old age, was a woman, Cheng I Sao, an early 19th century Chinese pirate. Why hasn't everyone heard of her? Duncombe discusses the question, as well as how women pirates, a seemingly excellent movie subject, have rarely been portrayed on the big screen. An enlightening, thoughtful, and fun book.
(Thanks to Chicago Review Press and Edelweiss for a digital review copy.)
(Thanks to Chicago Review Press and Edelweiss for a digital review copy.)
August 16, 2017
Oh dear, I heard an interview with the author on NPR about this book and immediately purchased it with high hopes. However, it reads like a (very long) term paper. She has clearly researched her subject, but rather than recreating these stories and coloring with fictional elements as most good historical writers are able to do, she drily reiterates what she read in other books and leaves it at that- which makes me wonder if those other books should be what I'm reading instead. There is also an offputting new wave feminist weirdness through the entire work that gets wearisome by the hundredth time she beats you over the head with how history was written by men and how badly women have been treated... cut the crap and just tell me a good pirate story for heaven's sake!
September 4, 2017
The main problem with this book is the author doesn't have much to work with. Most female pirates aren't well-documented in history and even if they are, their stories are colored by era-appropriate sexism and racism. I appreciate the author for writing this and she certainly did her research as well as pointed out the different ways in which these women's stories have been affected by men and historical bullshit. But frankly, it felt too long for the amount of information we have.
November 19, 2021
I desperately wanted to love this novel but didn't. If you have to state every two pages that there isn't enough information/historical records/reliable sources to finish the stories you start, then maybe there isn't enough information to write a book...
March 24, 2017
Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas by Laura Sook Duncombe is the first-ever collection of stories about women pirates, real and legendary.
"[T]o be a pirate is to assert that whatever you fancy belongs to you." This was written to describe sixteenth‑century pirate Grace O’Malley.
While it is difficult to define exactly what would constitute a pirate, Duncombe takes a broadly defined look at the definition beyond the golden age of piracy. All pirates had the desire for freedom to live as they chose as a common denominator, but female pirates are often absent in historical accounts. "Pirates live outside the laws of man, but women pirates live outside the laws of nature. Women pirates are left out because they don’t fit nicely into the categories of 'normal' women or traditional women's virtues." Since traditional historians are men, accurate historical information about women pirates is lacking. "As long as men control the narrative, women pirates will be mostly left out. Even if male historians today were inclined to write about pirate women, they would have a difficult time doing so because of the dearth of primary sources about them. Since women have been considered unworthy subjects of historical documentation in the past, it is now difficult to study them - a vicious cycle that persists in keeping women 'off the record.'"
The women pirates Duncombe covers include, in part: Queen Artemisia I of Halicarnassus; Queen Teuta of Illyria, or "the Terror of the Adriatic"; Christina Anna Skytte; Elise Eskilsdotter; Ingela Gathenhielm; Johanna Hård; longship captains Wisna, Webiorg, and Hetha; Princess Alfhild, also called Awilda; Jeanne de Montfort, aka Joanna of Flanders; Jeanne de Clisson, aka the Lioness of Brittany; Sayyida al‑Hurra; Lady Elizabeth and Lady Mary Killigrew; Gráinne (Grace) Ní Mháille, the pirate queen of Ireland; Anne de Graaf; Jacquotte Delahaye; Anne Dieu‑le‑veut; Anne Bonny; Mary Read; Maria Cobham; Martha (Mary) Farley (or Harvey); Maria Crichett (or Mary Crickett/Crichett); Flora Burn; Rachel Wall; Charlotte Badger; Catherine Hagerty; Margaret Croke; Cheng I Sao (with four hundred ships and somewhere between forty thousand and sixty thousand pirates under her command); Sadie Farrell, aka Sadie the Goat; Gallus Mag: Lai Choi San; Hon‑ cho (or Honcho Lo); and Cheng Chui Ping, aka Sister. There is also a discussion of women pirates in the movies.
This is a well-researched, thoughtful, scholarly account of the women in history, real or fictional, that have made a mark as a pirate. Pirate Women includes a list of general resources, specific sources used for each chapter, and an index for those who would like more information on the historical records.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the Chicago Review Press.
"[T]o be a pirate is to assert that whatever you fancy belongs to you." This was written to describe sixteenth‑century pirate Grace O’Malley.
While it is difficult to define exactly what would constitute a pirate, Duncombe takes a broadly defined look at the definition beyond the golden age of piracy. All pirates had the desire for freedom to live as they chose as a common denominator, but female pirates are often absent in historical accounts. "Pirates live outside the laws of man, but women pirates live outside the laws of nature. Women pirates are left out because they don’t fit nicely into the categories of 'normal' women or traditional women's virtues." Since traditional historians are men, accurate historical information about women pirates is lacking. "As long as men control the narrative, women pirates will be mostly left out. Even if male historians today were inclined to write about pirate women, they would have a difficult time doing so because of the dearth of primary sources about them. Since women have been considered unworthy subjects of historical documentation in the past, it is now difficult to study them - a vicious cycle that persists in keeping women 'off the record.'"
The women pirates Duncombe covers include, in part: Queen Artemisia I of Halicarnassus; Queen Teuta of Illyria, or "the Terror of the Adriatic"; Christina Anna Skytte; Elise Eskilsdotter; Ingela Gathenhielm; Johanna Hård; longship captains Wisna, Webiorg, and Hetha; Princess Alfhild, also called Awilda; Jeanne de Montfort, aka Joanna of Flanders; Jeanne de Clisson, aka the Lioness of Brittany; Sayyida al‑Hurra; Lady Elizabeth and Lady Mary Killigrew; Gráinne (Grace) Ní Mháille, the pirate queen of Ireland; Anne de Graaf; Jacquotte Delahaye; Anne Dieu‑le‑veut; Anne Bonny; Mary Read; Maria Cobham; Martha (Mary) Farley (or Harvey); Maria Crichett (or Mary Crickett/Crichett); Flora Burn; Rachel Wall; Charlotte Badger; Catherine Hagerty; Margaret Croke; Cheng I Sao (with four hundred ships and somewhere between forty thousand and sixty thousand pirates under her command); Sadie Farrell, aka Sadie the Goat; Gallus Mag: Lai Choi San; Hon‑ cho (or Honcho Lo); and Cheng Chui Ping, aka Sister. There is also a discussion of women pirates in the movies.
This is a well-researched, thoughtful, scholarly account of the women in history, real or fictional, that have made a mark as a pirate. Pirate Women includes a list of general resources, specific sources used for each chapter, and an index for those who would like more information on the historical records.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the Chicago Review Press.
August 13, 2023
As a pirate fan, I had to pick up this audiobook and it was so interesting!!! I really like how it goes through time, and it doesn't only focus on pirates as we see them, it's very much about women in the margin of society, that had to turn to other means during their lives, and there is very much a conversation about women in society, and the power you can have as your own, and also how that power most often will relate to men, because of the patriarchy...
Then focusing on the Golden Age, which is the one I read the most about, this book had a lot of interesting things to say, focusing on women outside of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and then with these curious theories - that are exactly just theories - about some other pirates, including Black Bart, and one of Blackbeard's wives, that I certainly want to hear about!!!
This was definitely a fascinating read and you'll learn things you haven't hear about before!!!
Then focusing on the Golden Age, which is the one I read the most about, this book had a lot of interesting things to say, focusing on women outside of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and then with these curious theories - that are exactly just theories - about some other pirates, including Black Bart, and one of Blackbeard's wives, that I certainly want to hear about!!!
This was definitely a fascinating read and you'll learn things you haven't hear about before!!!
Read
January 25, 2018That was fascinating! Not only was it an interesting, comprehensive look at female pirates through history, it also explains the context of the time period and analyzes how stories have been invented/ changed over history and how stories can reflect the treatment of women during specific times.
Anyway, I'm starting a petition to get a movie or TV show for every one of these women. You listening, Hollywood?
Anyway, I'm starting a petition to get a movie or TV show for every one of these women. You listening, Hollywood?
November 12, 2023
In a Patriarchy world this read is very important reminder of gender inequality for women and their stories forgotten in History text and Hollywood film. From ancient Norse princess Alfild and warrior Rusia to Sayyida Al Hurra of the Barbary corsairs, to Grace O'Malley who terrorized the shipping operations around British Isles during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. To Cheng I Sao whom commanded a fleet of four hundred ships off China in early 19th Century. Just to name a few all these woman come from all walks of life with one thing in common is their freedom. Author Laura Sook Duncombe explores all facts ,myths and tales because one thing we should always remember in a patriarchy world history is only remembered depending on who is recording it. Im sure you find yourself in swashbuckling read of these heroic tales of the seven seas.
April 28, 2025
pirates 👌
November 20, 2017
About 30% actual history, 30% discussing the problems inherent in relying on secondary sources written by men of their times regarding women of completely different times, countries, and backgrounds (the author is particularly put out by the portrayals of privateers and Golden Age pirates), and 40% analysis and criticism of media - encompassing the secondary sources from which the various women pirates' stories are extracted or interpolated, fiction based on pirates whose existences have been confirmed by historical record, and general fiction about piracy and women. The last chapter is a manifesto on the importance of varied and full depictions of women in cinema and other media, and on the importance of narrative control - the author points out that most of the people she's written about were originally spun as cautionary tales (by ancient Greeks through Victorians), that the women who were tried usually only escaped death sentences because of pregnancies, and that only one - Sister Ping - has anything like an autobiography. And Sister Ping organized illegal immigration from China to the US from her hq and restaurant in NYC's Chinatown - a conceptual pirate, a pirate of the 80s and 90s who never owned a ship.
I was really pleased by the author's dedication to pointing out and analyzing the reliability (or lack thereof) of her sources; in these sorts of pop-history books, sourcing is rarely given so much attention. However, I acknowledge the approach isn't for everyone, and I'm wondering how much that level of "okay, this story is cool in theory but only two facts are verified and it's probably this dead white guy's fever dream, unfortunately" is contributing to the low rating. The title of the book certainly suggests different content - a collection of women pirates in history, how fun! But I think if someone were to protest that they wanted an ACTUAL collection of such, not a critical analysis of the concept, the author would pretty much shrug and reply that, really, this is as good as it gets until we invent time travel, too bad.
So - if you like critical readings about the nature of historical records of the deeds and presences of women, you're good. If you want fun pirate hijinks, uh, watch the Disney series.
I was really pleased by the author's dedication to pointing out and analyzing the reliability (or lack thereof) of her sources; in these sorts of pop-history books, sourcing is rarely given so much attention. However, I acknowledge the approach isn't for everyone, and I'm wondering how much that level of "okay, this story is cool in theory but only two facts are verified and it's probably this dead white guy's fever dream, unfortunately" is contributing to the low rating. The title of the book certainly suggests different content - a collection of women pirates in history, how fun! But I think if someone were to protest that they wanted an ACTUAL collection of such, not a critical analysis of the concept, the author would pretty much shrug and reply that, really, this is as good as it gets until we invent time travel, too bad.
So - if you like critical readings about the nature of historical records of the deeds and presences of women, you're good. If you want fun pirate hijinks, uh, watch the Disney series.
August 24, 2020
I'll be honest, the writing was engaging enough to keep my interest BUT the book didn't know what it wanted to be. Was it a biography of female pirates? Was it a sociological discourse on the necessity of the female pirate in whatever form she comes in? Was it a snapshot of history in times that had pirates that happened to be female - real or imagined-?
I'd say more the latter.
This is less a book about female pirates and more about the idea of a female pirate loosely tied in with political and geographical history and fictional pirates. And women who weren't really pirates.
The author seemed very very enthusiastic about this subject and she definitely wrote with reverence and passion when discussing her subject - female pirates (the real ones more than the fictional ones) and she did mention Cutthroat Island (huge win in my book. And yes, I realize what movie I'm talking about).
However, the book went off on tangents about other subjects that were, perhaps, extraneous. The subject itself is fairly thin considering historical records and who wrote them and there is a lot of filler. More than was necessary, or prudent, for this book but interesting. Just related to more adjacent subjects than the female pirate. I understand that a little bit of history needs to be exposed before jumping into the pirate but that history almost became its own subject, as well as seeming to fluff the unknown history of a female pirate. Those parts of the book, when the author spoke about the history, the cultural impact, and the romanticization of pirates, that's when the author shone. That's where my interest was simultaneously gained and lost. I wanted to know more about the history and lost sight of the pirate.
Again, the writing isn't the problem. It's engaging and informational. But again, this book has a lot of tangents and a slip-of-the-grasp hold on the subject matter.
If you are looking for in-depth history on female pirates or the discourse surrounding them or if you are looking for a coherent and decisive subject related to female pirates, you won't necessarily find it here. However, if you are looking for an interesting book about the world with female pirates in it, then I suggest you read.
I'd say more the latter.
This is less a book about female pirates and more about the idea of a female pirate loosely tied in with political and geographical history and fictional pirates. And women who weren't really pirates.
The author seemed very very enthusiastic about this subject and she definitely wrote with reverence and passion when discussing her subject - female pirates (the real ones more than the fictional ones) and she did mention Cutthroat Island (huge win in my book. And yes, I realize what movie I'm talking about).
However, the book went off on tangents about other subjects that were, perhaps, extraneous. The subject itself is fairly thin considering historical records and who wrote them and there is a lot of filler. More than was necessary, or prudent, for this book but interesting. Just related to more adjacent subjects than the female pirate. I understand that a little bit of history needs to be exposed before jumping into the pirate but that history almost became its own subject, as well as seeming to fluff the unknown history of a female pirate. Those parts of the book, when the author spoke about the history, the cultural impact, and the romanticization of pirates, that's when the author shone. That's where my interest was simultaneously gained and lost. I wanted to know more about the history and lost sight of the pirate.
Again, the writing isn't the problem. It's engaging and informational. But again, this book has a lot of tangents and a slip-of-the-grasp hold on the subject matter.
If you are looking for in-depth history on female pirates or the discourse surrounding them or if you are looking for a coherent and decisive subject related to female pirates, you won't necessarily find it here. However, if you are looking for an interesting book about the world with female pirates in it, then I suggest you read.
February 23, 2020
As so many people has pointed in the reviews, disappointing. The idea is not only great, but necessary. Clearly the stories of the women compiled in this book needed and still need to be told properly. It is a fact that historiaography is riddled with sexist bias and that it's almost impossible to find proper History books that pay any serious attention to the females that could be involved in the matters treated. Of course, piracy is not an exception.
Unfortunately, this book is lame. It feels like it's written for a B-class blog meant for teenagers and young adults. The author is clearly unfamiliar with historical research techniques and the text is full of personal views and unsupported assumtions that end up rendering it as an unreliable source.
It's not even well written, and the final chapters are simply boring. It's an absolute shame, because you can see that the author's intentions are good, but she simply isn't up to the task. In the end, you can't deny that you learn some new stuff, names, places and events that might serve you as a starting point if you want to look for more reliable sources abour the matter. But the fact is that there aren't many and there are even less focused in female pirates. So everything feels like a dead end.
As most people around here think, it's a shame. Maybe I'd rather have learnt what I've learnt reading this book than not knowing it, but this should be so much better.
Unfortunately, this book is lame. It feels like it's written for a B-class blog meant for teenagers and young adults. The author is clearly unfamiliar with historical research techniques and the text is full of personal views and unsupported assumtions that end up rendering it as an unreliable source.
It's not even well written, and the final chapters are simply boring. It's an absolute shame, because you can see that the author's intentions are good, but she simply isn't up to the task. In the end, you can't deny that you learn some new stuff, names, places and events that might serve you as a starting point if you want to look for more reliable sources abour the matter. But the fact is that there aren't many and there are even less focused in female pirates. So everything feels like a dead end.
As most people around here think, it's a shame. Maybe I'd rather have learnt what I've learnt reading this book than not knowing it, but this should be so much better.
September 10, 2019
I really wanted to like this book, but not only was it a little on the dry side, but the author tries so hard to force a feminist message into the book so as to loose focus entirely by the end, talking about many women who were never pirates, stretching historical research with wishful thinking, until she finishes with the Pirates of the Carribbean movie series. It seemed exceptionally strange to include information about women like Sojourner Truth, and fictional characters like Thelma and Louise, who had nothing to do with piracy, except that *maybe* they *might* have inspired these women by their own incredible bravery and agency in times when women were constrained by society to ordinariness? I guess? The pirate women in this book were certainly adventurous and brave, but they were also criminals, and probably didn't care much as a group how civil rights was going back on the mainland. I'm glad to know some interesting facts about actual historical pirates (google Cheng I Sao, she's cool), but overall this book focuses on its message over its research and was a bit of a chore to finish.
August 11, 2017
The author's premise of providing information about women pirates who were neglected in the historical record was good. However, its execution left much to be desired as the author engaged in long digressions from the presentation of information on her subject, ranted about the lack of historical sources and fictionalization of the lives to achieve an agenda, and presented pop history as background information.
The stories of the women pirates themselves were short and lacking in information or detail. Therefore, to fill out the pages the author decided to categorize well-known women criminals such as "Bonnie" of Bonnie and Clyde fame as pirates and then add a chapter including plot synopsis about the portrayal of women pirates by Hollywood which ended in a rant about the lack of good roles for women in films.
What should have been an interesting book about women left out of the historical records turned into a rant devoid of much information and the reader slogged to the end and wondered why had s/he spent the time and effort reading this book.
The stories of the women pirates themselves were short and lacking in information or detail. Therefore, to fill out the pages the author decided to categorize well-known women criminals such as "Bonnie" of Bonnie and Clyde fame as pirates and then add a chapter including plot synopsis about the portrayal of women pirates by Hollywood which ended in a rant about the lack of good roles for women in films.
What should have been an interesting book about women left out of the historical records turned into a rant devoid of much information and the reader slogged to the end and wondered why had s/he spent the time and effort reading this book.
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