MEMOIRS OF A BUCCANEER

A picaresque tale that is accepted as authentic in a translation from the French of King Louis XIV's captain of the buccaneers. Perhaps there's a touch of Baron Munchausen in his rollicking memoir, but that does not detract from its high entertainment value. Many a modern yearns to believe in the existence of such a robust, salty, uninhibited and unrepentant Casanova, even if the mores have changed wholly. Pirate ships, captained by just such engaging rogues, roamed the seas in the days of Louis XIV. One of the book's virtues is that the hero is not too heroic. The account abounds in high-hearted sackings, lootings and slaughterings during working hours, with leisure time devoted to Gargantuan feasts and voluptuous ladies, true- for an hour-under the tropical skies of the Spanish colonies of the Indies.