Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer: A Romance of the Spanish Main

Brady, Cyrus Townsend, 1861-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
468K words
Chapters
47

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Historical ReappraisalLegendary LivesAdventure JourneyAntiheroJianghu FeudSea AdventurePirate LegendHeroismExotic CultureSpanish Main

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer: A Romance of the Spanish Main by Cyrus Townsend BradyAuthor: Brady, Cyrus Townsend, 1861-1920,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 4, 2009

Editor's review

This is an adventure romance set in the seventeenth-century Caribbean, its protagonist drawn from the real Welsh privateer Henry Morgan; but the author, Cyrus Townsend Brady, marks it a "romance" in the subtitle, signalling that the plot is largely invented and embellished and should not be read as history. Its appeal lies in the adventure framework of sea voyages, attack and defence, and the manoeuvring of characters, told with the unmistakable relish of old-fashioned popular fiction: brisk in pace and shifting scenes often. Readers who enjoy pirate themes, the colonial Caribbean setting, or early American popular literature will find an experience stamped with its era. A caution: the book was written in the early twentieth century, and its treatment of violence, colonialism and gender roles follows the conventions of popular fiction of the time; today's readers should approach it with a critical eye. This is a public-domain English e-book, old-fashioned in style, with many long sentences and nautical terms, so non-native readers may need supporting tools. Overall it suits leisure reading in the genre or as collateral evidence in the history of American popular fiction, not as a basis for research on Caribbean history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the subtitle and the author's note to confirm that this is a romance rather than a history book, and adjust your expectations accordingly.
  2. If you encounter nautical terms or old-fashioned expressions, you can skip them at first and focus on the main line of character relationships and conflicts.
  3. You can read alongside publicly available historical material on Henry Morgan to distinguish fact from fictional plot.
  4. If the English is difficult, read a Chinese summary of a chapter first and then return to the original to reduce frustration.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

Is the Henry Morgan in this book a real historical figure? Henry Morgan was a real seventeenth-century Caribbean privateer. But the subtitle marks the book as a "romance", and its plot is largely the author's invention and embellishment; its characterisation and event details should not be cited as historical fact.
Is this book suitable for young readers? It depends on the edition and the reader. The book was written long ago and contains scenes of sea conflict and violence, in a style shaped by the limitations of its time. For younger readers, parents or teachers should look through it first, or choose an annotated edition.
Is the English original difficult to read? It is moderately to fairly difficult. The author uses early twentieth-century narrative language, with many long sentences and nautical and geographical vocabulary. Readers with experience of English fiction can attempt it; complete beginners would do better with notes or a translation.
Does the e-edition include notes or an introduction? According to the available information, this is a public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg and generally contains the main text only; academic notes or an introduction are not guaranteed. For background, consult separate sources on Caribbean privateering history and the author's life.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Brady, Cyrus Townsend, 1861-1920 Author

Cyrus Townsend Brady (1861–1920) was an American writer known for historical adventure and military fiction, though public information about the details of his life is limited. Twelve of his works are held in this collection, with subjects centered on naval warfare, the Revolutionary War, the colonial Caribbean, and the Indian Wars of North America. Commodore Paul Jones portrays the famous naval commander, Indian Fights and Fighters focuses on soldiers and their clashes with the Sioux, and other tales are set against figures such as Henry Morgan and the Battle of Waterloo. He combined real historical events with fictional characters, writing brisk narratives that emphasize battle scenes and personal courage, with a marked patriotic and inspirational tone that appealed to popular readers in the early twentieth century.