Historical Fiction Sabatini, Rafael: The Snare v2 5 jan 2009

[mtravellerh]

Rafael Sabatini was born in Jesi, Italy, to an English mother 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 seventeen, when he returned to England to live permanently, he was the master of five languages. He quickly added a sixth language — English — to his linguistic collection. He consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said, "all the best stories are written in English."

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. This brilliant novel of the French Revolution became an international best-seller. It was followed by the equally successful Captain Blood in 1922. All of his earlier books were rushed into reprints, the most popular of which was The Sea Hawk from 1915. Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year. While he perhaps didn't achieve the mammoth success of Scaramouche and Captain Blood, nonetheless Sabatini still maintained a great deal of popularity with the reading public through the decades that followed. The public knew that in picking up a Sabatini book, they could always count upon a good read, and his following was loyal and extensive.

The Duke of Wellington was on course to save Portugal during the Peninsula War but his success was dependant upon the loyalty of each and every one of his officers. When an unexpected blunder takes place, disloyal plotters seize their opportunity to cause havoc, and thwart Wellington's worthy plans. The result is a complex case of intrigue, revenge and tested loyalties.

v2 Edit: I completely redid this one. New TOC, new layout, better pagebreaks. This book was not complete, as some of the text was not present, so please redownload. 26 views so far.

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[mtravellerh]

v2 Edit: I completely redid this one. New TOC, new layout, better pagebreaks. This book was not complete, as some of the text was not present, so please redownload. 26 views so far.