Cup of Gold

A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History

By: John Steinbeck, Susan F. Beegel - introduction

Narrated by: Ronan Vibert

From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer Panama, the “cup of gold.” Steinbeck’s first novel and sole work of historical fiction, Cup of Gold is a lush, lyrical swashbuckling pirate fantasy, and sure to add new dimensions to readers’ perceptions of this all-American writer. This edition features an introduction by Susan F. Beegel.

Critic reviews

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nice story by the early Steinbeck.

A romantic adventure with sad end. Pirates, ships, rum smell and tobacco smoke mixed with love and passions.

Early Steinbeck Magical Realism

This pleasant first Steinbeck is a fictionalization of the historical pirate Henry Morgan. It is quite different than the rest of Steinbeck's fiction...Less stark, with romance and adventure. It is far from my favorite Steinbeck but I nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit. The prose are excellent if the characters are a bit thin.

The narration was good, but not exceptional.

A different kind of Steinbeck

Some of the writing was little too flowery, but it was an interesting deviation from Steinbeck’s other work. It does make me want to listen to other buccaneer books though!

Steinbeck rules!

Steinbeck rules! One of the best writers of our time. I love John Steinbeck a lot.

Good, could have been better

Well told, skips over most of Morgan's pirate career in favor of fictional romance and mystical character exposition.

Author’s First Novel

Obviously this is Steinbeck still learning his craft. The best of this book is the first part where Morgan
is a teenager in Wales. There is
some good writing depicting the
landscapes, the mystical elements
associated with the folklore and
the words of Merlin. I guessed it
was the same Merlin of the Arthur
chronology but not clear. The parts
with the young love of Elizabeth
are well done. I don’t know why
Steinbeck chose the same name for
Morgan’s cousin who he later marries.

The project falls apart as does the
character of Morgan with the Buccaneer content. The moral
ambiguities of Henry are presented
but his actions do not support the readers respect. Though aware of
the evil of his ambitions he fails to
change his ruthless behavior. Kills his friend Coeur de Gris out of jealousy and a shoots a pitiful beggar
The book draws to an end kind of
mercifully for the reader and the
Morgan character.

So much more could have been done with the Wales theme if Morgan could have returned to his
childhood loose ends —his father
Elizabeth, Merlin.

Not your usual Steinbeck novel

Raw and honest like Tortilla Flats and Cannery Row, but with a distinct romantic style.

An intimate psychological portrait, bordering on the surreal.

Presages authors like William Vollmann and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Impressive Start, But After That….

I love the first section of the book: the way Steinbeck paints Morgan’s childhood, home life, and relationship to his family and native culture is fantastic. Also, there’s so much mystic energy in this section. I wish the author would have kept this element woven in as the story progressed. Instead it just got darker and darker along the way until the ‘personality’ of Morgan was only just a sketch that was hard to care about. But, all the same, an impressive start for Steinbeck, fun to see how we wrote his first novel, knowing the output that was to come later.

Disappointment

No I did not enjoy this program. Steinbeck disappointed. Converting such great historical material into a delirious speculation about motives and characters of this time was difficult to bear until the end. Apart from some good sketches a big nonsense

Good read but sad and unfulfilling

If you want the happy ending, this is not for you. It is well written and interesting and has fun pirates. The character development is strange and hard to follow towards the end but the writing is beautiful out of context.