The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told

by Stephen Vincent Brennan (Editor)

Over the years, thousands of tales both true and fantastic have been told about the dastardly thievery of pirates, and their rum-drunk exploits and high-seas violence never fail to delight. Now in a brand-new series collection, The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told includes many of the very best pirate yarns ever created on history’s most debaucherous scalawags. Anyone who loves a good story full of excitement, adventure, thrills, and laughs will find this collection irresistible.

The stories, songs, and verses include writing by Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Lou- is Stevenson, and many more. Moving through the pages of time, this collection will take you from the dastardly deeds of ancient pi- rates to the extravagant exploits of classical times. Each story offers swashbuckling adventure that will send you all over the world, from the dangerous currents of the Mediterranean to the sandy beaches of the Middle East. Whether it’s a historical overview of ferocious pirate activity that defined the seas of the past, an in-depth look at a smarmy captain of the high seas, or a boyhood frolic in a world of danger and doubloons, this collection will please any lover of the bandits of the ocean who wants to experience the deadly world of pirates without the risk of walking the plank. This fantastic collec- tion is full of illustrations that bring to life the adventures of those daring dogs of the seven seas.

Genres: Pirates, Literature, Fiction

556 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Stephen Brennan is the co-author of The Adventurous Boy's Handbook and The Adventurous Girl's Handbook, and editor of The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told and The Best Sailing Stories Ever Told. He has worked as a circus clown, teacher, cabaret artist, actor, director, shepherd, and playwright. He lives in New York City and Woodstock, New York.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this ebook up on BookBub for a very low price; caught my eye as a big fan of “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” This is a BIG book and took me almost a full year to read it, bouncing between this one and others. It’s hard to describe it in a few words, as it’s so comprehensive. So let me describe some features:

The book starts out with piracy in the ancient world, and I found I went to Wikipedia numerous times, mostly for maps of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, which is where those rascally curs plied their piratical trade. Indeed, I came to see this whole book as a great lesson on world geography, from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean to New Zealand to China and points inbetween. In this facet alone I felt this was a great book, and indeed one can view it as a text on maritime history, describing not only voyages and plundering but also the everyday life of a sailor. There are perhaps twenty descriptions of piracy throughout the ages, with a notable story about how Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and bargained with them to raise his ransom because he was such an important personage.

The next section describes captains, including Bluebeard, Blackbeard, Barbarossa John Rackham and his two notable females, Anne Bonney and Mary Reade, competent captains in their own right. This section also contains some chapters which are the legal proceedings against pirates, along with the verbatim accounts of the accused themselves, as well as the sentences (mostly hanging). While these were somewhat interesting, they were quite dry and plodding, as befits legalese. Nonetheless, the back stories of these notorious captains were very intriguing.

The next section is “Pirate Song and Verse,” which is both, being descriptions of pirates and songs of the pirates, including some quotes and last words of a number of them. The longest is an 1814 poem, “The Corsair,” by Lord Byron. Wikipedia indicates that this was perhaps based on the life of Jean Lafitte, and was extremely popular in its day. Well, for me it was interminable and very difficult to get through, largely, I think, because of the quirky 19th Century English, within which I lost the story line many times. But I digress.

The last part, “The Tales,” is a collection of fiction, mostly quite enjoyable, including an early chapter from Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim” and the first chapter of “Treasure Island.” The entire book is sprinkled with entries from well-known authors and adventurer, such as Daniel Defoe, John Seawall, Howard Pyle and Mark Twain.

All in all, I found this book enjoyable and educational and I’d give it four stars and would recommend it, as long as you are forewarned that it’ll take you some time to get through it and that some parts are not as enjoyable as others.

[Anthony Patten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was great! It'll be a good pirate reference book for me for a long time. My only complaint is that some of the formats (court proceedings, long songs) were a bit of a difficult slog for a casual reader. But the stories by Mark Twain, R. L. Stevenson, and the various accounts of naval captains deserve to be kept in the same place. Liked it.

[Elisabeth Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get past the first section as it is obviously ahistorical. Some parts might be worth checking out since it's an anthology, but with that setup, I sure wouldn't recommend checking it out as an audiobook.

[Diedra Eby · Rating 1 out of 5]

These DEFINITELY were not the best pirate stories ever to told. I didn't even like them enough to get through the whole stories. They were very poorly written and I could not find anything redeeming about them. Just say no.

[K.B. Hallman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all anthologies, some bits are better than others. This was an interesting mix of nonfiction accounts, legal documents, and fiction. The narrator stumbles occasionally and, sadly, these bobbles were not edited out.