The Penguin Book of Pirates is a well curated collection of historical accounts, reminiscences, studies, and essays on pirates edited by Katherine Howe. Released 30th April 2024 by Penguin on their Classics imprint, it's 400 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook fomats.

Pirates have fascinated the public and been romanticized for centuries. Many were businessmen or women (more or less), some were ruthless psychopaths, but nearly all were larger than life leaving behind legacies of lost treasure, adventures, and legends. This book collects stories and historical accounts from the extant records in more or less chronological order from the 17th-19th centuries.

Records include letters, contemporary accounts, historical records, and some few excerpts from literature (fictional or based loosely on actual history). The editor has done a good job with the annotations throughout and the chapter notes will provide readers with many hours of further reading. The publisher/author have also included a cross referenced index and suggested reading lists.

Four and a half stars. Precisely fulfills the stated purpose efficiently and very well. It's a solid reference, and would be a great choice for public or school library acquisition, home reference, and possibly gift-giving to fans of nautical history.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I was expecting a narrative story about the history of pirates but instead we get real letters about and from actual pirates. I enjoyed this because it gave you a more unbiased look into how pirates actually acted. It also looks at lesser-known pirates as well, giving you a better idea of what they were actually like.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Penguin Publishing Group-Penguin for an advance copy of this history of pirates, buccaneers and others who sailed the seas robbing as they went, and the many tall tales, legends, and unfortunately real violent actions they committed.

When I was young I was addicted to a computer game called Sid Meier's Pirates!. I played this game endlessly, alone or with my friends. One picked who they wanted to be French, Dutch, English, Spanish, the time period, and sailed the seas committing, well piracy. There was a script family to find, bad guys to get revenge on, but we didn't care. We just sailed around, stealing boats, attacking towns, selling our goods, and maybe marrying the daughter of a governor. Or 4. At the end when retiring, one was judged by one's wealth, and the rest of one's day would be spent as anything from a bartender, to Governor, or more. Which is a fate that most pirates never were offered, and something that even to my young mind seemed wrong. How could I be a governor when I was killing, stealing and destroying what I could not carry? And that is the problem with piracy, as shown in this book. A pirate is useful, until he is not. And for all the Disney dream making of Pirates today, the reality was far worse, and violent, than PG movies will show. The Penguin Book of Pirates is edited by Katherine Howe, author of many fine historical novels, and is a long list of the scum and villainy that sailed the seas, and many of the events and actions that occurred.

The introduction by Howe touches on the fact that people love pirates, even have a day where they talk like one. Howe also touches on life at sea, the long time away from family, following orders, being stolen away to serve on ships, and the risk of injury leaving one destitute for life. Howe also touches on the the violence that was everyday life. The book than looks at the pirates of events written in a chronological order starting in about 1570 and continuing to the 1839. This covers the Golden Age of Piracy, along with many of the names that still resound. Captain Morgan, Blackbeard, Black Bart and even women life Anne Bonny, and the Irish pirate Grace O'Mally. The chapters begin with a brief introduction again from Howe, about the person and clears up any questions, then gives period reports of the pirates. These can be journals, contemporary books, court transcripts, and letters, along with footnotes, for further information.

A great primer on the world of pirates, and perfect for someone who has an interest, but only knows movie pirates. Or that doubloons were always the prize. The book discusses the use of pirates to enrich merchants, make towns wealthier, and as control against enemies. What comes across most is that while a few made it to old age, most did not, ending up sometimes just a head hanging in a harbor entrances, warning others about the pirate life. There is a lot of violence here, and a lot of discussion pirates and the slave trade, much more than I have seen in other books. Some of the accounts one could tell were to sell newspapers, but others, especially the confessions can even now surprise for some of the atrocities that appear.

A interesting history, one that is both useful to the beginning nautical reader or for someone who wants to know more about pirates Writers also will get much from this book, ideas on characters, motivations for violent actions, great names, and maybe even story ideas, for fantasy, science fiction, or even historical adventures.

Now, I don't claim to be a genius when it comes to all thing's pirates, but I feel as if this book could have had a bit more clarity. Let me explain that throughout this book, I found myself having to look up numerous words, locations, objects, people, and overall history. This book could be beneficial to people who have previous knowledge of pirates. But it would have little value to people who are trying to tip their toes in all thing's pirates. Beginners might find the title misleading; I know I did, as the title feels beginner. Overall, the book is very insightful, and the writing feels like the author truly knows what they are talking about.

I'm not in college anymore, but I can definitely see this entertaining and historically deep book being used in academic settings, bringing light to actual pirates in history. I