The Sea Hawk is a novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1915. The story is set in the late 16th century, and concerns a Cornish sea-faring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous brother. After being forced to serve as a slave on a Spanish galley, Sir Oliver is liberated by Barbary pirates. He joins the pirates under the name ‘Sakr-el-Bahr’, the hawk of the sea, and swears vengeance against his brother.

My Review

Simply put, I enjoyed this. I downloaded it without reading the official blurb, expecting it to be a history of the British sailor known as “the Sea Hawk”. Nope, I got that wrong.

What we have here is a story of the sea, betrayal and love. In the tradition of these older books we have the set up, the recovery, the chance for revenge, and the endgame. The story is not your hyper paced modern adventure but rather a steady series of events that explore the characters and their motivations.

I was enthralled by the story slipping an episode of this story between every other podcast I’ve been listening to, and was happily satisfied by the ending.

Well worth listening to. A little word of warning, there is a bit of noise on this recording, not hiss, more of a hum. It’s not on all of the episodes and is easily ignored.

Reading 2/3
Production 1/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 5/9

This book is available from Librivox.

There is an Audio Promo for this book.

Source: Librivox
Length: 7 hr, 33 min
Reader: Adrian Praetzellis

The book: This classic boy’s adventure follows Jim Hawkins out of his innkeeper’s life and into the world of pirates, danger, and buried treasure. Stevenson’s imaginative mind introduced several new concepts into pirate literature, including the parrot on the shoulder and “X marks the spot” pirate maps. The story takes a few chapters to get underway as Stevenson takes extra time to build up a sense of foreboding, which pays off later in dividends of excitement as the action comes to fruition. On the other hand, the ending seems to arrive too quickly, with room for a sequel that Stevenson never got to write (though others have tried).

I first tried to read Treasure Island as a boy, but the combination of nautical terms and antiquated language made it a frustrating attempt. Coming back to the book with the experience of reading many 19th century books and a few Patrick O’Brian novels, I am now able to enjoy it more thoroughly. I find it incredible that a book written for boys such a long time ago still has the power to thrill an adult of the 21st century.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: Adrian Praetzellis is my favorite Librivox reader. As I mention above, Stevenson’s language can be a barrier to the enjoyment of the story, but Praetzellis’s narration goes a long way toward bypassing this difficulty by making the meaning clear through his tone. Each character is given an interesting voice, using a multitude of accents. His action of Long John Silver brings out the Sea Cook’s beguiling friendliness as well as his hidden danger. When all the pirates sing “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum”, Praetzellis overdubs his voice to produce a chorus of the required size. This type of attention to every aspect of the recording reflects why this audiobook is so enjoyable.

Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir, de Georges Courteline, parut, pour la première fois, en feuilleton, dans l’Echo de Paris, au cours des années 1891-1892. Une version légèrement remaniée fut éditée, sous forme de livre, par Flammarion, en 1893.

Le livre, constitué d’une suite de cinq tableaux, narre la vie de quelques employés d’un service administratif - celui des Dons et Legs - dont l’activité, suivie pendant quelques jours, dresse, sous le mode de la comédie, une satire féroce du monde des employés de bureau.
(par Aldor)

• Wikipedia (français) - Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir
• Wikipedia (français) - Georges Courteline
• Wikipedia (English) - Georges Courteline
• LibriVox’s Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir Internet Archive page
• Zip file of the entire book (122.5MB)