Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45699 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-17
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 413 pages

Synopsis
Repackaged to tie-in with hardback publication of 'The Reavers' and to appeal to a new generation of George MacDonald Fraser fans, 'The Pyrates' is a swashbuckling romp of a novel. The Pyrates is all the swashbucklers that ever were, rolled into one great Technicoloured pantomime -- tall ships and desert islands, impossibly gallant adventurers and glamorous heroines, buried treasure and Black Spots, devilish Dons and ghastly dungeons, plots, duels, escapes, savage rituals, tender romance and steaming passion, all to the accompaniment of ringing steel, thunderous broadsides, sweeping film music, and the sound of cursing extras falling in the water and exchanging period dialogue. Even Hollywood buccaneers were never like this.

Customer Reviews

A thrilling romp
The greatest pirate movie never made, Macdonald Fraser throws all the required ingredients together to produce a swashbuckling gem full of adeventures on the high seas, desert islands, mighty galleons and a cast full of rascals, maidens and a perfect hero. The writing is lively, entertaining and humourous; we're never allowed to take the plot too seriously and the frequent allusions to the cliches of pirate movies makes sure this book is always enjoyable to read. The book did feel rather long at 400 pages but was consistently entertaining.

Wonderful and Hilarious
This is a clear labour of love from Fraser. He drew heavily on the images of swashbuckling for the "Flashman" series , particularly the likes of Errol Flynn in "Captain Blood" and "The Sea Hawk", and Burt Lancaster in "The Crimson Pirate".

With this book he gets in everything and it is hilarious. The modern touches and references all work, as do the refrences to "the Korngold music sweeps in" startling the sailors, and the greatest sea battle -Flynn versus Rathbone in the Warner Brothers tank...!

Best comic creation though is Happy Dan trying to master French verbs

Well worth reading.

Supremely silly, but what silliness.
I've always been a fan of GMF and have read the entire canon. Some of his work is brilliant, all of it is good. The Pyrates is just between very good and brilliant and it is clear the influences that went into the writing. Other reviewers outline the plot and I'll not do so here. I will say that the entire book is an incongruity and is not to be taken seriously: if you dislike absurdities and deliberate stereotypes and hackneyed cliches then avoid this. If not, then it is perhaps one of the funniest books you may ever read. Dissimilar in every way to other GMF works the nearest it comes is in his screenplays, but even they are in their own way serious. It is a well-written piece that shows an imagination that I can only dream of and wonder at. It made me smile, almost all the time and laugh out loud more times than I'd care to remember. Overall, great fun, well-written and highly enjoyable. But only if you have sense of the absurd.