Arguably the hardest part of his servitude, however, is his growing devotion to the slave-master’s niece, a frank tomboyish beauty named Arabella-hard because of the uncrossable barriers between them. The injustice rankles him, and the cruelty of his master-a certain Colonel Bishop-embitters him, even though he is allowed to continue practicing medicine rather than toiling in the fields. The young doctor doesn’t feel very lucky, though. Perhaps it’s a stroke of luck that King James decides to commute the sentence of several rebel-convicts, Blood among them, to ten years of slavery in the plantations of the West Indies. But when he is caught giving medical aid to one of the rebels, the full frenzy of the Lord Chief Justice falls on him and he is sentenced to hang for treason. Being an Irish Catholic himself, Peter takes no part in the rebellion. This bit of trouble was a response to the Catholic James II becoming king of Protestant England in 1685. A physician by training, a soldier and naval warrior by experience, he has just settled down in a quiet corner of England’s West Country when the Monmouth Rebellion breaks out. Peter Blood does not start out as the sort of many you would expect to become a pirate.
There is probably a direct line of lineage between the legend of Captain Peter Blood and the Disney franchise of Captain Jack Sparrow. His name has become embedded in our culture’s folklore, tied in with children’s make-believe about buccaneers and knights-errant of the sea. Even if you haven’t seen one of these films or read this book, you have probably heard of Captain Blood. This was a remake of an even earlier silent film.
It’s the kind of novel that you can imagine being made into a film starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland-which it was, in 1935. I chose this quote (see inset) to illustrate why this book has been so popular since it first appeared in 1922: It is beautifully written, achingly romantic, and full of swashbuckling fun. Purchase hereĪs they went, he considered her admiringly, and marveled at himself that it should have taken him so long fully to realize her slim, unusual grace, and to find her, as he now did, so entirely desirable, a woman whose charm must irradiate all the life of a man, and touch its commonplaces with magic.
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