Fanny Laviot - A Lady's Captivity Among Chinese Pirates

Image via WikipediaFanny Laviot's "A Lady's Captivity Among Chinese Pirates" is a true story account of a woman who went abroad from France looking for an adventure who falls into the hands of Chinese pirates. It is written in first person, as it is an autobiographical account. The book can be downloaded freely from Gutenberg.org.

She and her friend at first tried to make a life in San Francisco. The descriptions of San Francisco are quite arresting. She describes how divided the city was (perhaps still is?) by ethnicity. In particular, how she described how black people were treated was startling. For what reason, in San Francisco, were blacks so pitifully treated? After some time and the misfortune of having her property burn down in a large fire, Fanny sets off for another voyage.

This voyage, however, would be more brutal than the last. After leaving Hong Kong, she along with the crew of the Caldera, get struck by a typhoon. The typhoon cripples the ship, which makes her an easy target for Chinese pirates. The pirates waste no time in finding the Caldera, boarding her, and looting everything; also, taking prisoner the captain, crew, and passengers.

Laviot suffers harsh conditions in captivity. The pirates threw her and her friend Than-Sing, a Chinese merchant. After suffering the hold of a junk (a type of boat) for several weeks, she and her friend survive confinement, abuse, great fear, and the threat of murder. When she was finally rescued, she was so unlike herself that she hardly recognized herself in a mirror. Thereafter, she became a bit of a celebrity.

The story is very well written and translated. The imagery wrought by her pen's vocabulary was skillful and descriptive without being pedantic.

The Pirate City, an Algerian Tale; R. M. Ballantyne

Cover via AmazonThis is a review of "The Pirate City" by R. M. Ballantyne. Publication is 1874. Ballantyne was a fairly prolific writer of a variety of youth adventure books.

There is just something that draws the baser elements of my character to the history and mythology of the pirate. Therefore, when I saw "The Pirate City, an Algerian Tale," on a list of recent releases from Gutenberg.org, I felt obliged to download it.

In the beginning, three characters are sent off to fates that none of them wants: Mariano, to be a clerk; Juliet, to be a nun; Lucien, to that of a priest.

As they sail off from Sicily to their unwanted fates, however, a pirate who will be well known throughout the tale as Sidi Hassan. He and his crew capture the ship and the three characters, alongside a Jew named Bacri who does everything in his power to help the three during the fight between the two ships and then even more as the three are brought into the Pirate City.

There is no known reason why Bacri decides to help these three. And for the way they treat him, it is hard to understand what his motivation is. In the end, though, without his help, they would have all died at the hands of the Turks who run the city.

Juliet is taken to a British consul's villa, Colonel Langley, to become the servant and slave to his wife, Agnes. Often the Langley couple are described as being superior to those around them in many ways.

Eventually, the king of city, referred to as the Dey, is disposed by a ruthless man. He, in turn, is disposed by one of his allies in the coup who is executed as soon as the coup is successful.

In the end, a small British fleet, under the command of Lord Exmouth, destroy the pirate city and liberate most of the slaves and effectively cripple the power of the pirate city which would never quite recover from the attack.

Racism!

The problem I had with this book relates to the way Bacri is treated. Even at the end of the tale, we find that he is strangled. Bacri is essential to the survival of all the important characters in the story. Yet, the author has him strangled at the end.

It's also difficult to reconcile with the way Christians are promoted, and the way that the other religions are denigrated. Also, for parents of younger children, there might be some objectionable violence graphically depicted in the tale.

Nonetheless, it was a fun book to read.