Goodreads Review
I read Captain Blood back to back with Sea Hawk, and there were enough similarities between them (and Scaramouche, which I read a while back) that I'm writing the same review for both of them. The sceneries are completely different, and I'm pretty sure Sabatini did his research, but the plots trace the same path. You start with a good man of means; either here or somewhere down the line he meets his true love; he is undeservedly betrayed when another party lays shame and guilt at his door step; he then flees to the French countryside, Algiers, or the Caribbean; he escapes from the bondage his dire straits have put him in; he becomes a legend in his shady subculture; he is exonerated, by the power of love or by happenstance; he is reunited with his true love and his old life. Now, these are not bad stories, they just have certain themes that eventually you notice. He's writing at the beginning of the 20th century, and there's racist sexist and classist stereotypes, but they're at least better than other authors writing at the time. So it's simultaneously discomforting and encouraging. He presents his ripping yarns with beautiful descriptive passages, and you never feel bogged down in the story while nothing happens. It's no surprise that classic Hollywood loves his books.
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