Friday, January 07, 2005
Pirates! by Celia Rees
Pirates! is a much darker story than Piratica. The main female characters of Pirates! seem more like victims and yet they are somehow more real than the colourful Piratica. Nancy Kington is the only daughter of a wealthy merchant; she runs free and wild and is spoiled by her father and brothers. When times get hard and the family business is in jeapardy, her father remarries, his new wife is determined to make Nancy into a woman of quality. Nancy has her own ideas of who she should marry and what her future will be. Several people try to tell her how unrealistic those dreams are but she is resistant to their clarity.
More troubles come on the family and Nancy finds herself promised to marry a rich and scary man who used to be a pirate. She also learns how much of her family fortune is dependant on the slave trade and she is upset. Nancy still can't bring herself to settle down or accept her engagemnt and when she murders an evil man (on the same night that she kills a man to release him from torture) she flees with a family slave into the mountains of Jamaica. Fleeing from her abusive fiancee, Nancy and Minerva join a pirate band. These are not the gentle pirates of Piratica although the crew does not kill often since it is a waste and they do stick by their rules. They are ruthless in their dedication to their goals and some are more bloodthirsty than others. None can compare to the treachery, dedication, and blood lust of the jilted fiancee. Nancy can feel him chasing her through her dreams.
Along the journeys, Nancy finds the restrictions on her gender everpresent and sometimes oppressive. She and Minerva work hard to dispel the stereotypes of the time and yet sometimes do fall within those lines.
In the end, Nancy heads back to a more demure and ladylike life but she is doing so on her own terms. After all, it isn't that she objected to marriage in general.
More troubles come on the family and Nancy finds herself promised to marry a rich and scary man who used to be a pirate. She also learns how much of her family fortune is dependant on the slave trade and she is upset. Nancy still can't bring herself to settle down or accept her engagemnt and when she murders an evil man (on the same night that she kills a man to release him from torture) she flees with a family slave into the mountains of Jamaica. Fleeing from her abusive fiancee, Nancy and Minerva join a pirate band. These are not the gentle pirates of Piratica although the crew does not kill often since it is a waste and they do stick by their rules. They are ruthless in their dedication to their goals and some are more bloodthirsty than others. None can compare to the treachery, dedication, and blood lust of the jilted fiancee. Nancy can feel him chasing her through her dreams.
Along the journeys, Nancy finds the restrictions on her gender everpresent and sometimes oppressive. She and Minerva work hard to dispel the stereotypes of the time and yet sometimes do fall within those lines.
In the end, Nancy heads back to a more demure and ladylike life but she is doing so on her own terms. After all, it isn't that she objected to marriage in general.
# posted by JJ @ 7:23 PM 
