7 h 29 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 29 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when the open sky becomes a hunting ground for pirates?
Above the Atlantic, flight opens a new frontier for crime. In The Air Pirate, Guy Thorne brings piracy into the air, where speed and danger drive a contest between pursuers and pursued. The promise of flight has a darker side: the same freedom that invites bold adventure also gives wicked people new possibilities.
This adventure draws on an age when aeroplanes and airships are new, and their future stirs both wonder and fear. Daring pursuit and high-stakes intrigue keep the focus on action. Rather than deep psychological portraits, Thorne offers the pleasures of an old-fashioned chase, with the Atlantic sky as its wide arena.
What you’ll discover
- Piracy above the Atlantic Enter a world where the threat of piracy reaches beyond the sea into the sky.
- The pull of pursuit Follow a contest between pursuers and pursued, driven by speed, danger, and daring.
- Flight with a darker edge Explore the unsettling possibilities of new technology in the hands of wicked people.
- Wonder meets fear Glimpse how early flying adventures imagine a future full of promise and threat.
- Adventure at a fast pace Enjoy a story that puts action and high-stakes intrigue at the heart of its appeal.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy early air adventure, detective chases built on clues, villains with a cause, and love stories tested by danger.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An engagement hides a warning
- Speed and silence protect the raiders
- Public duty becomes a private vow
- Custance accepts another mind
- A forgotten rejection supplies the name
- The trail descends beneath Tregeraint
- Pride binds the pirate crew
- Love strengthens and blinds the hunter
- The survivor looks back with regret
Who’s who
- Sir John CustanceThe thirty-year-old Chief Commissioner of Air Police, who tells the story and sets out in disguise to find the pirate who took his fiancée.
- Constance ShepherdA beloved light-comedy actress, newly engaged to Custance, whose courage matters as much as his when she is carried off.
- DanjuroA small, brilliant Japanese investigator lent by Van Adams, who reasons out the pirate's identity and fights with deadly skill.
- Henry HelzephronA Victoria Cross war pilot gone bad, who leads a gang of ruined gentlemen and wants Constance as his own.
- Mr. Van AdamsAn American multimillionaire with a pike-like jaw who helps Custance because he knows what it is to lose a daughter.
- Charles ThumbwoodCustance's loyal former jockey valet, who gathers gossip, drives, shoots, and fixes his eye on Connie's maid.
- VargusA refined, soft-voiced pianist in the pirate crew who plays Chopin with remorse and hates with ferocity.
- Herbert GascoigneA handsome young man expelled from Oxford, now Helzephron's follower and the second pilot of the Pirate Ship.
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The Air Pirate in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Air Pirate
by Guy Thorne · 1919
Sir John Custance hunts a silent airship from a Cornish inn to a sea cave to find his stolen fiancée Constance.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you do if a silent airship robbed two liners and carried off the woman you had promised to marry only hours before? Sir John Custance, the young head of Britain's Air Police, faces exactly that in The Air Pirate.
The Air Pirate at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 57,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1919by Guy Thorne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A proposal on the train starts everything
On a June morning Sir John Custance boards the Riviera Express at Paddington. Today he means to ask the actress Constance Shepherd to marry him. She is bound for Plymouth to catch the airliner Atlantis to New York.
A midnight message from the White Star Line has asked for him at once, but he goes back to sleep and travels by train.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1919
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Thorne, Guy. The Air Pirate. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-air-pirate.
Thorne, G. (2026). The air pirate. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-air-pirate (Original work published 1919)
Thorne, Guy. The Air Pirate. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-air-pirate.
@book{thorne2026air,
author = {Thorne, Guy},
title = {The Air Pirate},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-air-pirate},
note = {First published 1919}
}
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What is The Air Pirate about?
It follows Sir John Custance, head of Britain's Air Police, as a silent, very fast airship robs two Atlantic liners and kidnaps his fiancée. With a Japanese investigator he tracks the pirate leader to a hidden Cornish lair.
Who is Danjuro in The Air Pirate?
Danjuro is a small Japanese investigator and bodyguard to the American millionaire Van Adams. Van Adams lends him to Custance for a month. He deduces the pirate's identity, plans the attack on the lair, and fights with great skill.
Is The Air Pirate a true story?
No, it is a made-up adventure by Guy Thorne set in an imagined near future where large passenger airships cross the Atlantic. It reflects early twentieth century hopes and fears about flight and the new power of aircraft.
The author
Guy Thorne
1876–1923 · English journalist and novelist
Guy Thorne was the pen name of Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull, an English journalist and novelist. He was born in England in 1876 and died in 1923. He wrote novels under this name, including When It Was Dark, published in 1903, and The Air Pirate.
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