Cup of Gold

Summary

The first novel from American literary great John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath) tells the fictionalized story of the illustrious 17th century pirate Captain Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan is a young boy growing up in a small town in Wales. One day, a sailor returns to regale Henry with tales of the West Indies, and the glory that awaits those adventuresome enough to go. Henry, dazzled, quickly finds a place aboard a ship heading to the islands, thus setting himself on the path to becoming the brutal and fearsome pirate Captain Morgan.

The portrait Steinbeck paints of Morgan (with some artistic license taken) is of a complex, lustful, and largely unhappy man, set in evocative locales that are laced with traces of magical realism. Though Morgan’s life was filled with blood and violence, Steinbeck portrays him as a thoughtful and intelligent commander of men, whose tragic flaw is an unquenchable lust for great accomplishments combined with a misunderstanding of what great accomplishments actually are.

Through his cunning he repeatedly attains the ever-grander victories he seeks—but he quickly discovers what so many before and after him have discovered: that achievement is not always as satisfying as the quest to achieve.

Publisher's Note: Originally published in 1929, Cup of Gold is a literary work that reflects the time in which it was published—both its good and its ill. The original text contains wording and terminology that represent outdated cultural beliefs regarding race and ethnicity. In the interest of preserving and documenting both the faults and highlights of literary history—an instrumental, crucial function of works entering the public domain—this text is unedited and uncensored in this audiobook recording. Please proceed with discretion.