In honor of today, you can read this entire site as translated into PirateSpeak thanks to the Pirate Translator. Or you can walk another site of your choice off the plank! Arrrrggh!
Here be some guides to treasure:
- Pirates and Privateers: The History of Maritime Piracy. A treasure island i' the Internetted seas!
- A timeline o' pirate history
- The Project Gutenberg online edition of Rafael Sabatini's fine novel Captain Blood. Ahoy! There's also this version.
- Cap'n Blood was also made into a fine movie starrin' the blackguard Errol Flynn.
- The Pirates o' Penzance
- Lest you think 'twas only men out there on the high seas, we must remind ye there was also women pirates. Aye!
- China Mieville wrote a book once called The Scar
, and it's got weird pirates, sea monsters, and lotsa riggin'. Ya can hear him read from it in his own scurvy voice if ya so please, matey.
- That ol' bilge rat Timothy McSweeney's found himself some pirate riddles
- Language Log has found a keyboard for pirates.
The thing that most amazed me about Treasure Island when I reread it some years ago was how different Long John Silver was from his portrayal in the movies - younger, blond, more dangerous than quaint. RLS' model for him, supposedly, was the poet W.E. Henley.
ReplyDeleteRick Bowes
Very true, Rick. I actually found it difficult to remove the image from the movies and follow the book's descriptions.
ReplyDeleteI'm now reading some of Stevenson's short stories, which I've never paid attention to before. They're quite astounding.
I reread Treasure Island last year, after reading a critical book on great children's/young adult's literature. The main point of the critical book was to look at what stories left a strong mark on the writer, and why these books had done so.
ReplyDeleteI found TI very satisfying, having picked up a hardcover quality edition with Wyeth illustrations at a used book store.