Captain Blood
By: Rafael Sabatini / Narrated By: Robert Whitfield
Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
A jolly swashbuckler of a jaunt!
Our little audiobook club hasn’t been around for long, but suffice it to say that it started pre-pandemic, pre-good-GOSH what happened to the world. No matter, we’d always done a good ol’ variety of stuff, a variety of genres, and we’ve been having fun.
That said, during this WTF Year, we’d been getting a tad heavy in our listening choices, and when it was my turn to choose our selection, I was dithering between a rather heavy memoir about taking care of much-loved aging parents as they declined rapidly, orrrrrr…. a whimsical adventure-packed sugary treat of a book: Captain Blood.
I do dither so, it’s a flaw, so my sister suggested flipping a coin: It was going to be 3 out of 5, but danged if the quarter didn’t turn up 3 heads in a row… the Divine was telling us to chill the heck out, and we dived into this WONderful tale of Irish doctor turned Thief! Pirate! (As heroine Arabella would later call him) Buccaneer Extraordinaire Peter Blood… that’s CAPTAIN Blood to you, my friend.
After soothing some restless wanderlust, and spending a couple of years in a Spanish prison, Peter Blood returns home, intending to be a simple practicing doctor. When he tends to wounded individuals during a rebellion, he’s caught up as one who’s committed treason. Saved from the hangman’s noose, he’s instead sold off to work in “slavery” in Barbados (Keep in mind, that there are slaves and there are REAL slaves. Author Rafael Sabatini makes sure to distinguish that “Negroes” are held in even lower opinion than these white rebels… It’s jarring, really it is, but my husband advised that I listen to the tale within the context of the period it was written, waaaay early ‘round the turn of the 20th century).
Whilst there, Blood is repeatedly called upon to provide medical services as the doctors there are virtual quacks. And while gamboling freely, he meets up with the odious plantation owner’s niece, Arabella, and the two strike up a hesitant and guarded friendship.
During a vast sea skirmish/naval attack off the coast, Blood and fellow white slaves make a mad dash to freedom, and they take to a life on the seas. From there it’s one predicament after another, and it all makes for a heckuva jolly listening experience. Swarthy Captain Blood with the piercing blue eyes, he who’s named his ship the “Arabella” gets into this that and the other, and there’s so much history to be found here also with warring nations, and calculating characters.
Through it all is the reeeeally excellent narration by Robert Whitfield who throws himself into his performance, quite simply commanding the material, becoming its characters, upping the ante when we get to scenes of high-tension, extreme danger for Blood and his mates. Whether Whitfield is capturing Blood as daring captain or lovelorn lad, or whether he’s depicting the vileness of Blood’s archenemy, Bishop, or the aristocratic tones of Arabella’s would-be suitor, Whitfield just adds so much. I will tell you, however, that m’ mom had a bit of a problem with the accent he used for Blood as it reminded her of an Irish priest she once heard in a movie from a bit ago. Neither my sister nor I were tainted by the movie, so we didn’t have the same knee-jerk aversion to Peter Blood’s accent which became deCIDedly more Irish the more exasperated the Captain got.
A wonderful audio production and listening experience all around!
Nothing like a little seafaring chaos and mayhem to lighten these dark, dark days of ours… And never have I been happier to see 3 heads tossed in a row!
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