The King's Adventurer: Captain John Smith and Pocahontas

by Jean Plaidy

From his earliest boyhood John Smith wanted to go adventuring over the sea, and though his parents meant him for a farmer he knew some special destiny awaited him. He followed his dream through Europe, even to fighting the Infidel and serving a cruel Turk as a slave. Yet all the time he knew that something else awaited him, over the seas yet again. This destiny led Captain John Smith to the new colony of Virginia, "his wife, his child and his home," where he was to find joy and bitterness, fulfilment and disaster, where he was to be a distrusted Paleface and ademi-god, and where he was to be saved from death by the beautiful half-wild Pocahontas.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical

601 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Eleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just discovered, purely by chance, that Goodreads have erased a couple of my old reviews from the site. Luckily, I had a backup of this one:

Jean Plaidy was perhaps Britain’s most popular and prolific author of historical fiction in the mid to late 20th century. Her books usually chronicled the lives of the English kings and queens, but The King’s Adventurer is slightly different in that it takes a look at the life of Captain John Smith. Nowadays, Smith is known for his love affair with the Native American girl, Pocahontas, but Jean Plaidy focuses her book on the whole of Smith’s life, from birth to death. As such Pocahontas only appears in the last quarter of the novel.

And what a novel it is! Jean Plaidy took John Smith’s diaries and created a fictionalised version of his life, sticking to history where possible and using artistic license when the details weren’t available. As such this is an extremely fast-paced and action packed read, a life story full of adventure and derring-do, battles for survival and intrigue. I’m a big fan of historical fiction and I can’t praise this novel highly enough: not only does it paint a picture of life in many European countries; it also provides a definitive look at the colonising process in the New World.

I wasn’t really a fan of the 2005 film 'The New World', because John Smith’s actions were often inexplicable and he came across as a cold, heartless character. I discover it’s because the scriptwriter took out some of the most important parts of his story. Jean Plaidy acknowledges the fact that Smith was a sometimes arrogant and boastful man, but also realises that these qualities, combined with his self-confidence, are what kept him alive and made him into a natural leader. Time and again Smith narrowly avoids death, and time and again the reader is left breathless at the possible outcomes.

The book has plenty of authentic action to recommend it and the battles against the Turks are particularly vivid. The various romances are utterly heart-rending, from the French widow to the Turkish bride to Pocahontas herself – I was pretty inconsolable at the novel’s conclusion. Jean Plaidy was a writer who believed in ‘less is more’ – no hundred pages of stream-of-consciousness here, as in some modern historical books. Instead, the focus is on external action. Characters are intriguingly built up and brought to life, yet remain mysterious enough to command the reader’s respect and making them want to find out more.

Although modern historians find it hard to believe that the love affair between Pocahontas and Smith ever really happened, this romanticised version of the truth is utterly moving and altogether spellbinding. I definitely prefer it this way. What a fantastic read!

[Phil Syphe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pocahontas doesn't feature all that much in this entertaining novel. The narrative mainly follows John Smith's life, based largely on his own writings.

Smith really was an adventurer. He got into many scrapes and avoided certain death on several occasions. He comes accross as arrogant yet this is mainly through his lack of patience for stupid people in authoritative positions.

Pocahontas's story is on the whole a sad one. I felt great sympathy for her during the latter stages of her life.

Not one of Jean Plaidy's greatest novels but a very good read nonetheless.

[Cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and well researched.
Based heavily on John Smiths own autobiography, which was why all the women were extremely impressed by him.

Living in Virginia it’s so interesting to learn about the original people here and all the names we have from them. Newport, Smithfield, Powhatan, ect.