The Sea Hawk
(1915)
I love collecting and reading novels written in the past. And I especially enjoy looking at the cover illustrations which hint at what lies between the covers and are themselves "works of art".
This one is special to me as it was the very first novel I read in my "formative" years that dealt with slavery.
It's true to say this novel impacted my life enormously. It unleashed my slave's nature which has defined me a a person.
Briefly, it is a swashbuckling tale set in Elizabethan times when a young English nobleman is betrayed by his brother, kidnapped and is on his way to the New World to be sold as a slave. The English ship transporting him is attacked by the Spaniards and he ends up as a galley slave. For three years, he tugs at a Spanish oar alongside a Muslim galley slave who he befriends.
Fate intervenes and the Spanish galley is attacked and captured by Muslim Corsairs who release him. He converts to Islam and becomes the Corsair known as "The Sea Hawk".
This story, published in 1915 has influenced so much of my own writing and it was the inspiration for my yarn, "The Galley Slave" which surprised me by being very popular with my readers.
The author of this fabulous work was Rafael Sabatini, an English writer; his father was Italian, his mother English and both were opera singers.
Rafael Sabatini wrote many historical novels - some of which have a Christian vs Islam theme - and his description of galley slaves in this and other novels was descriptive enough to give me many "jerk off" moments. The language he used could be seen as old-fashioned but this novel was written over a century ago and his style of writing does appeals to me.
The Sea Hawk spawned two movies. A silent one in 1924 which is a masterpiece of cinema and runs true to Sabatini's novel. The better known 1940's movie starring Errol Flynn included segments of the 1924 movie but it has no relevance to Sabatini's work. To my mind, the later version was a war propaganda film and an insult to Sabatini's writing.
For those who are interested both the novel and movies are still available. I suggest Amazon as a starting point.
Chris
Chris,
ReplyDeletethank you very much for introducing to us this very interesting historical novel and its author, Rafael Sabatini, whose literary bibliography seems (based on what you say) really VERY INTERESTING.
I will look on Amazon for this book, and possibly for other books by the same author.
Allow me to add also a personal reminiscence that this 1915 “adventure book” recalls to my mind.
Since the late 19th century and up to the years before the Second World War …… or, in some cases, even up to the ‘950’s and even 960’s …….. it was frequent in most Countries (much more than today) to find an amazingly large number of “adventure historical novels” written every year. It was a literary genre that had a surprising fortune and that, very often, was mainly addressed to an audience of teenage boys and lads as their main “readers’ target” (today most teen boys and lads read very few books or no books at all, especially “adventure novels” !).
Even if the majority of these historical novels were addressed to an audience of “underage readers”, it was very frequent that many of these novels contained – like this “Sea Hawk” by Sabatini- a strong sadistic content.
For example in my teenage years I had a similar “shock” like you had with this book by Sabatini, by reading another historical “adventure” novel for teenage lads: it was a historical novel written in 1928 by an obscure Italian writer named Luigi Natoli.
The novel, that was titled “The Enemy of the Saracens”, had as its setting the terrible Sack of the city of Rome in 1084 A.D. done by the Normans of Robert the Guiscard and by their allies, the Northern-African Saracens who, with a powerful very large fleet, formed “the Navy” of the Norman Army.
King Robert’s soldiers and allies plundered the city for five days in a horrible pillage, robbing and killing; but while the Normans “limited themselves” to robbing, the Saracens …… with their already long tradition of big slave-hunters and traders …… preferred mainly to capture alive and put in chains the youngest and strongest citizens for transporting them, with their galleys, to their African ports and sell them in slavery in their Slave Markets.
In the novel the author narrates the adventures of Enrico, a 24 years old Roman youth, strong, brave and loyal, and of his friend Pietro.
(CONTINUES BELOW)
After having valiantly fought in vain against the invaders, Enrico and Pietro are betrayed and captured by Saracens (together with several thousands of other Roman youths and girls, included Laura, the beautiful fiancée of Enrico) and destined to slavery. Laura and the majority of the other Christian captives are embarked on the Arab galleys and transported to the overseas Slave Markets of Northern Africa and of the Middle East ….. while Enrico and Pietro cannot be embarked because the number of Christian prisoners has been so large that it exceeds the load capacity of the however large Saracen fleet.
ReplyDeleteSo the Arab pirates decide to sell these “outnumbering” captives –included Enrico and Pietro- in the city of Rome itself, after that the vanquished Pope Gregory VII has been obliged to declare that – even if those captives are Christians- their slavery – because they are “legal booties of war”- will be legal also in Christian countries and for Christian Masters.
So Enrico and Pietro, together with about a hundred other strong Roman young men, are auctioned in a square of their own city. Eventually they are bought by a haughty young Count of Central Italy who uses them, together with other dozens of male Italian slaves he has purchased from the Saracens, in heavy hard labours in his farms around his Castle, on the mountains.
Useless to say, for “spicing” the adventure and like in the old biblical story of Joseph, the young and lewd Countess, the wife of Enrico’s Master, falls in love with that handsome and herculean slave that she admires while Enrico is toiling shirtless in the gardens of the Castle.
The wicked lady tries to seduce Enrico; but when the brave and chaste young man heroically refuses to obey her lustful orders of becoming her forced lover, the furious Mistress has him punished and tortured, and destined (together with his friend Pietro, who tried to defend him) to even harder and most inhuman labours. etc.etc.
(CONTINUES BELOW)
Among other old historical novels ….. again mostly destined to teenagers …….. where I remember to have unexpectedly found very sadistic scenes and situations, I remember e.g. a novel of the “old West”, titled “The Blue Waterfalls”, whose protagonist, a young and valiant cowboy named Tommy River, is captured by Apache natives and, mistaken for a bloody criminal, is tortured by the whole village …… probably the longest and cruelest description of an “Indian torture” I ever read.
ReplyDeleteOr I could also recall, as an example of fully unexpected sadism in a type of novel that is not supposed to contain such kind of content, a French “romance” historical novel I read by chance in my younger years named “Moi et Catherine”. Even if it seemed a novel addressed more to young girls, it contained the longest (two and half pages !), most detailed and likely most sadistic scene of a male slave-auction I probably ever read in my life.
The novel’s setting is in the first years of 1700’s and the protagonist is a 19 years old French noble girl named Catherine. During a sail in the Mediterranean, her young husband has been captured by Barbary pirates and sold into slavery in the Slave Markets of Tunis. The young lady decides to embark on a ship directed to Malta for going and finding and possibly rescuing her beloved husband.
On the ship Catherine makes a friend of a brawny, brave and handsome French sailor-boy of her same age, named Raphael, who is very kind with her, protects her during the travel and comforts her against her anguish and fear.
However (of course !) in the Tyrrhenian Sea the ship is attacked by the same Barbary pirates. The crew and the passengers are captured and carried to port of Tunis, where they are going to be be auctioned as slaves.
In that slave auction the beautiful Catherine will be (of course !) bought as a concubine for the Harem of the ruling Bey of Tunis.
(CONTINUES BELOW)
But before Catherine’s sale in the Slave Market of Tunis, the author inserts, in a fully unexpected way, the unusually long and detailed description (as said, two pages and half !) of the very cruel and humiliating auction to the highest bidder of the muscular and gorgeous, 19 years old sailor-lad Raphael ……. of how the tall and sturdy teenage lad, bound in heavy shackles for his uncommon strength, is hauled by force on the auction platform and coerced to climb the auction-block ……. of how the sly old Arab pirate and auctioneer (with a true “coup de theatre” that electrifies the large crowd of Muslim prospective buyers, thronging the Market’s square, that burst in a roaring collective explosion of frantic and ferocious cheers, cruel scoffs and guffaws, and furious insults and curses against the loathsome infidels) with one gesture tears off the white shirt of the 19 years old French sailor, displaying to the rabid and wildly excited Arab multitude the herculean, massively muscled torso of the teenage white captive, whose mighty muscles and uncommon strength the cunning old pirate is extolling, emphasizing his words by patting and pricking with his riding-cane the big and solid bulging pectorals of the blond French boy, his massive biceps, his hard sculpted abs and, inside his tight sailor-trousers, the lad’s very thick, sinewy thighs ……… of how, on the request of a group of wealthy and highborn buyers sitting on comfortable chairs in the middle of the square (included two rich and noble middle-aged widows), the young and athletic teenage French sailor is cruelly collared and leashed like a dog, and then brutally dragged by two African guards down in the audience, among the aristocratic buyers …….. of how, in front of every sitting prospective buyer, the poor herculean French boy is forced, with curses and blows of cane and whip, to kneel, prostrate to the ground and kiss the feet of the Arab Lord or Lady; and then how he’s obliged to stand and remain absolutely motionless and passive while the African and Arab buyers inspect with their greedy hands his half-naked body, examine his handsome face and check his teeth, pat his vast robust back, feel his mighty muscles and test his uncommon strength as a possible robust burden-beast etc.etc.
ReplyDeleteSo this unexpectedly long description of a slave-auction ….. as I said probably the longest, most detailed and most sadistic scene of a male slave-auction that I ever read, where one might even feel that the author had probably also a “personal interest” in that very sadistic scene …… was unexpectedly found in a “romance” historical novel, most likely addressed to teenage girls !
Indeed those old adventure novels of the past century were often surprisingly offering fully unexpected scenes of Sadism that modern literature for young people …….. especially in this era of the “politically correct” ………… has probably completely abandoned.
Karel
Hi Karel,
Deletethank you for your interesting comments. I agree; during the early twentieth century there was this unique genre of writing which sadly no longer exists.
I have read many novels from this genre and I still have a few in my collection. I guess they reflect the times the writers lived in. Published pornography wasn't allowed and the morals of the day most likely restricted the authors in what they could write.
Most, as you say, were aimed at young males and their erotic thoughts and I believe they were homosexual by intention. Usually, they were historical yarns featuring young heroes being enslaved which did play to my own slave fantasies. Over the years, I have reread these novels many times and I still find them "arousing".
Another great novel from 1956 - which I have somewhere - is "When God Slept" - later reissued as "The Golden Pagans - by an author named Peter Bourne and I will feature this in the blog shortly. Peter Bourne wrote several novel about slavery.
These novels influenced me greatly and I draw on them for inspiration for my own stories. But perhaps you have already noticed this.
Hi slave Toby.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your very appropriate comments.
In particular I find very true and interesting the fact that often (for not saying "almost always") this type of literature had an INTENTIONAL HOMOSEXUAL content, that -being impossible in those years to openly present homosexual themes that were considered as the "worst pornography" - was somehow "filtered" and hardly "hidden" under the concealment of SADISM, that, in its turn, was somehow “justified” by the “adventure” and “historical” settings of the novels.
This is why in those novels it was so frequent not only the theme of SLAVERY of the captured young male hero, but also the one of his TORTURE: e.g. besides the above mentioned “old-West” novel where the young cow-boy is barbarically tortured by Apaches, I remember to have read e.g. a historical adventure novel, set in the Middle Age, and again addressed to an audience of teenage male readers, whose protagonist was a young and brave noble knight who tried to rescue and save his beautiful fiancée, kidnapped by an evil Duke.
I remember to have read with the greatest arousal, in my teenage years, the long and rather detailed description of the young and strong knight, when he is captured by the evil Duke. The vicious, sadistic Dukes takes his revenge by ordering that the young knight is hauled into the Castle torture-chamber where the young hero is brutally tortured by stretching his sturdy body on the rack, while his fiancée is obliged to watch his torture.
By the way, this use of SADISM for somehow “concealing” HOMOSEXUAL contents (so to avoid censorship against what at that time was considered “pornography”) has been highlighted and underlined by various reviewers not only in the “Adventure Literature” of the late 19th century and early 20th century, but also for some “Adventure Cinema”.
E.g. a very clear “HOMOSEXUAL content”, always coupled with a clear SADISTIC content, has been emphasized (as I already mentioned in the past) also in most of the “Adventure Cinema” of the 950’s and ‘960’s, like some Tarzan’s movies (especially the ones interpreted by Gordon Scott), several “Pirate-movies” and practically most (if not ALL) “Sword-and-Sandal” movies of the various Hercules, Samson, Goliath, Ursus etc..
Karel
For those who are interested: I discovered that "THE SEA HAWK" by Rafael Sabatini, because it is an old book, without any more Copyright, can be legally and safely downloaded, e.g. as a PDF file, from the following link:
ReplyDeletehttps://archive.org/details/seahawk01saba/page/n8
It can be also downloaded, from the same Site, as an audio-book, from the link:
https://archive.org/details/sea_hawk_0710_librivox
Karel