If you’ve ever expressed an interest in old school pirates ( and who hasn’t?)  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how much we owe a debt to Robert Newton.  I’ve mentioned Mr. Newton before on this blog but just to make sure we’re all on the same page let’s do a quick recap: Robert Newton was cast as Long John Silver in Disney’s 1950 film adaptation of Treasure Island in which he single handedly (unipededly too!) created the way we moderns universally understand pirates to sound like. With one eye-a-bulging and the other a-squinting and a well-placed “Arrr!” he defines pirate talk for everyone who has come after him. Sadly, Mr. Newton lost the battle with the bottle at the young age of 50 so he was never able to fully enjoy his legacy (Surely there would not be Talk Like a Pirate Day without him)                                                                                                                               

So when flying the Jolly Roger, Captain Fergus attacks Esther and The Santa Maria it shouldn’t be surprising that I imagined him as a Robert Newton look-alike pillaging whatever wasn’t nailed down.

Being so fond of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and living when she did, Esther would likely be passingly familiar with pirates and their unsavory and rambunctious lifestyle. Like Esther, Crusoe found himself facing the business end of a pirate’s cutlass suffering a two year imprisonment for his troubles. It’s enough to make you want to splice the mainbrace – especially given that this happened before his maroonment on the island that would be his home for 28 years.

Fortunately for the inhabitants of New France they were not the go to colony for sea faring corsairs with stolen booty on their minds.  It may just be me but the cold and pirates (both real and fictional) don’t seem to make great shipmates. It’s just as well since Esther/Jacques’s voyage over was pretty much fraught with commonplace peril like disease and malnutrition which were to be expected among the lower classes of the day.

Captain Fergus while being a peripheral character joins the ranks of such scourges of the sea (both real and literary) that have captured the public’s imagination for lo these many years. Of course there was Edward Teach better known as Blackbeard who was said to have tucked lit candles under his hat to insight fear and loathing in his adversaries.  Unfortunately for Teach, his love of combustibles did not prevent him from being killed for a reward. His body did not make the return trip home…however his head was present when the bounty was handed out.          

In some ways pirates are just like us, looking for their big break and Blackbeard was no exception. Before striking out on his own, he joined Benjamin Hornigold’s crew as his second in command. I find Hornigold interesting for a couple reasons 1) he later turned pirate hunter sailing about trying to capture his former colleagues and 2) he reportedly once attacked a ship apparently for the purpose of commandeering the crew’s hats “they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss’d theirs overboard” reported a (bare headed) eye witness.

Described as a boatswain of Blackbeard is the fictitious Captain Hook – Peter Pan’s arch nemesis. Ultimately, he doesn’t end up any better than his boss. Crocodiles do little to endear themselves to Hook as first they take his hand (on the bright side, his metallic replacement appendage lent itself to a pretty awesome assumed last name) and then they finish him off when that milquetoast Peter Pan kicks him overboard into their yapping maws.

Rounding out the list: the colourfully named and attired Calico Jack Rackham who lives large in popular culture as well as being the man who brought us the Jolly Roger flag. If copyright were around back then, he could have retired early, avoided swinging from a rope and lived comfortably off the royalties the skull and cross bones flag would no doubt ring in. Also, as mentioned in yesterday’s post..he had two lady pirates in his crew: Ann Bonny who he was romantically involved with and Mary Read, who like Esther dressed like a man for a time while sailing the seas.

On a personal note, a few years I visited New Orleans making a point of visiting well known latter day pirate Jean Lafitte’s home. Each year Louisiana holds a two week celebration called simply Contraband Days (no dressing it up I guess…) where there is much talk of Lafitte’s supposed hidden treasure. Speaking of rumoured buried treasures…in my home province of Nova Scotia there are still some fortune hunters who maintain that Oak Island contains treasure put there possibly by Captain Kidd or perhaps Blackbeard. Over the years, no shortage of ink has been employed exploring the mysteries of the Oak Island Money Pit.

And no discussion of pirates would be complete with at least a mention of my all-time favourite pirate real or fictitious: Space Pirate Han Solo.

I’m referring to the original shoot first Han Solo…let’s face it..he’d never allow Greedo to get the drop on him in the pirate city Mos Eisley’s cantina..but that is a conversation for another day.

Being a kid can be tough sometimes…so you’d think being a kid raised by wild animals would be really really tough. But the world (of fiction) is full of examples of children who spent their formative years under the tender love and care of some pretty unusual parents…as in parents who may or may not have opposable thumbs, possibly four legs, in some case fur, in others tails and well…you get the picture. But did any of these children use the fact that they were raised by animals get them down or use it as an excuse for getting out of chores? Not at all! In fact some of them went to found world class cities as anyone familar with the early history of Rome can attest to.     

In The Tale-Teller, it doesn’t take long for the main character Esther Brandeau to flex her imaginative story telling muscle…and boy does she start off with a doozie. It turns out that after getting shipwrecked on a tropical island at a very young age she forms a strong bond with the native inhabitants – who just happen to be apes. If you’ve seen King Kong you’ll know that apes can be very tender when they want to be and these nurturing primates see Esther pass through her early years unscathed and well loved.

Long before Esther’s tale of her adopted simian parents kept her hosts spellbound in New France, literature and myth has shown many precedents to this sort of unorthodox child/caretaker coupling.

As mentioned earlier, Rome got its start this way so if you’ve wandered down the ancient streets of the Italian capital you can thank an animal nanny – a wolf to be precise (with the help of a woodpecker!) for raising brothers Romulus and Remus. For without Romulus there would be no Rome (although his brother Remus- might argue that without Romulus he may have founded a city of his own—Reme? Remo? Instead of falling a victim of fratricide)

Most readers will be at least passingly familiar with the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ early 20^th Century adventures of John Clayton better known as Tarzan of the Apes. Like Esther, Tarzan was marooned and raised quite successfully by apes (or Mangani as Burroughs call them). They taught him all the essentials of jungle survival – vine swinging, social grooming, giving the famous Tarzan Yell etc.  He thrived in the West African forests and went on to become king of the apes before giving up his feral ways and leaving the jungle behind many years later none the worse for wear apart from a touch of culture shock.

Inspiring Burroughs, and rivaling Tarzan as the preminent fictional character raised by animals would have to be in my opinion – The Jungle Book’s Mowgli. Rudyard Kipling’s  world is based in India and like Romulus, Mowgli was raised by wolves. Under the tutelage of a variety of very helpful furry (and scaled) friends such as Baloo the Bear, Bagheera the black panther and Kaa the python, Mowgli learns the law of the jungle and all the ins and outs of avoiding that darned trouble making tiger Shere Khan.

Other children from literature who had animal instructon include the ancient Endiko from The Epic of Gilgamesh. His wild upbringing did not prevent him from becoming the right hand man of King of Uruk. Then there is Zal, the main hero of the national poem of Iran– Shahnameh who at one point was cared for by a mythical winged creature which resembles a large bird.                                                

Rounding out this incomplete list of feral children is Julie…she of the temporarily wolf reared. In Jean Craighead George’s Newberry Award winning (it also holds down the number 32 spot in the American Library Association’s list of most frequently challenged books) Julie of the Wolves. Julie (or Miyax which is her Inuit name) gets lost in Alaska and takes up residence with a group of wolves which show her the ropes to living a rugged (to say the least) outdoorsy lifestyle.

 So we have a whole host of helpful animal friends ready to lend a paw to the assortment of human foundlings who have (sometimes literally) washed upon their shores. There are apes as in the case of Esther and Tarzan, wolves helped out Romulus and Julie, a large bird saved Zal, a panther, bear and snake brought Mowgli up to speed on the law of the jungle and at the end of the day, none of the kids were poorer for the experience (I’m pretty sure these mammalian caretakers weren’t helicopter parents stressing over their charges being hurt on the playground swings)

Personally speaking, I think Esther and Tarzan had it the best. If you need convincing, try watching the film Gorillas in the Mist or read Dian Fossey or Jane Goodall  describe their amazing experiences with primates (just don’t let Planet of the Apes movies cloud your judgment!)

Welcome to the first day of Vaughan Public Library’s inaugural on-line book club Vaughan Reads! Over the next weeks join us here as well as on Facebook and Twitter as we open the discussion of  The Tale-Teller by Susan Glickman.

Prepare yourself to meet young Esther Brandeau.  Sailing into New France in 1738 disguised a boy and without proper identification, she promptly attracts the attention of the colony’s administration. Swiftly uncovered as a girl, questions remain:  exactly who is this mysterious visitor who captivates her hosts with fantastical tales? Tropical islands, shipwrecks, being raised by apes, pirate attacks and runaway slaves are but a few of the stories Esther tantalizingly teases out for her enthusiastic but suspicious audience (and for we the reader as well) in her adopted New World home. What is she hiding?

Is there a life inNew Francefor this headstrong, independent young woman within this highly regimented world where men have the final say in any decision and the Catholic Church is the very centre of the community? And how would the colony react if they were to learn that Esther is secretly Jewish – a forbidden religion in this part of the world?

Culminating with an author visit by Susan Glickman at the Bathurst Clark Resource Library on Sunday December 8^th, Vaughan Public Libraries will serve up lots of food for thought (and maybe even a hot chocolate recipe or two!) about The Tale-Teller.  Be sure to check this blog often for frequent updates, probing questions and thoughtful commentary about this wonderfully inventive novel.  Be part of the discussion online about Esther; the indomitable heroine who refused to let herself be confined by the physical world or defined by the limitations of the day.

Visit the library and check out the Vaughan Reads display where you will find book club details and copies of The Tale-Teller as well as other reading suggestions such as The Deception of Livvy Higgs by Donna Morrissey and The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny. If you see the green Vaughan Reads banner on the book covers you  know you’re in the right place! If e-books are more your thing, there are also digital copies available for downloading.

In order to give as many on-line book club participants as possible access to the book, the loan period for the Vaughan Reads copies of The Tale-Teller is two weeks with no renewals or request list. We look forward to hearing from you soon!