English Summary/英文概要： 1837: the Victorian Era approaches and the golden age of piracy draws to a close. Worried that his pirates are getting bored with a life of winking at pretty native ladies, sitting about on tropical beaches, and trying to stick enough jellyfish together to make a bouncy castle, the Pirate Captain decides it’s time they had an adventure. A chance encounter with the young Charles Darwin - embarked upon the voyage of discovery that will one day make him famous - leads the Captain and his rag-tag crew from the exotic Galapagos Islands to the fog filled streets of Victorian London, where they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, a diabolical Bishop, the Elephant Man, and have an exciting trip to the zoo. THE PIRATES! is a rollicking read: uproariously funny, unexplainably daft, gently knowing and insightful - one of the very few books to deal with the weighty issues of science versus religion, whilst at the same time featuring a lot of roaring and running people through.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 公元1873年：维多利亚时代即将来临，海盗的黄金时代已接近尾声。为了不让无聊的海盗水手们不至于整天游手好闲，不是向当地漂亮小姐抛眉眼，就是在热带海滩上无所事事，把足够多的水母贴在一起搭成一个有弹性的碉堡，海盗船长决定要让他们去冒一次险。 他们偶然间遇上了踌躇满志、年轻气胜的达尔文---他正着手开始那个有朝一日会让他名声蜚外的探险航行。船长和他那帮乌合之众的船员们受到了达尔文的启发，离开那座充满异域风情的加拉帕哥斯群岛(位于厄瓜多尔西部) 来到了浓雾弥漫的维多利亚时期的伦敦，那里他们遭遇了血腥的谋杀、失踪了的小姐、魔鬼般的主教、象人，当然他们还去了那里的动物园，玩得颇为开心。《海盗》是本嘻嘻哈哈的小说：荒诞绝伦、蠢得不可就药、但又委婉世故、见解深刻。很少有书会在探讨科学与宗教对立这样沉重的话题的同时，还会通篇描写一群咆哮、奔放的人物。