"Best Novel About Pirates?" Topic

Which fiction work about historical pirates is your favorite?

"The Pyrates" by George MacDonald Fraser

Treasure Island

I'm no aficionado of pirating prose, but Treasure Island is the standard against which all others must be measured.

Treasure Island

"The Pyrates" by George MacDonald Fraser

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (terrific and very realistic depiction of piracy as it truly was; a chilling and suspenseful novel— one of the best pirate stories ever written. And yes it is a children's novel.).

Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. This one is more bizarrely fantastical, in Tim Powers's usual vein, but worth the read. Yes, one of the odder PoC sequels was based on it, not that the book and movie have that much in common.

The Pyrates! – GMF

Thanks Parzival for the other title recommendations!

Treasure Island
The Requiem Shark by Nicholas Griffin
link

To me, Stranger Tides is how Hollywood and novelists should interact.
The suits st the studio had a successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise going.
Tim Powers, completely independently, had a fine novel about Pirates, zombies, Blackbeard, and so on.
What a dynamite movie idea!
So the wiser suits at the studio contacted Powers. They offered to get a dump truck full of hundred dollar bills and dump it on his lawn. So the studio bought the rights to the title and some plot points.
Fast forward to the premiere. Powers and his wife attend, have a grand time, and Powers happily admits that "they" changed the book a bit, but that's ok and it's a fun movie.
No control freak theatrics. Just a happy, rich novelist. People will now want to buy more of his books. (Maybe "they" will want to take a look at The Drawing of the Dark!)
Hollywood makes a bundle.
Win win!

And as huge a fan as I am with Flashman and MacAuslan, I could never get into Pyrates. It just seemed to try too hard.

Swallows and Amazons

Not to mention that Tim Powers "Stranger Tides" book goes back into print and hard back copies are for sale in Cost Co. Money all around.

I concur with the OFM on Pyrates. The humor was forced and the characters uncompelling. Didn't care for it.

"The Pyrates" by George MacDonald Fraser

LOL, Good one, Etotheipi!

I remember Steven Colbert on his old show interviewing Elon Musk, methinks and he asked if he and Jobs, Zuckerberg, etc.; were actually the Head of SPECTRE!

BTW, we almost all love GMF universally here (and elsewhere), but there is a definite Yes/NO aspect to Pyrates. I guess he had me at Lobby et Corridor!

Treasure Island, of course.

Edit – I wrote the following then realized you asked for fiction.

Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson tells the story of Henry Every, one of the first international pirates. He pre-dated Edward Teach / Blackbeard and commanded the pirate voyage where another famous pirate captain died, Thomas Tew. His piracy almost caused India to kick the English out. Some of Every's crew were caught and tried in a widely publicized international pirate trial, and in fact, found innocent, and then re-charged and found guilty. Every himself was never caught and presumably retired to live off his ill-gotten gains.

Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson:
link

According to this book, the English king proclaimed an open pardon and share of loot for any pirates that would surrender and testify against their crewmates. In the fine print there was an exclusion: Henry Every was not eligible.

A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes is excellent. As is the movie by the same name with James Coburn and Anthony Quinn.

I just finished the book Treasure Island, and watched 4 versions of the the movie -- as LJS Wallace Berry(ok black/white), Robert Newton (ok, Disney color, )Charlton Heston (the best), Eddie Izzard (worst but only one with multi racial crew). Now watching Black Sails. I should have painted my pirates based on the latter.

In the top 10 of my favorite novels.

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini