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Title: Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
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Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $7.75
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks Y'ar, the market be the ultimate judge |
| 18 clams at Barnes and Noble, 3 smackers here. Enough said. Of course, that is not enough said. An okay book that tries to be both academic and interesting; it passes marginally. The problem is that the book is not well organized, at least not from a reader's perspective. Also, it has a few dull periods, which is surprising for the material. The stuff on Mrs. Cheng is also a snooze-fest. For less than $10 (incl S&H) it will not disappoint, but do not expect too much from the book. |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks very informative |
| This book was very informative about how pirates actually lived. It starts out with great stories but drags toward the middle and end with statistical information. The statistical information is good because it gives you an idea of just how prevalent piracy was, it just isn't as engaing a read as the stories in the early chapters. The book also talks at length about pirates in the movies and theater. This can become annoying if you are just interested in the facts. However, it gives great insight into the differeces between the romanticism and reality of pirates. The truth is pirate lives were hard. In general they tended not to live past thirty and died horrible deaths(drowning, shot, or hanging). Their typical career lasted around 3 years, hardly something to envy. Overall, a good read. |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks Under the Black Flag |
In the first Chapter of this book the author David Cordingly lists some movie adaptations of Stevenson's "Treasure Island."
Here's the last one:
". . . in 1990 Charlton Heston played Silver and his son played a somewhat older than usual Jim Hawkins."
In actuality Christian Bale (16 years old at the time) played Jim Hawkins
and the movie was DIRECTED by Charlton Heston's son Fraser Clarke Heston (who was 35 years old in 1990).
This was a strange error for the author to make but probably doesn't reflect on his expertise regarding actual historical pirates. Robert Louis Stevenson doesn't mention the age of his fictional hero Jim Hawkins in "Treasure Island" although there's been speculation that he was perhaps 14 or 15 years old.
Although Christian Bale was older than the other young actors who had played Hawkins previously, he gave a believable portrayal of the boy. |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks Jolly Roger ahead!! |
| It's an excellent book about pirates and their history. I loved it. It's well documented, has a lot of information and interesting anecdotes. It's well written, it's easy to read and ejoy it. I could hardly put it down. If you want to know more about bucaneers, this is definitely one book you have to read. |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks Good Survey of Pirate History |
This was a well written book on pirate history. It is more of a survey of the various pirates, stories of pirate captains, literature and films. It is probably a good entry point to studying pirates since it cites several other works on pirates, and where to find more in depth information on the pirates in various media and narratives.
It offers some critique of pirate films, and tries to separate reality from myth in the pirate stories. Overall, it was a good well-written primer in the 1685-1715 time period of pirate history. |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks Product Description |
For this rousing, revisionist history, the former head of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum has combed original documents and records to produce a most authoritative and definitive account of piracy's "Golden Age." As he explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking the plank" is pure fiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth that is more complex and often bloodier. 16 pp. of photos. Maps.
From the Hardcover edition. |
| Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by Random House Trade Paperbacks Amazon.com |
| Though literature, films, and folklore have romanticized pirates as gallant seaman who hunted for treasure in exotic locales, David Cordingly, a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in England, reveals the facts behind the legends of such outlaws as Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and Calico Jack. Even stories about buried treasure are fictitious, he says, yet still the myth remains. Though pirate captains were often sadistic villains and crews endured barbarous tortures, were constantly threatened with the possibility of death by hanging, drowning in a storm, or surviving a shipwreck on a hostile coast, pirates are still idealized. Cordingly examines why the myth of the romance of piratehood endures and why so few lived out their days in luxury on the riches they had plundered. |
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