Rafael Sabatini was born in 1875 at Iesi, Italy, to an English mother and an Italian father. As a child he travelled widely in Europe and by 17 he was fluent in five languages. After settling in England around the turn of the century, Sabatini decided to try his hand as a writer, a decision that paid off handsomely in a series of widely acclaimed historical novels, several of which became equally popular cinematic adaptations.

Captain Blood is the story of Peter Blood, a soldier-turned-doctor who is wrongly accused of treason during the 1685 Monmouth Rebellion, narrowly escapes death at the Bloody Assize, and is sent as a slave to Barbados, where he is bought by (and falls in love with) beautiful Arabella, niece to the bestial planter Colonel Bishop. A Spanish attack on the island gives Blood the chance to capture the Spaniard's vessel and sail off to a life of freedom and piracy on the Spanish Main, an avocation that eminently suits his brave, free-spirited temperament and leads him to become the renowned 'Captain Blood', celebrated for courtesy and fair-dealing with friend and foe alike. But all his fame and riches mean nothing, for his heart remains set on Arabella, and she will never love a thief and pirate.

Sabatini's riveting historical novel remains in a class of its own: a well-researched, swashbuckling pirate adventure that is as inconstant as the sea itself, rocking the reader between treachery and loyalty, cruelty and kindness, implacable hatred and undying love.