The Lion's Skin

The Lion's Skin is a novel by Rafael Sabatini published in 1911...Summary : In his introduction to American printing of The Lion's Skin, Sabatini refers to this novel and several others as "sins of his literary youth." While, the book is certainly not as well thought out as Captain Blood and lacks the polish of Scaramouche, I find very little here for which to appologize. Like many of his stories, The Lion's Skin is a romp through the upper classes during a time of political turmoil....
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The Lion's Skin is a novel by Rafael Sabatini published in 1911...Summary : In his introduction to American printing of The Lion's Skin, Sabatini refers to this novel and several others as "sins of his literary youth." While, the book is certainly not as well thought out as Captain Blood and lacks the polish of Scaramouche, I find very little here for which to appologize. Like many of his stories, The Lion's Skin is a romp through the upper classes during a time of political turmoil. Justin Caryll is the illegitimate son of the Earl of Ostermore who has been raised in France by a friend of his mother's, Sir Richard Everard. Caryll is honorable, intelligent, educated, well-bred, loyal...in short, the typical, "perfect" Sabatini hero. Lord Ostermore is self-centered and cowardly, but not the main antagonist. That is left to his son, Viscount Rotherby, who is just as vain and egotistical as his father, but whose primary character flaws are that he has no sense of honor and is a bully. Caryll and Rotherby meet when Caryll stops a mock wedding Rotherby has set up to dishonor Ostermore's ward. Like all the other characters in the novel, the women are not as clearly drawn here as in Sabatini's later works. There are two major ones: Lady Ostermore, the bitter, shrewish wife, and Hortensia, the beautiful, kind and trusting ward. They are not quite cardboard cutouts, but room for their characterization is sacrificed for turnings of the plot. The basic themes of the book, revenge and illegitimacy, are devices that Sabatini comes back to time and again in his other novels. This book does not cover any new ground, but the political intrigues in which Justin Caryll considers ensnaring his father, and the relationship Justin has to his foster father, Sir Richard, make this novel worth snuggling up to with a cup of hot cocoa on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It is not Great Epic Literature, but it sure is fun..Biography : Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) was an Italian/English writer of novels of romance and adventure. Rafael Sabatini was born in Iesi, Italy, to an English mother (Anna Trafford) and Italian father. His parents were opera singers who became teachers. At a young age, Rafael was exposed to many languages, living with his grandfather in England, attending school in Portugal, and, as a teenager, in Switzerland. By the time he was 17, when he returned to England to live permanently, he had become proficient in 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. In 1905, he married Ruth Goad Dixon, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant. It took Sabatini roughly a quarter of a century of hard work before he attained success with Scaramouche in 1921. The novel, an historical romance set during the French Revolution, became an international bestseller. Extrait : Mr. Caryll, lately from Rome, stood by the window, looking outover the rainswept, steaming quays to Notre Dame on the islandyonder. Overhead rolled and crackled the artillery of anApril thunderstorm, and Mr. Caryll, looking out upon Paris inher shroud of rain, under her pall of thundercloud, felthimself at harmony with Nature. Over his heart, too, thegloom of storm was lowering, just as in his heart it was stilllittle more than April time.Behind him, in that chamber furnished in dark oak and leatherof a reign or two ago, sat Sir Richard Everard at a vastwriting-table all a-litter with books and papers; and SirRichard watched his adoptive son with fierce, melancholy eyes,watched him until he grew impatient of this pause."Well?" demanded the old baronet harshly. "Will you undertakeit, Justin, now that the chance has come?" And he added:"You'll never hesitate if