Rating: 
Summary: A craving for swashbucklers!
Review: "He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad," so begins Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini's 1921 novel set during the French Revolution. That single and unforgettable sentence propelled me back to my childhood and awoke in me nostalgia for the excitement and adventure I once held for books and movies.
Scaramouche is a tale of revenge, an astonishing tour de force - every single page seethes with incident, color, and detail. How could it no be? It is the story of a man born on the wrong side of the blanket, fugitive from the King's justice, star of traveling players, and the finest swordsman in all of France. A tale of revenge and revolution.
Scaramouche helped me rediscover everything I loved about the classic swashbucklers of the 40s starring Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn and Robert Donat. Sabatini also led me to other great tales of adventure by Alexandre Dumas, PC Wren, Emilio Salgari Henry Rider Haggard and Samuel Shellabarger. Scaramouche definitely has a special place in my heart ;)
Rating:
Summary: A classic adventure novel
Review: "He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." That's the opening sentence of Scaramouche, and the rest lives up to it. Scaramouche is a well-written picaresque adventure novel. If you enjoy Dorothy Dunnett, Errol Flynn movies, or Dumas pere, you should give Sabatini a try, and Scaramouche is a great place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters, great story
Review: (...) Andre-Louis's initial feigned passion for the Revolution is cause for criticism, for some. But I thought it made him that much more human. He rouses the crowds to revolt not because he believes their cause is just, but because he wants to avenge the murder of a close friend. In being dishonest, he is honest to himself and to his friend. Others have written that Andre-Louis is a difficult character to like. But I would put him in the same category as Austen's Mr. Darcy. Proud and arrogant, but decent, courageous and noble.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters, great story
Review: (...) Andre-Louis's initial feigned passion for the Revolution is cause for criticism, for some. But I thought it made him that much more human. He rouses the crowds to revolt not because he believes their cause is just, but because he wants to avenge the murder of a close friend. In being dishonest, he is honest to himself and to his friend. Others have written that Andre-Louis is a difficult character to like. But I would put him in the same category as Austen's Mr. Darcy. Proud and arrogant, but decent, courageous and noble.
Rating: 
Summary: Dated
Review: A historical romance with a mocking tone, but badly dated. Not as good as Sabatini's Captain Blood.
Rating:
Summary: An heroic epic!
Review: Although written in the early 20th century, this novel clearly falls within the romanticism genre of the 19th century. As with Hugo and Dumas, Sabatini's novel comprises heroic characters and an interesting plot against the backdrop of an epic event in human history (in this case, the French Revolution). The flourish of Sabatini's writing style matches the panache of Andre-Louis, his protagonist, and the reader is easily swept into a universe in which a man can be "born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad." If you enjoy the heroism of Hugo and the swashbuckling plots of Dumas then you will love falling into the world created by Sabatini.
Rating:
Summary: Great! Great! Great!
Review: I really recomend this book to everyone. It's so exciting, I read well into the night and the next day. OK, the begining was a bit slow and I sometimes skipped bits of Andre's speaches, but as you go ahead, you come to love it more and more. If you've seen the movie, well, really great movie and Stewart Granger looks so handsome, Janet is beautiful (esp. in that violet dress), but it really has nothing to do with the book. Bits of it were taken out, that's all. So read this book and be swept away in this complex and not exactly safe place, era of history!
Rating:
Summary: Scaramouche
Review: Many of Sabatini's works are of high adventure, romance in a historical setting, and this book does not change that. Taking place in the times of French revolution, Mr sabatini uses the English language to depict a man or rare courage, singular skills matched against the wealth and self induced superiority of the french nobleman. Mr Sabatini's characters are still more nobel than the nobles, and more honest than the laws and judges. Captain Blood, The lion's Skin, and Scaramouch should be on the must read list for any reader of historical fiction, lovers of adventure, and romantasists.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent edition of a swashbuckling classic!
Review: Rafael Sabatini was born of Italy in 1875 of a British mother and Italian father and settled in England in his late teens. English was his sixth language but it was also the one in which he wrote dozens of novels, some of which (such as Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk) are acclaimed classics and were translated into equally successful films. This Regnery Publishing edition of Scaramouche again presents the story of Andre-Louis Moreau, set in the time of the French Revolution and showcases all the Sabatini hallmarks of high adventure in a swashbuckling narrative that has stimulated the imaginations of generation of readers and movie goers. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A great adventure written by a master
Review: Sabatini is ranked with the great adventure writers of all time, with Alexandre Dumas, Baroness Orczy, and Robert Louis Stevenson. With one of the best opening lines ever (right up there with "It was the best of times....") Scaramouche is his masterpiece. Andre Louis vows revenge upon the wrongful death of a young clerical friend by the wicked Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr. Taking up his dead friend's cause, he is charged with treason when he incites a crowd to riot. He flees his home and his love, and joins a troup of old school actors. Needless to say, Andre Louis takes on the role of Scaramouche, the rogue, and this way continues to thwart his enemy. He later becomes a fencing master, and...I won't spoil the plot for you, but I have never read a book with such an effective climax. Andre Louis is one of the immortal heroes of all time.
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