Pirates in Fiction and Reality

The stories of roughneck pirates roaming the decks of black-flagged vesselshave fascinated readers of all ages since their early beginnings and haveshaped today's common conception of pirate life and sea adventures. Byexamining the representation of pirates in Daniel Defoe's 'Captain Singleton'James Fenimore Cooper's 'The Red Rover' Frederick Marryat's 'The Pirate'Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' and J.M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan' theauthor not only compares the image created by fiction to the reality of the'Golden Age of Piracy' but tries to answer the question of why after morethan 200 years people are still fascinated by vicious pirate captains onawesome vessels and deserted Caribbean islands. The thesis casts a glance atthe legends behind the stories of Silver Hook and Co. Were they reallymythical figures or simply ill-mannered searobbers that did not live up totheir reputation?