When a young cleric is wrongfully killed, his friend, Andre Louis, vows to avenge his death. Louis' mission takes him to the very heart of the French Revolution where he finds the only way to survive is to assume a new identity. And so is born Scaramouche - a brave and remarkable hero of the finest order and a classic and much-loved tale of the greatest swashbuckling tradition. "REVIEW: 'Mr Sabatini's novel of the French Revolution has all the colour and lively incident which we expect in his work' (Observer) "REVIEW: 'One wonders if there is another storyteller so adroit at filling his pages with intrigue and counter-intrigue, with danger threaded with romance, with a background of lavish colour, of silks and velvets, of swords and jewels' (Daily Telegraph) AUTHBIO: Italian-born Rafael Sabatini ranks among the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and Alexander Dumas for his tales of high adventure, swashbuckling antics and valiant heroes. He is perhaps best loved for Scaramouche, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, all of which have been adapted into hugely-successful films.

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." Thanks to that famous opening sentence the swaggering hero of "Scaramouche" bounds onto the book's center-stage with considerable panache. And for hardly a moment thereafter does André-Louis Moreau lose his charismatic cool, displaying at almost every turn in the tumultuous course of his picaresque adventures the verve, the wit, the intellectual and physical adroitness, and the instant mastery of circumstance that are his birthright. Thrust by chance into the turbulent politics of the time, his successive endeavors as a lawyer, politician, actor, lover, and buffoon make for corking entertainment. With colorful set-pieces playing against a backdrop of high historical drama, "Scaramouche" is considered by many to be Sabatini's best work.

Delightfully courtly, flowery but not dated, Sabatini's period romances--Scaramouche unfolds over the years leading up to the French Revolution--were deservedly popular when originally published, during the 20s and 30s.

Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950), of Italian and English parentage, was a prolific and best-selling author. He wrote in English, his adopted language.

length: (cm)22.7 　　　 　　　　　 　 width:(cm)14.1