CAPTAIN MURDERER

by George Harland

Captain Murderer, a possible relation of the Blue Beard family, weds a series of wealthy young girls that he then proceeds to kill and bake into a pie.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Crime, Gothic, Fairy Tales

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1850

Reviews

[Peter]

What a nasty piece of fiction! Where's the meat? is the key question in this grotesque. Captain murderer is constantly looking for young women to marry. If you read this over-the-top fairy tale you'll soon find out why. But his last wife has a special surprise in her for him. Can you guess what? A very interesting untypical Dickens story. Recommended!

[dianne b.]

Victorian silly creepy. This apparently was a tale young Charles Dickens was told by his favorite nanny. Several sweet young things were consumed in pies by the dastardly Captain Murderer on their wedding night. I think women are a bit more intelligent these days as this cad married, it seems, every time he became hungry, and no one was suspicious. Odd, that.

[Rhys Causon]

Silly piece of Fairy Tale like horror from Dickens... don’t really know how I feel about this story really but on the surface level I enjoyed it.

[Vaishali]

Whoah... this is one bloody, violent story! And from Charles Dickens??? Far more macabre and shocking - and funny - than Blue Beard. Very surprising... great stuff.

[M. Rahman]

I don't know whom is this story for. it is too brutal for children and too silly for grownups.

[Derek L.]

I've got to say that this was probably one of the absolute best Halloween reads this year! I heard the story first, in a horror short story collection, then decided to hunt for my own physical copy of the story. The images are haunting, and the story is equally haunting. This deserves to be read every Spooktober!

[jamako]

A surprisingly dull and silly story. Did expect more from this.

[Dave]

Terrible.

[Gr1972]

3.5 out of 5

[Tom]

Bluebeard meets Sweeney Todd. Brides are baked into pies by Captain Murderer. A creepy fairytale, brides are peppered and salted for maximum taste, whilst the captain files his teeth into razor sharp points. Finally he is outwitted by the sister of his penultimate dinner, who poisons the final piecrust with toad's eyes and spider's knees. He blows up with a large explosion. Indigestion is a terrible thing.

[Caitlin Ball]

The disturbing story of a cannibal.

[Maxi Bolongaita]

There were only ten copies of this book in the Philippines in the mid 1980s and my mother got me one. Captain Murderer was the first book I ever learned how to read at the tender age of three and it set my reading taste for the rest of my life. In fact, I still have the very same copy and it is now over thirty years old!

The illustrations are fantastic (especially the brides before the pie!) and the story as told by the nanny to the young sickly Charles Dickens was wonderfully Victorian. I do so enjoy dark Gothic tales, so thank you, Mr. Dickens, for the gift of reading.

[Michael Earp]

A Bluebeard tale with a cannibalistic twist.

[Rick West]

This is a Dickens tale. Much like a Grimm's tale. Murder with people being eaten. but not scary at all.

[Ange]

A bit gruesome and probably not for children. Reminiscent of Sweeney Todd.

[Chirpy]

Predictable....

[Yashika Sharma]

It's not for the light-hearted, first of all.

After you get over the sheer brutality that is given by Dickens in the story, you finally understand the want of justice and revenge. The description, the action and the story move so quickly that it makes you wonder for a moment.
Dickens made sure that even the readers feel they want to pierce and kill 'the protagonist' in a mere one and half page story. Also, calling Captain Murderer a protagonist is also quite debatable.
All in all, it is a five-minute read, but will stay with for a long, long time.