Bardelys the Magnificent is a fairly good novel, one of Sabatini's earliest. His writing isn't quite as polished as it would be later on and the story isn't told quite as smoothly as in other, later books. Still, it's a good and entertaining read. The Marquis de Bardelys is a court favorite of Louis XIII who is goaded into a wager that he can woo and wed the country noblewoman...
Bellarion the Fortunate, published in 1926, is an historical novel. Set at the beginning of the 15th century in northern Italy, it takes place first in the Marquessate of Montferrat and later in the Duchy of Milan. Most of its characters, including Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Gian Maria Visconti, Facino Cane, Filippo Maria Visconti, and Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, were real...
Captain Blood first appeared in a series of nine stories, under the general title of "Brethren of the Main", which appeared in the "Premier Magazine", beginning December 1920. The stories were reprinted in "Adventure Magazine" in 1921. All nine stories are reproduced here.1. Rebels Convict 2. Don Diego Valdez 3. The Prize 4. Maracaybo 5. Blood-Money 6. Santa Maria 7. Lord...
Book I of Captain Blood series Captain Blood is the much-loved story of a physician and gentleman turned pirate. Peter Blood, wrongfully accused and sentenced to death, narrowly escapes his fate and finds himself in the company of buccaneers. Embarking on his new life with remarkable skill and bravery, Blood becomes the 'Robin Hood' of the Spanish seas. This is swashbuckling...
Captain Blood is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1922. It concerns the sharp-witted Dr. Peter Blood, an Irish physician, who is convicted of treason in the aftermath of the Monmouth rebellion in 1685, and enslaved on the Caribbean island of Barbados. He escapes and becomes a pirate. The fast-paced historical fiction of Rafael Sabatini is often...
Captain Blood: His Odyssey is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1922. The protagonist is the sharp-witted Dr. Peter Blood, a fictional Irish physician who had had a wide-ranging career as a soldier and sailor (including a commission as a captain under the Dutch admiral De Ruyter) before settling down to practice medicine in the town of Bridgwater in...
Casanova's Alibi (1914). The Augmentation of Mercury (1918). The Priest of Mars (1918). The Oracle (1918). Under the Leads (1918). The Night of Escape (1917). The Rooks and the Hawk (1918). The Polish Duel (1918). Casanova in Madrid (1921). Post-Scriptum.
Columbino, a great mercenary in pre-Renaissance Italy, has developed his own moral code of chivalry to which he ruthlessly and relentlessly adheres. Yet when four women are singularly betrayed as a direct result of this code, he comes to question the very essence of his understanding. He emerges with a renewed passion and an awakened sympathy. This is another of Sabatini's...
The Red Mask (1898) The Curate and the Actress (1899) The Fool's Love Story (1899) The Spiritualist (1905) Mr. Dewbury's Consent (1906) The Baker of Rousillon (1906) Wirgman's Theory (1906) The Abduction (1908) Monsieur Delamort (1909) The Foster Lover (1910) The Blackmailer (1912) The Justice of the Duke (1912) The Ordeal (1913) The Tapestried Room (1913) The Wedding Gift...
Annabel's Wager Gismondi's Wage Intelligence Out of the Dice Box Playing with Fire Sword and Mitre [a.k.a. Rendezvous] The Act of Sequestration The Captain of the Guard The Copy Hunter The Devourer of Hearts The Driver of the Hearse The Ducal Rival The Duellist's Wife The Dupes The Locket The Lottery Ticket The Malediction The Marquis' Coach The Matamorphasis of Colin The Night...
Set at the time of the discovery of the New World, this is the remarkable story of Columbus’ affair with a mysterious Spanish lady – Beatriz Enriquez. Sabatini beautifully traces the course of their romance and the child that she bore him whilst also capturing all the passion of Columbus other struggle – against none other than the King and Queen of Spain.
London 1665 is no place for Randal Holles, a former soldier in Cromwell’s army, now that the monarchy has been restored and the exploits of the Republicans are being condemned in the highest degree. Holles, desperate for an escape from his hopeless situation and almost certain execution, sees no option but to accept the Duke of Wellington’s rather dubious commission – to abduct...
King in Prussia is a remarkable story of the formative years of the renowned king who has been hailed Frederick the Great. With vivid detail , powerful characterisation and a moving love story, Sabatini has created a masterly biography – and revealed an uncanny similarity between his subject and his modern counterpart, Adolf Hitler.
Loaded Dice (1901) Of What Befel at Bailienochy (1901) After Worcester Field (1902) The Chancellor's Daughter (1902) Carolus and Caroline (1902) In the Eleventh Hour (1902)
Like most of Sabatini's early work this is a fun read but it lacks the depth of Scaramouche or Bellarion. Notably, there is no development of character that sets those novels apart, but it is still a very enjoyable read. It has no historical characters although Cesare Borgia is mentioned, but never actually appears as a character in the novel. It is basically the story of...
In the days just before England’s Monmouth Rebellion, Anthony Wilding takes advantage of an insult to force a marriage with the woman he loves. Wilding regrets his rash action after his commitment to the Duke of Monmouth separates him from his new bride, but the botched military campaign threatens to make the new Mistress Wilding a widow — unless a rival suitor manages it...
A lawyer takes a chance on the stage in Rafael Sabatini’s 1921 novel Scaramouche. The French Revolution is raging and Andre-Louis Moreau finds himself in the middle of a tense situation between upper and lower classes. A tragic duel has left one of Moreau’s friends dead, and Moreau has urged his compatriots to exact revenge on his friend’s killer, an aristocratic Marquis. With...
Another adventure from Sabatini’s remarkable and much-loved hero. In 'Scaramouche the Kingmaker,' Andre Louis again dons his famous and much-admired disguise to embark upon a new adventure – and one full of the thrill and swashbuckling action that has earnt Sabatini his place in the hall of great writers. The sequel to Scaramouche, this is a very different novel. Scaramouche...
St. Martin's Summer (also known as The Queen's Messenger, 1909) Garnache spent a sleepless night at Grenoble, on guard throughout the greater part of it since nothing short of that would appease the fears of Valerie. Yet it passed without any bellicose manifestation on the part of the Condillacs such as Valerie feared and such as Garnache was satisfied would not — could not,...
When Priscilla Harradine travels back to England accompanied by the rather dull Major Sands, she has no cause to expect her journey will be anything other than uneventful. But also on board the Centaur is Charles de Bernis - a mysterious and intriguing buccaneer. Just as their friendship is beginning to blossom, a dark figure from de Bernis' past emerges to propel them into a...
The Carolinian is a great read. The book is set at the start of the revolutionary war as a young wealthy planter in Charleston, South Carolina realizes that morality demands that he align himself with the Patriot cause. However by doing so, he will risk everything he holds dear-- especially the affections of his fiercly royalist fiance and prospective father-in-law. Adventure...
Book II of Captain Blood series Further adventures from the much–loved Captain Blood, the 'Robin Hood' of the Spanish Seas. In his latest exploits, The Chronicles of Captain Blood takes him to new adventures with as much excitement and swashbuckling adventure as ever before. Winning invaluable treasures, rescuing his crew from almost certain death and saving an English...
Further adventures from the much-loved Captain Blood, the 'Robin Hood' of the Spanish Seas. In his latest exploits, The Chronicles of Captain Blood takes him to new adventures with as much excitement and swashbuckling adventure as ever before. Winning invaluable treasures, rescuing his crew from almost certain death and saving an English settlement are all in a day's work for...
There are six short-stories in total and the book is about 240 p. long, so the short stories are on the longer side each. And like in the original novel and the sequel collection of shorts, Fortunes of Captain Blood shows the Irish pirate at his best, putting his rapier wit against the fleet of the Spanish Main. It's interesting to read swashbucklers in which so little...
Book III of Captain Blood series. Captain Blood, the remarkable physician turned pirate returns for more thrilling adventures at sea. Time and again, he falls headlong into deep peril, each time emerging victorious. Yet when everything is stacked against him, can he keep his honour until the bitter end?
John Law had a remarkable career ahead of him. Already a successful banker, he was an outstanding figure set to go far. Yet his Scottish homeland was fraught with potential pitfalls and when he killed ‘Beau Wilson’ in a dual, it seemed that the gods had finally conspired against him and his career was to be cut short in its prime. However, dissatisfied with his fate, Law...
Depend above all on Pauncefort’, announced King James, ‘his loyalty is dependable as steel. He is with us body and soul and to the last penny of his fortune.’ So when Pauncefort does indeed face bankruptcy after the collapse of the South Sea Company, the king’s supreme confidence now seems rather foolish. And as Pauncefort’s thoughts turn to gambling, moneylenders and even...
When Don Pedro is shipwrecked off the Cornish coast and captured by the formidable Lady Margaret Trevanion, he expects trouble. What he doesn’t expect is to fall in love and run away with Lady Margaret, only to be pursued by his own countrymen. And he certainly hadn’t expected that the officers of the Spanish Inquisition would be so ruthless that Don Pedro and Lady Margaret are...
Historical novel, taking place at the court of Scottish-born James I in the years following his accession to the English throne in 1603, and vividly recounting the career of the king's favourite Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset. Sabatini does not hide his definite opinions of the people and events he describes. King James I, narrowly escaping assassination in the infamous...
The Most Evil Man in Italy? Cesare Borgia served as Machiavelli's model of the ideal ruler for The Prince. The illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, he was a cardinal at age 22. He lived hard and died hard, murdering his enemies, seizing power in Florence, and marrying off his sister Lucretia for political gain, not once but three times. This is his remarkable story. English...
Justin Caryll was raised by his guardian, Sir Richard, knowing neither his deceased mother nor his father, the Earl of Ostermore. Ostermore and Sir Richard had been friends and suitors of the same woman, and Richard grew to hate his friend after the former won the French lady and then went back to England, abandoning her pregnant and alone. At her dying request, Richard raised...
The Lost King tells the story of Louis XVII — the French royal who officially died at the age of ten but, as legend has it, escaped to foreign lands where he lived to an old age. Sabatini breathes life into these age-old myths, creating a story of passion, revenge and betrayal. He tells of how the young child escaped to Switzerland from where he plotted his triumphant return to...
London is rife with impoverished French nobility who have escaped the horror of the French revolution and journeyed to England to enlist the help of their fellow Catholics. Quentin de Morlaix, already sympathetic to these disenfranchised French aristocrats, finds that he too has his own personal reasons to pray for an end to the Revolution. He sets off for France, and enters a...
Half gentleman and half valet, half wolf and half fox, Citizen Chauvinère enters the prison to hear the list of the condemned read to the waiting nobles. Shrinking away from the jailers, Cléonie de Montsorbier learns she has been saved by the infamous Citizen Chauvinère for a fate worse than the guillotine. Following his own designs, he takes her in disguise as his secretary to...
The Outlaw of Falkensteig (1900). D'Aubeville's Enterprise (1900). The Hostage (1901). The Nuptials of Lindenstein (1901). The Outlaw and the Lady (1901). The Jealousy of Delventhal (1902). The Shriving of Felsheim (1902).
The Risen Dead (1907) The Bargain (1908) The Opportunist (1920) The Plague of Ghosts (1907) The Sword of Islam (1914) The Poachers (1915) The Sentimentalist (1919) Duroc (1915) Kynaston's Reckoning (1914) Jack o'Lantern (1937)
Prince Anthony d'Egmont preserves the ideals of chivalry in this historical novel set in the time of Louis XI. ‘Anthony of Egmont contemplated the world with disapproval. He had reached the conclusion that it was no place for a gentleman.’ Thus begins Sabatini’s masterly novel centred on the fifteenth century Burgundian court. Here, Anthony of Egmont’s world is one of ideals,...
First published in 1915, The Sea Hawk follows the adventures of its protagonist Sir Oliver Tressilian, as he is unjustly betrayed and left to the mercy of others by his selfish brother, who seeks only to save his own skin no matter the cost. Exploring various themes including betrayal, vengeance, sacrifice, injustice, and tormented love, the novel successfully demonstrate...
The Shame of Motley is a swashbuckler romance first published in 1908, set in Italy at the turn of the 16th/17th century. The main character, Lazzaro Biancomonte, is of noble birth but now reduced to the role of a court fool. His redemption comes in his part in an adventure involving the Madonna Paola, with whom he becomes besotted. This is fine, my only issue with this is that...
The Snare is set in 1810 during the Peninsular War in and around the British Army Headquarters. The plot is a romance involving dishonour and redemption set against a background of espionage and treachery. Real characters feature from time to time – the Duke Wellington takes an active part in the tale. Other Sabatini novels that I have read have been out and out swashbucklers,...
William of Orange may have triumphantly taken up the throne of England amid much jubilation and celebration, but there are still those who would rather he were not there at all. In this thrilling novel, Sabatini portrays all the political intrigue of seventeenth century London as these Jacobite extremists undertake their Assasination Plot, whilst presenting us with a worthy...
If you like English history, or political intrigue, you should definitely buy this book. One of Sabatini's "minor" masterpieces, this tells the story of a group of Jabobite plotters (for King James II, in exile in France) who want to overthrow King William of Orange, a Dutchman married to James' daughter Mary and who became King through the Glorious Revolution (when the Brits...
"The Suitors of Yvonne" also known as "The Lovers of Yvonne" was written in 1902. This first novel of Sabatini is told in the first person narrative style. It is a swachbuckling romance, full of swordplay, foiled assassination attempts, and a heroic rescue. Sabatini is a master of writing action and adventure scenes. The Sieur Gaston de Luynes is a soldier of fortune whose...
If you are simply a fan of the historical swashbuckler, you will enjoy The Sword of Islam (1939). It has the same careful attention to historical detail, sparkling dialogue, humor, action, and surprising plot twists that once made the author a household name. The protagonist Prospero Adorno, a 16th-century Genovese naval condottiere serving under the great Admiral Andrea Doria,...
Follow the exploits of Sir Crispin Galliard, also known as The Tavern Knight, in his defence of the King of England against Cromwell and his Puritan Entourage. (Summary by Ric Cornwall). On the march. Arcades ambo. The letter. At the sign of the mitre. After worcester field. Companions in misfortune. The tavern knight'S story. The twisted bar. The bargain. The escape. The...
This is a wonderful historical fiction. Full of action, adventure, love and history. As France embarked upon her bloody revolution in 1789, La Boulaye was a man with no personal grievance against the aristocracy – until his employer, the Marquis de Fresnoy de Bellecour, ruthlessly beat and dismissed him for falling in love with Suzanne, his beautiful daughter. Faced with no job...
London: Hutchinson&Co, 1946. — 226 p. Rafael Sabatini’s 'Turbulent Tales' is a masterful catalogue of extraordinary stories of bravery, honour, intrigue and adventure. With all the vitality of their colourful backdrops, they are stories to thrill and excite any lover of historical fiction.
Venetian Masque is a 1934 adventure novel written by the Anglo-Italian writer Rafael Sabatini. It is set in the 1790s, around the time of the invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte which led to the fall of the Republic of Venice. The hero is the Vicomte de Saulx, a French aristocrat supposedly guillotined during the French Revolution, who enters the world of espionage in Venice.
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