Book Description
Before becoming a pirate Captain Blood was an Irish physician convicted of treason for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion. Sentenced to be transported to the Caribbean and sold into slavery on the island of Barbados.When the Spanish attack the island Dr Blood escapes and starts an carrier as a pirate of the Caribbean. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

If Only
Great novel if only I could get it delivered.I have ordered this and other Sabatini books from Amazon and have yet to ever receive one. The last one was perpetually backordered.For months and months I received messages asking if I still wanted the book.Then it was cancelled.Then mpnths latter I ordered another again and that was backordered as well.

Serial Blood
Raphael Sabatini apparently knew a good thing when he wrote it.The original Captain Blood was a runaway best seller.So Sabatini began cranking out further adventures of Captain Blood that were essentially collections of unrelated stories.Each chapter of "Fortunes" relates a complete stand-alone vignette, not related to the other chapters of the book.

You won't find a continuous narrative, and not much in the way of Blood's pining for the unreachable Arabella Bishop.But if you are interested in a rock-em, sock-em collection of great, salty short stories starring Sabatini's sympathetic hero Peter Blood, then "Fortunes" is for you.

Be sure that you first read the original "Captain Blood, His Odyssey", also sometimes sold simply as "Captain Blood".Then, once you are hooked on the main story, get a copy of "Fortunes" and enjoy even more piratical high-seas hijinks from everyone's favorite soldier of fortune.

As a delightful little "bonus", see if you are a careful enough reader to pick out the error in Sabatini's time-line.You'll have to remember the original Captain Blood story, and then in "Fortunes", read the story of The Eloping Hidalga.Something between the two doesn't add up.See if you can spot the mistake.

And Still More Peter Blood!
This is another collection of Sabatini's short stories featuring Peter Blood presented in serial order so the book can be read cover to cover or one story at a time. The plots center around Captain Blood's clever outwitting of his many opponents and incidents brought about by his fame in the Caribbean, including an imposter besmirching his reputation and a clever adversary who sees through one of the Captain's many alternate personas. Highly readable and very enjoyable. ... Read more

Book Description
Rafael Sabatini (1875 - 1950) was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure. At a young age, Rafael was exposed to many languages. By the time he was seventeen, he was the master of five languages. He quickly added a sixth language - English - to his linguistic collection. After a brief stint in the business world, Sabatini went to work as a writer. He wrote short stories in the 1890s, and his first novel came out in 1902. Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year. He consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said, "all the best stories are written in English." In all, he produced thirty one novels, eight short story collections, six nonfiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and a play. He is best known for his world-wide bestsellers: The Sea Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), Captain Blood (1922) and Bellarion the Fortunate (1926). Other famous works by Sabatini are The Lion's Skin (1911), The Strolling Saint (1913) and The Snare (1917).Download Description
It was spring at Bellecour - the spring of 1789, a short three months before the fall of the Bastille came to give the nobles pause, and make them realise that these new philosophies, which so long they have derided, were by no means the idle vapours they had deemed them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, sound early Sabatini
This is a good, sound, albeit early and somewhat weak, Sabatini novel.It's his first in the setting he handled best, revolutionary France.The style is mostly vintage Sabatini, though the plot is somewhat weak by his later standards; the ending works both intellectually and emotionally, though the mature Sabatini would have come up with something more satisfying.The plot, as usual, is assisted by coincidences and characters acting in the one way they would obviously avoid; but it avoids the unacceptable holes of most of his earlier novels. ... Read more

Book Description
Rafael Sabatini (1875 - 1950) was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure. At a young age, Rafael was exposed to many languages. By the time he was seventeen, he was the master of five languages. He quickly added a sixth language - English - to his linguistic collection. After a brief stint in the business world, Sabatini went to work as a writer. He wrote short stories in the 1890s, and his first novel came out in 1902. Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year. He consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said, "all the best stories are written in English." In all, he produced thirty one novels, eight short story collections, six nonfiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and a play. He is best known for his world-wide bestsellers: The Sea Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), Captain Blood (1922) and Bellarion the Fortunate (1926). Other famous works by Sabatini are The Lion's Skin (1911), The Strolling Saint (1913) and The Snare (1917).Download Description
The Strolling Saint Being the Confessions of the High & Mighty Agostino D'Anguissola Tyrant of Mondolfo & Lord of Carmina, in the State of Piacenza. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Swashbuckling, romantic and adventurous
I was surprised to find there were more books written about Captain Blood. I had read the original Captain Blood and loved it. I think it is high time Hollywood remade the movie too. Captain Blood Returns takes place during the same time as the original Captain Blood story. It is a collection of more adventures that could very well have been added to the original story. I can't wait to read the next book waiting for me--The Fortunes of Captain Blood.

captain blood returns
THIS WAS A EXCELLANT STORY OF THE BUCCANEERS OF THE SPANISH MAIN.
I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME SEE WHY THIS BOOK IS NOT MORE FAMOUS THAN THE ORIGINAL BOOK. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL TO THIS STORY TO CONTINUE THE THRILL ON AND ON.

Just can't get enough of Peter Blood?
Not so much the return of the Captain, darlin', but his "overlooked" adventures in Sabatini's first book, begining shortly after his escape from slavery. Contains all the clever tricks and swashbuckling you've come to expect in a series of short stories. Sabatini's talent really shines in this format and _Captain Blood Returns_ is entertaining to read all at once or bits at a time. ... Read more

Book Description
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Mr. Caryll, lately from Rome, stood by the window, looking out over the rainswept, steaming quays to Notre Dame on the island yonder. Overhead rolled and crackled the artillery of an April thunderstorm, and Mr. Caryll, looking out upon Paris in her shroud of rain, under her pall of thundercloud, felt himself at harmony with Nature. Over his heart, too, the gloom of storm was lowering, just as in his heart it was still little more than April time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A sin of Sabatini's literary nonage
After scoring hits two decades into his career with Scaramouche and Captain Blood, Sabatini's American publishers began reprinting some of his earlier works, though he tried to suppress the ones he thought inferior.But even those were being brought across the Atlantic and he eventually agreed to their republication as well, only with an apologetic preface branding them "sins of [his] literary nonage" that he would rather "bury in oblivion."The Lion's Skin is one of those books.

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 her son, and Caryll was taught that one day he would be called upon to exact revenge on his father.

As the book begins, Justin Caryll is an adult who journeys to England with the means to ruin his father, only he has misgivings about the whole idea.As he tries to decide what to do, he makes Ostermore's acquaintance, earns the enmity of Ostermore's son -- Viscount Rotherby -- and gets on rather well with Ostermore's ward, Hortensia Winthrop (what a name!).Meanwhile, he is rightfully suspected by his enemies of being a Jacobite agent and he realizes that there is very little to hate in his mild-mannered father.

In the end, Rotherby and a few others think they have what they need to get Caryll out of the way, but too late they learn the meaning of that phrase from Henry V that inspired the title, and which Caryll actually quotes: "the man that once did sell the lion's skin/while the beast liv'd, was killed with hunting him."

The story is fairly good, the writing mediocre, and the historical accuracy not all that great (I think).Still, it's entertaining.

Aspects of this remind me of other Sabatini novels, making me wonder whether he re-wrote certain elements into later works.Ostermore is a lot like the Lord of Gavrillac and the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr in Scaramouche, and there are similarities to Master-At-Arms and a few other books as well.

The Lion's Skin is worth a read, but only after you've covered Sabatini's better novels first. ... Read more

Product Description
Most people consider Cesare Borgia one of history's villans -- there are foul rumors that fly around the man's history, dispicable tales of dispicable acts: there is litytle he has not been accused of, in fact. Rafael Sabatini -- famed novelist, author of such deservedly renowned classics as Scaramouche_ and Captain Blood_ -- had a very sifferent idea of who Cesare Borgia was. Sabatini may be right: Borgia may have been one of history's great men, consigned to villany because his enemies wrote the histories.Download Description
Cesare Borgia served as Machiavelli's model of the ideal ruler for The Prince. his remarkable story is researched and told by Raphael Sabatini, the master novelist whose adventure tales have sold millions of copies worldwide. In this case though, truth is more devilish than fiction. ... Read more

Book Description
Sometimes spelt Raphael in error?Download Description
For three days I had been cooling my heels about the Vatican, vexed by suspense. It fretted me that I should have been so lightly dealt with after I had discharged the mission that had brought me all the way from Pesaro, and I wondered how long it might be ere his Most Illustrious Excellency the Cardinal of Valencia might see fit to offer me the honourable employment with which Madonna Lucrezia had promised me that he would reward the service I had rendered the House of Borgia by my journey. ... Read more

Book Description
Rafael Sabatini (1875 - 1950) was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure. At a young age, Rafael was exposed to many languages. By the time he was seventeen, he was the master of five languages. He quickly added a sixth language - English - to his linguistic collection. After a brief stint in the business world, Sabatini went to work as a writer. He wrote short stories in the 1890s, and his first novel came out in 1902. Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year. He consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said, "all the best stories are written in English." In all, he produced thirty one novels, eight short story collections, six nonfiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and a play. He is best known for his world-wide bestsellers: The Sea Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), Captain Blood (1922) and Bellarion the Fortunate (1926). Other famous works by Sabatini are The Lion's Skin (1911), The Strolling Saint (1913) and The Snare (1917).Download Description
With swordfights and romance, adventure and treachery set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, this is the book that made Sabatini famous. André-Louis Moreau has good prospects as a young lawyer, but an unfair duel with the ruthlessly cruel Count de La Tour d'Azyr leaves André-Louis's best friend dead and André-Louis himself a fugitive from the King's justice. While incognito he becomes both a wildly popular actor and a firebrand of the Revolution. His vow to avenge his friend's murder leads him deeper into the political intrigues that surround the Revolution, and to a position of power. But there are secrets to be revealed that will stun all of Paris. One of the best historical romances of all time. "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

One of the best books written
Rafael Sabatini is a brilliant author. This story centres around a young man, Andre Louis Moreau at the beginnings of the French revolution, who witnesses a crime against his best freind, perpetrated by a wealthy Marquis of France. Andre Louis takes an oath to take up the ideas of his murdered freind. Hes seeks justice for his murdered freind. Finding none, he speaks out, and in the course becomes a fugitive from the law and his family. The story then follows his amazing exploits, with his path continually crossing with the ruthless Marquis. It is not Andre Louis who seeks the Marquis but rather fate that puts them in each others paths. The ending to this book is simply amazing and entertaining. Its a must read.

I find the most rated review to be off in some aspects. I dont believe Andre Louis has personal quest for revenge. It is only justice that he ever seeks, and he is not driven by hatred. Revenge and Hatred are the Marquis. Andre Louis is driven by survival, love & success. As I said above, it is lady fate that plays her game. He is also never in pursuit of the beautiful Aline de Kercadiou.

But thats just my opinion.

Superb Romantic Fiction
There was a time when the word "romance" when applied to fiction meant "exciting adventure," not, "lonely girl lusts after bare-chested hunk."Classic authors of the genre would include Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexandre Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle.Among these giants one would have to include Rafael Sabatini, and of his many works, Scaramouche is probably his greatest.

It is the story of Andre-Louis Moreau and takes place during the turbulent years of the French Revolution. Moreau is a splendid creation and a classic hero of romantic literature.A man of thought and introspection, Moreau becomes a man of action when his close friend Vilmorin is unjustly provoked into a duel and murdered by a noble with whom he can't possibly hope to compete.Moreau, initially dismissive and cynical about the movement for liberty in which his friend was so passionately involved, vows to take up his cause.

He does so, and quickly becomes such an effective speaker that he is forced into hiding, which in his case means taking up residence in a traveling theatre group.This group practices the improvisational technique known as commedia delle-arte, and over time Moreau becomes one of the stock characters:"scaramouche," the boastful, deceptive captain.But after enjoying much success, this venture comes to an end, when, seeing his bitter enemy in the theatre one evening, Moreau uses the stage to scathingly attack the unjust actions of the nobility and provokes a riot.

His next adventure finds him as the apprentice in a fencing academy where he becomes expert with this weapon, a skill he uses with ever-increasing frequency as he re-enters society as a member of the newly-formed parliament, and finds he must defend himself against those upper-class rogues who would provoke him into a deadly duel.

It is an absolutely splendid tale and works on every level.Clearly, from the above, you could hardly ask for more in the way of adventure.But there is so much more than this.The characters, for example are all richly portrayed and nuanced.Even his enemy, the terrible Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr, is fully-fleshed out well beyond the one-dimensional evil-doers so often found in the genre.

The historical and political aspects are well-illustrated as well.One comes away from the novel with a clear understanding of the way French society operated in 1787, and more importantly, one gains this understanding through the thoughts, actions and discussions of the novel's major and minor characters.That political change was coming to France was known to everyone, and everyone had an opinion to share on the subject.

Beyond all of this though is the simple, exciting pleasure in the reading of it.More than anything else, this novel is fun!Winding in and out of the plot and the historical context there is treachery, double-dealings, surprising revelations of identity, and yes, romance of the boy-girl type, made all the more delightful by Moreau's cool, detached, wry and often hilarious reactions to these events.He is the indefatigable Moreau, the man of justice, the man of fairness, the man of action . . . and the man of reason, in the age that was defined by that phrase.

It is a splendid performance by one of the truly great authors of the historical romance.

Free SF Reader
Across the backdrop of the French Revolution, a man falls foul of the authorities because of his politics. Going on the run, he encounters some actors, leading him to take up the role of Scaramouche, a clown type rogue character.

Eventually, he settles in at a fencing academy, working for a master. Taking over after his death he puts his sword skills to good use.

He was born with the gift of laughter ...
This is my first Sabatini novel (just finished it last night), but it won't be my last - I found Scaramouche excellent.

Scaramouche is set during the years leading up to and including the French Revolution, and follows the exploits of one Andre Louis Moreau, a lawyer, a bastard, and a Frenchman with close connections to the ruling class.Moreau begins the story without an inkling of support for the Republican cause, but this changes early in the novel when Moreau's best friend, an outspoken Republican with a "dangerous gift of eloquence", is wrongly and permanently silenced.With that event, Sabatini not only changed the course of Moreau's life forever, he also had me hooked less than 30 pages into Scaramouche - an impressive accomplishment given my attention span, or lack thereof.

Moreau, or Scaramouche as he's eventually known, is a complex and unique character.Moreau's motives are often contradictory and hard to understand yet, at least to me, remain believable.He devotes his life to a cause he (at least initially) doesn't believe in.He seems to have little care for those around him, and is even called heartless by his friends and peers numerous times, yet he possesses loyalty worthy of admiration.An admitted hypocrite, he despises the emotion of hatred whilst himself dedicating a good portion of his life to vengeance.I found this unique character memorable and also worth liking and rooting for.

If there is one negative worth pointing out, it's that Scaramouche (the novel, not the character) is, at times, highly predictable.In particular, there is a revelation relating to Moreau's linage revealed at the end of the story that I saw coming from a mile away - and I'm pretty dense, there's generally a lot I don't see coming from a mile away that many other readers would.The story also is peppered with a number of fairly unlikely coincidences - but I think it's reasonable to consider these not coincidence, but Providence, or fate, and their prevalence is common to other works that I'd consider within the same category as Scaramouche, including everything I've ever read by Dumas or Hugo.

However, aside from what I'd consider a good to very good story, any negatives I can point out are, in my opinion, more than offset by Sabatini's excellent writing.This is clearly a matter of opinion, but I like his writing style better than just about anything I've read in the recent past, and I've read works by some pretty well regarded authors in the recent past.And in my opinion it's much more than a good vocabulary, the entire 350 pages are dotted with more great one-liners than I could possibly count or keep track of (beginning with the opening line of the novel, but this is far from the only memorable line).I was laughing out loud multiple times while reading this, moved to laughter by the overweight Pantaloon's "ponderous yet curiously noiseless gait" and, crap, countless other lines that make me wish I'd read with a highlighter nearby so I could quote more than one of them in this review and elsewhere - I never do that (read w/ a highlighter next to me) but do wish I had in this case and will when I read future works by Sabatini.The comical nature of the book is also bolstered by Moreau's cynical, dry humor that I find appealing.

As for my highest praise for this piece, I can offer two examples.The first is that I will read more works by Sabatini (in fact I just received a copy of Captain Blood today).The second is, if asked by a random friend to recommend a single book I've read over, say, the last six months as an easy, entertaining (yet nonetheless thought provoking) read, my answer would come easily and immediately: Scaramouche.

Good read. Melodramatic in places.
Well worth the effort. In parts a romantic melodrama, but finely balanced with the revenge/coming-of-age portion. ... Read more

Book Description
Sometimes spelt Raphael in error?Download Description
My Lord of Tressan, His Majesty's Seneschal of Dauphiny, sat at his ease, his purple doublet all undone, to yield greater freedom to his vast bulk, a yellow silken undergarment visible through the gap, as is visible the flesh of some fruit that, swollen with over-ripeness, has burst its skin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

St. Matin's Summer
I like this best of all the early works of Sabatini that I have read.Like most of these, this novel is available on-line, but, for me, it is much more enjoyable to read in book format.I, therefore, welcomed this inexpensive edition made available on Amazon.

As other reviewers have noted, this novel lacks the complexity of plot and the depth of character of Sabatini's better known works such as Scaramouche or Bellarion, but, in my opinion, it makes up for it in its rollicking good humor and its robust action and sword play.It is like Dumas at his best without his moral ambiguities.

I loved the ending of the story.It is popular, and must be saisfying, to witness someone with unlimited resources concoct a scheme of absolute, complete revenge.This popularity is clear from the great number of adaptations and new editions of The Count of Monte Cristo.But it is more satisfying, I believe, to see, as we do in this story, someone faced with very limited resources who, nevertheless, is able to concoct a scheme that enables him to execute almost perfect justice tempered by disciplined mercy.I think this story deserves to be better known.

Fairly good
Saint Martin's Summer is one of Sabatini's second-tier books, good but not great. The title refers to what we now call an Indian Summer, and in this novel it has a double meaning.

The soldier Martin de Garnache is dispatched by the Queen Regent of France into Dauphiny to retrieve Mlle. Valérie de La Vauvraye, who managed to write her begging aid and deliverance from the Dowager Duchess of Condillac. The Duchess, her guardian and quite a powerful figure in the province, was prepared to force de La Vauvraye's marriage to her son, even though the girl was betrothed to the Duchess's absent stepson, the new Duke. Valérie views that more as a matter of pledged word than something for enthusiasm, however.

Naturally, the Duchess is not thrilled about the royal intervention, and with the aid of the gross and besotted Seneschal of Dauphiny and some hired troops, she sets out to frustrate Garnache's mission.

The middle-aged (for the era) soldier, meanwhile, wants little to do with feminine nonsense and finds the whole mission humiliating. But for him, duty is duty, and he finds the young lady more endearing as he faces tremendous obstacles in getting her away from Condillac. That feeling is reciprocated, and as matters are resolved Valérie points out that the morrow is Saint Martin's Day and though it is November it is yet warm. She tells Garnache, who understands the allusion, that he is still a long way yet from the November of his life.

Though one of Sabatini's earlier novels, Saint Martin's Summer is pretty well done in terms of writing and story, and if you enjoyed some of his more well-known and more complex books, I would recommend this as well. ... Read more