The Offshore Pirate by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald | Published: May 29, 1920

The Offshore Pirate Synopsis

"The Offshore Pirate" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on May 29, 1920, and Leslie L. Benson provided the illustrations for the original publication of the tale. Within the same year, "The Offshore Pirate" was also published in the short story collection Flappers and Philosophers.

A spoiled young lady named Ardita Farnam is visiting Florida with her uncle. However, her voyage takes an unexpected turn when pirates seize her yacht, and she falls in love with their leader, Curtis Carlyle. This story has a twist to its ending.

Excerpt from The Offshore Pirate Online Book

This unlikely story begins on a sea that was a blue dream, as colorful as blue–silk stockings, and beneath a sky as blue as the irises of children's eyes. From the western half of the sky the sun was shying little golden disks at the sea—if you gazed intently enough you could see them skip from wave tip to wave tip until they joined a broad collar of golden coin that was collecting half a mile out and would eventually be a dazzling sunset. About half–way between the Florida shore and the golden collar a white steam–yacht, very young and graceful, was riding at anchor and under a blue–and–white awning aft a yellow–haired girl reclined in a wicker settee reading The Revolt of the Angels, by Anatole France.

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in September 1896 in St Paul, Minnesota. Although he attended Princeton University briefly, he never received his degree; however, this did not prevent him from having an illustrious career as a novelist. In addition to being an acclaimed novelist, Fitzgerald also wrote several short stories during his lifetime. He is frequently regarded as one of the most influential American writers due to his ability to capture the essence of life during that period. Find out more about F. Scott Fitzgerald at sevenov.com.