Captain Blood

The epic story of Peter Blood, doctor and gentleman turned pirate on the caribbean seas

Sabatini's stories abound with drama and melodrama, action and excitement and brilliant colour, as well as minute period detail. No writer, not Scott, nor Dumas, nor Stevenson, has brought the past to life more vividly or accurately . . . He is to be learned from by any who seek instruction in the craft of writing or the matter of history. This century has seen no greater expert in the two combined.

Mr. Sabatini is both a wonderfully fertile creator of exciting fiction and a stylist of distinction

Mr. Sabatini has stirred the pulses of thousands of readers with his heroic tales. He is a true romancer in love with the drama and colour of the world in which gallant men and beautiful women live finely against a background of history

Rafael Sabatini was born in Jesi, Italy in 1875 to an English mother and Italian father, both renowned opera singers. At a young age, Rafael travelled frequently, and could speak six languages fluently by the age of seventeen. After a brief stint in the business world, Sabatini turned to writing. He worked prolifically, writing short stories in the 1890s, with his first novel published in 1902. Scaramouche was published in 1921 to widespread acclaim, and was soon followed by the equally succesful Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk. He died on February 13, 1950 in Switzerland.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KATE MOSSE 
 
Wrongfully arrested following the Monmouth rebellion of 1685, Peter Blood, country physician and former soldier, escapes the hangman's noose only to be exiled to the tropical colonies. Sold into slavery to a cruel plantation owner, his moral fortitude and medical ability soon earn him the favour of the island's governor, and the attentions of Arabella, his master's niece. When the town is attacked by marauding Spanish buccaneers, Blood springs to the rescue, and with a motley yet loyal band of shipmates escapes to begin a life of noble piracy and adventure on the caribbean seas. 
 
A classic swashbuckling tale of piracy, romance and redemption, Captain Blood stands as one the greatest adventure novels of the 20th century.

Scaramouche

A classic tale of high adventure, the story of a man 'born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad'.

Mr Sabatini's novel of the French Revolution has all the colour and lively incident which we expect in his work

One wonders if there is another storyteller so adroit at filling his pages with intrigue and counter-intrigue, with danger threaded with romance, with a background of lavish colour, of silks and velvets, of swords and jewels

Scaramouche is a wonderfully adventurous story... a splendid novel, whose author fully deserved the fame and fortune it brought him... He gave us great stories and this one, for me, is his best.

[Sabatini] is to be learned from by any who seek instruction in the craft of writing or the matter of history. This century has seen no greater expert in the two combined

Mr. Rafael Sabatini is one of the most picturesque of romantic writers and has also a sound equipment as a historian

The plot is terrific and the pace fast and furious...A terrific story told by a master storyteller

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BERNARD CORNWELL 
 
When Andre-Louis witnesses the murder of his best friend by an arrogant and privileged aristocrat he swears to avenge his death. Forced to flee his hometown after stirring up revolutionary fervour in the citizens, he falls in with a travelling theatre company and disguises himself as the character of the wily rogue Scaramouche. His ensuing adventures involve hair-raising duels, romance, treachery and shocking family secrets all handled with brilliance and wit by this extraordinary hero.

Rafael Sabatini

Ben Kane

A gadzooks romance with a generous measure of blood, revenge, sacrifice, villainy, adventure, and heart-interest

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BEN KANE 
 
Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman, is blessed with 'youth, wealth, and good digestion'. He is betrayed by his half-brother and becomes a renegade and Barbary corsair winning the title of Sakr-el-Bahr - hawk of the sea. This is the thrilling, full-blooded adventure of how a man wronged became the scourge of the Mediterranean and the terror of Christians...

Rafael Sabatini

Praise for The Sea-Hawk

Sabatini's stories abound with drama and melodrama, action and excitement and brilliant colour, as well as minute period detail. No writer, not Scott, nor Dumas, nor Stevenson, has brought the past to life more vivi ...

One wonders if there is another storyteller so adroit at filling his pages with intrigue and counter-intrigue, with danger threaded with romance, with a background of lavish colour, of silks and velvets, of swords a ...

A gadzooks romance with a generous measure of blood, revenge, sacrifice, villainy, adventure, and heart-interest

Sabatini's stories abound with drama and melodrama, action and excitement and brilliant colour, as well as minute period detail. No writer, not Scott, nor Dumas, nor Stevenson, has brought the past to life more vivi ...

One wonders if there is another storyteller so adroit at filling his pages with intrigue and counter-intrigue, with danger threaded with romance, with a background of lavish colour, of silks and velvets, of swords a ...

A gadzooks romance with a generous measure of blood, revenge, sacrifice, villainy, adventure, and heart-interest

Sabatini's stories abound with drama and melodrama, action and excitement and brilliant colour, as well as minute period detail. No writer, not Scott, nor Dumas, nor Stevenson, has brought the past to life more vivi ...

One wonders if there is another storyteller so adroit at filling his pages with intrigue and counter-intrigue, with danger threaded with romance, with a background of lavish colour, of silks and velvets, of swords a ...

A gadzooks romance with a generous measure of blood, revenge, sacrifice, villainy, adventure, and heart-interest

Books by Rafael Sabatini

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter