Howard Pyles Book of Pirates
Fiction, Fact, and Fancy Concerning the Buccaneers and Marooners of the Spanish Main

This collection of popular pirate stories, which mostly centre around brave non-pirates who crossed paths with an infamous pirate and lived to tell the tale, were refreshing to read. However, they are very romanticised stories focusing on the more adventurous side of piracy than the true aspect of i......more

What really stood out were the absolutely stunning and beautiful illustrations throughout the book. Looking at them you could smell the rum, fish and cannon powder and hear the ocean and gun shots. If you liked Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, then you will enjoy this book. It's not written......more

This was a fun listen!......more

I think Pyle envisioned this as a "Come for the pictures, stay for the prose" book. The best part is the nonfictional history of the 1600s buccaneers, but even then, the prose retains the pompous tone and the pro-colonial values (read: Imperial worshiping, puritanical, racist as fuck, and the same t......more

The greatest strength of this book is its fantastic and incredibly well written introduction, followed by great high-seas adventure full of pirate history and not Disney fantasy. Historical stories of well known pirates such as Captain Henry Morgan, Captain Edward Teach, aka the infamous Black Beard,......more