A new installment of the film saga of Pirates of the Caribbean and surely more than one reader around here is passionate about his characters and his adventures. But I am from the old school. The Long John Silver, at least, and that's all. But there are many more pirates, real and fictional, and what has been written about them is innumerable.

So I select these 7 stories from yesterday, today and forever. A couple of classics from Sabatini, Salgari and Defoe, an essay rather than a novel about Captain Kidd, by richard zacks. The first Nobel novel Steinbeck. And two trilogies: that of Vazquez-Figueroa and of James L. Nelson.

Captain Blood - Rafael Sabatini

One of the great classics from nautical and pirate adventure novels. Thanks mainly to the equally classic film directed by michael curtiz in 1935, with about Erroll Flynn and Olivia de Havilland unforgettable.

Peter blood, a physician in seventeenth-century England, is accused having been part of the conspiracy against Jacobo II and is caught and unjustly sent to the Barbada plantations. There Blood and his friends steal a Spanish ship and become pirates who soon achieve great fortune and fame.

The watchman - James L. Nelson

This title is the first of the trilogy composed The slave y The brotherhood of the coast. It has as protagonist Thomas marlowe, who, feared in his youth as a pirate, is now a collaborator of the Virginia government in protecting its coasts. He has been appointed captain of the Plymouth Prize, the main ship of the colony, to defend himself against the Brotherhood of the Coast, a group of pirates led by Jean-Pierre LeRois, an old and very cruel acquaintance of Marlowe.

This North American author has been considered heir to style and tone de Patrick O'Brian.

General history of the robberies and murders of the most famous pirates - Daniel Defoe

This title is considered main and best documented source both for students of the History of Piracy and for the writers who gave that tone of romantic legend to pirates.

La Part was published in 1724 under the pseudonym of Captain Charles Johnson. But behind him he was hiding, as was learned much later, Daniel Defoe. Conclusion 17 biographies of notable English pirates of the time (Avery, Mary Read, Blackbeard…), Accompanied by general comments on piracy, its dangers to nations, its causes and a possible remedy. The second part deals with captains and crews operating in Madagascar, the African coast and the Indian Ocean.

Sandokan - Emilio Salgari

Sandokán is the protagonist of a adventure novel series written by the Italian writer Emilio Salgari. And the oldest of the place, like me, surely remember the 70s tv series in which all the children wanted to be this brave pirate from Malaysia. Or the Pearl of Labuán, his girlfriend. They gave me that book that I keep like gold on a cloth.

Sandokan is a prince of borneo that he has sworn revenge on the British, who dispossessed him of his throne and murdered his family. That is why he is dedicated to piracy with the nickname of Malaysian tiger. He has a crew and unconditional friends, like the Portuguese Yanez, and their base of operations is the island of momracem.

And from Salgari also another pirate, The black corsair, which was also adapted for film with the same actor who played Sandokan, the Indian Kabir Bedi.

Pirates - Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa

He could not miss the homeland fee with the famous Jacare jack, created by Vázquez-Figueroa, synonymous with great adventures. This novel tells a story full of action, emotions and intrigue, starring this Old British privateer and a very young pearl hunter Spanish, Sebastián Heredia. It is the first title of the trilogy that continues with slavers y Leon Bocanegra.

The pirate hunter - Richard Zacks

More a history book than a novel, this book disassemble the legend that Captain William Kidd was a pirate and buccaneer with a shady reputation. Zacks shows us that, in reality, Kidd was a mercenary in the service of the English Crown, tasked with capturing pirates and forcing them to return their stolen treasures. It focuses mainly on the duel that, throughout his career, Kidd had with a famous pirate, Robert Culliford. Likewise, it masterfully recreates the political and social life, both on land and at sea, of the seventeenth century.

The golden cup - John Steinbeck

Henry Morgan is one of most famous and controversial royal pirates emerged at a time when piracy was a legal and patriotic activity that was part of the war between Spain and England. Elected admiral by the buccaneers in 1666, he led an expedition that destroyed Port-au-Prince and Porto Bello.

The Nobel Prize John Steinbeck focuses on this story in the conquest of Panama (the Gold Cup), from which Morgan withdrew with abundant loot. Published in 1929, it was his first novel.