Book pirates

Before the International Copyright Act of 1891, American publishers were free to publish books by writers from England or anywhere else outside the United States without worrying about contracts or royalties. Writers like Charles Dickens hated this situation, for almost as quickly as their books were published in their home countries they were being published in the U.S., where the writers won fans but nothing else.

Matthew Pearl saw the possibilities for a low-key adventure tale in all this, and the result is The Last Bookaneer, which takes place just before the end of the era of book piracy. Two such pirates, one who calls himself Belial when he isn't pretending to be someone else and another named Pen Davenport sail to Samoa when they hear Robert Louis Stevenson has gone there to die, but not before completing his masterpiece. Each wants to steal the manuscript as soon as Stevenson completes it and take it to New York. The narrator for most of the story is Fergins, a bookseller who sometimes assists Davenport.

Belial gets close to Stevenson by pretending to be a priest, while Davenport pretends to be writing a travel book. There not being that many English speakers in Samoa, the author welcomes both of them into his home.

Pearl tries hard, but his novel never really catches fire. Perhaps pirates and books just aren't as exciting as pirates and buried treasure. Or maybe the story's leisurely pace defeats its purpose. You make be able to guess which of these characters becomes "the last bookaneer," but you are not likely to guess how this comes about. So in that sense the novel is a success.