Captain Blood

This is a classic swashbuckler filled with swordplay and adventure. Peter Blood, a physician and English gentleman, runs afoul of the crown and is enslaved on a Barbados plantation.

Raphael Sabatini (1875-1950) was born in Italy and, after moving around Europe throughout his childhood and adolescence, settled in England in 1892. He became an internationally bestselling author with the publication of Scaramouche in 1921. His other novels include The Sea Hawk and The Gamester.

Gary Hoppenstand is associate chair of the department of American thought and language at Michigan State University. He has published and edited numerous books and articles, among them the Penguin Classics edition of A. E. W. Mason's The Four Feathers.