Captain Blood

Peter Blood is an Irish physician who wants no part of England's quarrels. But when he dresses the wounds of a rebel after the Monmouth Rising of 1685, the courts of King James II call it treason, and Judge Jeffreys sends him in chains to Barbados to be sold like cattle. Bought for ten pounds by the brutal Colonel Bishop, Blood loses everything but his wit — and his wit will be enough.

Escaping to the open sea, Blood becomes the most feared and most scrupulous buccaneer in the Caribbean: sparing English ships, preying on the Spanish, and keeping a code of honour cleaner than the law that destroyed him. He wins by intelligence rather than brute force, talking his way off the gallows and out of every trap with a cool, ironic gallantry that never deserts him. Only one thing eludes him — the good opinion of Arabella Bishop, the colonel's niece, who believes him a common cutthroat.

Captain Blood is the supreme historical swashbuckler, a tale of justice and injustice, honour among outlaws, and the gentleman-rogue Sabatini perfected and the movies never let go. Filmed in 1935 with a young Errol Flynn — the picture that made him a star and founded the sound-era adventure film — it remains as fast, as witty, and as satisfying as the day it was written.

This edition presents the complete novel in clean, modern typesetting, with an editor's foreword on the book's composition and craft, a biographical note, a guide to further reading, and questions for reflection.