a book
Scaramouche
Rafael Sabatini · 1900 · 360 pages
When the aristocratic Lord of La Tour d'Azyr murders Andre-Louis's best friend - a young man who is politically active during the French Revolution - Andre-Louis vows to take up his friend's cause and avenge his death. He takes refuge as an actor in a travelling troupe, performing under the name Scaramouche. His adventures are pulse-pounding, his heroism is the stuff of legend - but it is his destiny that we remember. Scaramouche's fate is the destiny of a nation, the crusade of an age: this is the story of the events that made France a modern nation. The fate of Scaramouche is the fate we all still share.
recommended by 1 person
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Michael Ondaatje
“This is a book I read in my teens, a ‘swashbuckler,’ and it introduced me to historical fiction as well as politics before the French Revolution, the art of fencing, the skill of a duelist, love affairs, and commedia dell’arte theater in which the character of a ‘scaramouche’ exists. Sabatini’s book was hugely popular in the 1920s, and it is wonderful. I read it as a boy and read it recently, amazed at how good it still is.”↗