(no subject)

You know, it's one thing when I read a book like Kingston by starlight and encounter pirates in it. After all, in the case of a book about Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack Rackham, you more or less expect it - and get it, along with cross-dressing and gender-confusion galore. All in all, a very entertaining read.

But when I settle down to read Zorro, perhaps what is expected is more along the lines of swashbuckling and heroism of the less maritime sort - which there is, to be sure. But then at one point along comes a pirate (well, privateer, but really, most of the time there seems to be a very small difference only) - and a most dashing pirate at that, described at one point as being "a man of breathtaking vices". And of course a whole pirate island. I just can't seem to get away from those pirates anywhere. Ah well...