Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History (Penguin Classics)

This book was awesome, but with a few flaws!I loved the fact that this was about the famed pirate, Sir Henry Morgan (the one on the Captain Morgan rum bottle). He was real!The part about his life from Wales, Barbados, Jamaica and ultimately to Panama was great. The detail for his lust of buccaneering was rich in detail, and made me search for more information. The only complaint was that in the middle of the book, it got a little choppy. The use of Merlin was also different. However, this story is full of adventures that should please the "pirate lust" inside all of us. A great first novel!A must read for Steinbeck fans!

What a fantastic story. I was engaged in the story from the beginning. Didn’t know That Cambria was the original name for Wales. I was so intrigued with Henry Morgan that I Googled him for more of the backstory. Very well written. The preface by the other author took up 20% of the book though and didn’t add much to the book. It should be left out. Love this first book of John Steinbeck

This is not the Steinbeck most of us think of. It is one of his early stories, blending historical fact with his own fiction. It is interesting to see Steinbeck at this stage, before he became a social conscience in the 1930s and 40s. Here is essentially a swashbuckling story that is entertaining and fun to read. Nothing more, nothing less. A good way to pass the time, even as one knows what lay ahead for its young author (capped by a Nobel Prize in Literature, of course).

The ending sucked--that is first and foremost. It leaves you hanging, even though you are anxious to get the book done because after he conquests Panama, the book drags. This would be a cool adventure story for a teenager, I suppose--one of the first YA editions. Summed up in one sentence: it is a tale of adventure of narcissism for old Henry Morgan. This is Steinbeck's first novel; I guess it's not HORRIBLE for a first, written in 1929.

Pirate tale with period language and view of life in the days of Henry Morgan. Unfortunately, many characters lacked credibility and Steinbeck underlying messages are poorly developed.

What fun! Pirates and romance. Great adventurer trapped by his ego, his government, and women.

John Steinbeck's first published novel. It interweaves the history of a famous pirate with a slightly mythological world that's captivating. The author's take on the lives of the women involved seems to invite a great deal of thought or research by someone qualified to do so. The prose are sometimes complex but always enlightening and/or entrancing. Very interesting to read the early writing of this great author.

An early attempt by Steinbeck to explore the other dimension by taking an historic character who bucked the norm. It does not quite come off and Morgan's story becomes tedious in the American's hand. But there is enough in 'Cup of Gold' to deepen my appreciation of his wondrous stories of the writer's creative natural habitat: the Salinas valley.

Reading.