Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Captain Blood
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love swashbuckling sea stories, clever heroes and romance with a moral spine. It is also good for readers new to classic adventure.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Captain Blood is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, published in 1922 and subtitled His Odyssey. It tells of Peter Blood, an Irish doctor in the west of England who wants nothing to do with politics and is ruined by them anyway. Sabatini was a master of the historical romance, and here he set his hero in the years after the failed Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, when King James the Second ruled and the courts were merciless.
Sabatini drew on real history for his backdrop. There were genuine rebels shipped to the sugar islands as slaves, and there were genuine buccaneers on the Spanish Main. The author is said to have found his model for Blood partly in a real surgeon who was transported to Barbados, and partly in the great buccaneers of the Caribbean. He fused them into one man of wit, courage and stubborn honor, who treats his enemies with a courtesy that often confounds them.
What do you get from the book? You get a fast story of trial, slavery, escape and sea battles, told with a dry sense of humor. You also get a hero who is a pirate by force and never by taste. Let us begin where Blood begins, in a quiet Somerset town, with a man who has had enough of war.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A doctor who wants no warFree
- 2Mercy is judged as treason
- 3A slave on the island of Barbados
- 4The Spaniards come and a ship is taken
- 5A pirate by necessity, not by choice
- 6Spanish gold and a dangerous French ally
- 7Arabella, Bishop and the old life returns
- 8Injustice, honor and the chance to redeem
- 9How Sabatini tells it
Punkt 1 von 9
A doctor who wants no war
The story opens in 1685 in the town of Bridgwater, in Somerset. Peter Blood is a physician, past middle youth, and he has lived a good deal before settling down. He has been a soldier in the Dutch service and a sailor, and he has seen the inside of a foreign prison. Now he keeps a quiet practice, a pipe and a garden, and he wants only peace.
The country is stirring. The Duke of Monmouth, a son of the late king, has landed in the west to challenge his uncle King James for the crown. The people of Somerset rally to him in large numbers, and the town is full of talk of battle. Blood watches this with a shrug. He is Irish, he has no love for any English faction, and he believes that men who fight for crowns are fools who make work for doctors.
His neighbors do not share his calm. A young shipmaster named Jeremy Pitt is among those who ride to join the rebels, and Blood treats the matter as folly he cannot prevent. Blood stays home and keeps his hands clean of rebellion. Sabatini takes pains to show that this is a man with no cause to defend and no politics to hide.
The rebellion ends in a crushing defeat at Sedgemoor. Wounded fugitives scatter across the countryside, and the king's soldiers hunt them down. One of these hurt men is a young lord, and Blood is called to his side. Blood does what a doctor does, and he treats him, without asking whose side the man was on.
That single act of mercy is the hinge of the whole book. A man who set out to avoid every danger is undone by the oldest duty of his trade. From here the story never stops moving, and the quiet physician is swept out of his garden into a very different life.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- Peter Blood
- An Irish physician unjustly transported to Barbados, he becomes a buccaneer while striving to preserve his honor.
- Arabella Bishop
- Colonel Bishop's spirited niece takes pity on Blood and questions the judgments others pass upon him.
- Colonel Bishop
- A cruel Barbados planter, he purchases Blood and becomes his bitter enemy.
- Jeremy Pitt
- A young shipmaster transported alongside Blood, he becomes his loyal companion and trusted officer.
- Wolverstone
- A tough sailor among Blood's fellow convicts, he supports him and helps maintain discipline.
- Levasseur
- A ruthless French buccaneer based at Tortuga, he enters an uneasy alliance with Blood.
- Lord Julian Wade
- An English nobleman whose path crosses Blood's, he represents the respectable world that condemned him.
- Governor Steed
- The gouty governor of Barbados relies on Blood's medical skill and offers him protection.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 116,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 7 h 45 min
- Listening time12 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Captain Blood
What is Captain Blood about?
It tells of Peter Blood, an Irish doctor in 1685 England who is condemned for treating a rebel, sold as a slave in Barbados, and escapes to become a pirate captain in the Caribbean.
Is Captain Blood based on a true story?
Blood is fictional, but the setting is real. Sabatini used the Monmouth Rebellion, Judge Jeffreys and the buccaneers of the Caribbean, and borrowed from real figures such as a transported surgeon. It was published in 1922.
Who is Arabella Bishop in Captain Blood?
Arabella is the niece of Colonel Bishop, a Barbados planter. She pities Blood at the auction, and the ship he later commands carries her name. She is the book's main love interest and Blood's moral compass.
Is Captain Blood hard to read?
No. The story moves quickly and the plot is clear. Most readers find it an easy and lively adventure.
Is Captain Blood worth reading today?
Yes, if you enjoy sea adventure with wit and romance. It offers a hero with a firm moral code, vivid history, and clever action scenes, and it influenced later pirate stories and films.