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Jan 15, 2018
Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-romance,
historical
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.”
One of the best opening lines I've ever read!
I'm sure this will end up being one of my favourite (re)reads of the year.
A fast paced read that seamlessly merges André-Louis story with real history and leaves you wanting to read more of both. The style is romantic, but the romance(s) are of the realistic sort. (view spoiler) and that he is a very f ...more
Do you expect sincerity in man when hypocrisy is the very keynote of human nature? We are nurtured on it; we are schooled in it, we live by it; and we rarely realize it.
A wonderful surprise. (Yes, I know the book is prised, yet I wasn't convinced I would like it.)
I read a few novels that took place during the French Revolution. Each of them gave me a bit deeper understanding. "Scaramouche" too.
It was splendid. Rafael Sabatini created with wit and lightness an interesting historical fiction, ...more
I expected this to be something like the Scarlet Pimpernel, and in a way it was, in that it is concerned with the same historical period, and the same historical matter: the French Revolution.
But here the similarities end. Scaramouch (or Andre-Louis) is not a noble who rescues other nobles from the savage rabble. He is a cool intellectual man of the middle class with uncertain parentage and who regards the events of this time in a surprisingly more nuanced way that I had been used to read in ot ...more
But here the similarities end. Scaramouch (or Andre-Louis) is not a noble who rescues other nobles from the savage rabble. He is a cool intellectual man of the middle class with uncertain parentage and who regards the events of this time in a surprisingly more nuanced way that I had been used to read in ot ...more
This is a new author, I really have no idea what to expect for this Retro Reads group read.
Scaramouche starts off very politically, set in Brittany and Paris during the turmoil of the French Revolution and the first few pages are dripping with quotable lines.
Andre-Louis, lawyer of questionable parentage, and raised as the godson of local landed gentry Quentin de Kercadiou, is our hero. Originally unsympathetic to the third estate, a tragic interaction with an evil Marquis sets Andre on the path ...more
Scaramouche starts off very politically, set in Brittany and Paris during the turmoil of the French Revolution and the first few pages are dripping with quotable lines.
Andre-Louis, lawyer of questionable parentage, and raised as the godson of local landed gentry Quentin de Kercadiou, is our hero. Originally unsympathetic to the third estate, a tragic interaction with an evil Marquis sets Andre on the path ...more
Best opening line ever.
Apart from that, the story gets off to a slow start. I had to push myself to read the first few chapters. After that, I got caught up in the story. I think it would have been easier to appreciate the section with the actors if I were familiar with the characters (Scaramouche, Harlequin, Columbine) and there were times when I skimmed the lectures on French politics.
It's hard to have a protagonist who spends much of his time hiding his feelings even from the reader. I liked ...more
Apart from that, the story gets off to a slow start. I had to push myself to read the first few chapters. After that, I got caught up in the story. I think it would have been easier to appreciate the section with the actors if I were familiar with the characters (Scaramouche, Harlequin, Columbine) and there were times when I skimmed the lectures on French politics.
It's hard to have a protagonist who spends much of his time hiding his feelings even from the reader. I liked ...more
Clever dialog, albeit sometimes slower to read (sentence structure/word choice.) So glad to have found this gem. Published in 1921, André-Louis Moreau is a complicated character, even as a young man in his mid-twenties and already a lawyer, actor, fencing master, politician. It makes me wonder what he would have accomplished now?
Feb 14, 2016
Eileen
marked it as to-read
Oct 21, 2017
Sally
marked it as to-read
Dec 23, 2017
Leslie
marked it as to-read
Jan 08, 2018
LeahBethany
marked it as to-read
Feb 05, 2022
Domini
marked it as to-read
