The stories of roughneck pirates roaming the decks of black-flagged vessels have fascinated readers of all ages since their early beginnings and have shaped today's common conception of pirate life and sea adventures. By examining the representation of pirates in Daniel Defoe's 'Captain Singleton', James Fenimore Cooper's 'The Red Rover', Frederick Marryat's 'The Pirate', Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' and J.M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan', the author not only compares the image created by fiction to the reality of the 'Golden Age of Piracy', but tries to answer the question of why, after...