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THE
MEMOIRS OF A BUCCANEER
The Adventures and Amours
of Louis Le Golif.
George Allen & Unwin
Ltd. London. 1954.
Translated from the French
Cahiers du Louis Ademar Timothee Le Golif, published in Paris by Bernard
Grasset, 1952. Edited by G. Alaux and A. t'Scrstevens and translated by
Malcolm Barnes.
Hardcover, dustjacket, 236
pages.
From the fly: In his introduction
to this extraordinary career of M.t'Serstevens, a noted French novelist,
it was then that the manuscript was discovered in the ruins of St. Malo
after the olde side o)f the city had been destroyed during the the Allied
landings of 1944. According to the editors, three bulky handwritten volumes,
partly damaged by fire and exposure, were found with other papers in a
half-bumt chest. It took the finders much trouble to piece the work
together, but when the ornate writing and strange orthography had been
deciphered, it proved to be no less than the memoirs of a 17th century
French buccaneer, who sailed for " the American islands" as a young man
and returned to St. Malo many years later, enriched by the booty he had
taken from the Spaniards. His name was Louis-Adhemar Timothee le
Golif, and he was known as ‘ Borgnefesse' because he had lost the
flesh of one buttock in a fight. His narrative was encumbered by a great
deal of matter of little interest to modem readers. This the editors excised
and what remains is a fascinating, exciting and often hilarious tale of
private life-of voyagin among the tropical islands, of fights at sea and
raids upon the towns of New Spain, of plundering, seduction, duelling,
rapine, feasting and drinking - a tale that will hold the reader enthralled
from the first word to the last. Nothing like this picturesque document
has ever before come to light. Borgnefesse, its author, with all
his boasting and bluster, and his amorous dealings with the Spanish ladies,
is a magnificent and lovable character, whom no reader will ever forget.
[ps] |
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THE
HISTORY OF PIRACY
Philip Gosse.
Tudor Publishing Company,
New York, 1932.
Hardcover, dustjacket, uncut
edges, 349 pages, a few mono plates, index (very comprehensive), and excellent
bibliography.
From the fly: "Dr. Gosse's
history is the last word in scholarship on the subject of piracy, combined
with a dramatic narrative and a most exciting collection of human beings.
Covering a period from the
earliest classical times
to the present day, the volume treats the historical aspect of the subject
exhaustively, but through-out, strung along on the narrative, are amusing
or dramatic incidents and odd characters, very human, eccentric and often
quite lovable.
Dr. Gosse is the son of
the late Sir Edmund Gosse, the eminent critic and man of letters who died
two years ago. He is known as the foremost collector in Great Britain of
Pirate literature, and the material employed in this volume includes not
only all of the standard contemporary works about pirates but a good many
unique documents, pamphlets, letters, memoranda, official edicts, etc.
from Dr. Gosse's own collection."
So you could get the impression
that this is more than a screen script for Hollywood's next Pirates of
the Carrabbean, thank God! This is a very important work, in four parts,
covering The Barbary Coast; The Pirates of the North: The Pirates of the
West; The Pirates of the East. [ps] |
