Rafael Sabatini, 143 years of a great adventure novel

Are fulfilled today 143 years of the birth of rafael sabatini, one of the great writers of adventure novels. This author of an English mother and an Italian father signed some of the best and most remembered titles of the genre. Impossible not to have read or seen in his film adaptations that Captain Blood, Sea hawk and Scaramouche. So to celebrate his birthday let's remember some of his stories and their versions on the big screen.

rafael sabatini

I'm afraid for newer generations Rafael Sabatini's name doesn't sound like much or possibly nothing to them. But for those of us who are already an age and were swashbuckling children in readings and cinema Sabatini is synonymous with the best adventures. We possibly knew his work before thanks to cinema more than literature, when in Hollywood there were not so many superheroes with impossible powers and the pirates were real.

Sabatini's were from flesh and blood, they wielded swords and captained pirate ships. In addition, they were from other times and had a halo of mystery or had to change their identity. Or they wore masks or masks and always came out of danger with goodness and defeated the villains on duty.

Sabatini was also the author of short stories and biographies, but especially of those novels of thistorical type, with a lot of adventure and a very precise documentation. Perhaps his style, by the current canons, has been a bit dated, but his content is not and his essence of an adventurous storyteller also remains.

Sabatini passed away on February 13, 1950 in adelboden, Swiss. His second wife, after his death, had the sentence with which his work begins written on his tombstone Scaramouche: "He was born with the gift of laughter and the intuition that the world was crazy".

His work

He published his first novel, The lovers of Yvonne, in 1902, but it was not until almost a quarter of a century later that achieved success with Scaramouche in 1921. Set in the French Revolution, this work was a best seller of the time. The success would be consolidated the following year with Captain Blood.

In total he published 31 adventure novels, many of which were film adaptations. But the scripts were never faithful to the books and Sabatini denied these versions. In addition to adventure novels, he published 8 short story books and 6 biographies of historical figures. Also wrote ,, including an adaptation of Scaramouche.

Four film versions

We have seen them yes or yes. Because they are part of Hollywood's most successful imaginary adventurer of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Because Errol Flynn as the doctor Peter Blood turned into the pirate captain Blood is unforgettable. As it is also in The sea hawk. Because it marked Flynn's fruitful relationship and work with director Michael Curtiz or the actors Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone or Claude Rains.

Because the eye mask, striped leggings and the wonderful sword duel between Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer en Scaramouche or the incomparable beauties of Janet Leigh and Eleanor Parker. Because it is also fixed in our cinephile memory that Tyrone Power in black and red scarf in the cabin with Maureen O'Hara in El cisne negro. And because, ultimately, we could not have a better time with those stories.

Captain Blood

There was a first version in 1924, but the most remembered is that of michael curtiz, 1935.

Dr. Peter blood he is a doctor devoted entirely to his patients who lives on the fringes of political problems. But when is wrongly accused of treason his attitude changes. Being sent as a slave to the West Indies, but endowed with great skill and cunning, he manages to escape and becomes a fearsome pirate, Captain Blood.

The sea hawk

Again from Michael Curtiz who returned to direct in 1940 to Errol Flynn, two years after doing it in Robin of the Woods. Like the previous one, it is another classic of the adventure and pirate genre.

Tells the adventures of Geoffrey thorpe, an English corsair, terror of Spanish ships. When approaching one of them he captures Dona Maria Alvarez of Cordoba, a Spanish aristocrat, with whom he falls in love immediately. When the queen returns to England Elizabeth I He sends him on an important mission in which he will fall into Spanish hands.

El cisne negro

Took her to the movies Henry King en 1942 and its protagonists were Tyrone Power and Maureen O 'Hara among others.

We go back to the seventeenth century where the pirate Henry Morgan is named governor of the island of Jamaica by the English Crown. Morgan wants to clean the Caribbean Sea of ​​pirates and therefore asks two of his former colleagues for help, Warning and Tommy Blue. But another one of them, Captain Leech, will not join the group and with the help of the rebels kidnap the daughter of the former governor, which will cause a bloody battle.

Scaramouche

Director George Sidney led in 1952 this version de script very changed compared to Sabatini's original novel. They starred in it StewartGranger, Eleanor Parker, Mel Ferrer and Janet Leigh.

We are in in the France of eighteenth century and the film tells the adventures of Andre-Louis Moreau (Stewart Granger), bastard son of a nobleman. Philippe deValomorin, André's best friend, is a young revolutionary who is murdered by the Marquis de Mayne, a nobleman and an accomplished swordsman. André swears to avenge the death of his friend and kill the marquis. The problem is that to duel before must learn to handle the sword.

Meanwhile, Andre will meet Aline de Gavillac (Janet Leigh) with whom he will fall in love, but she is the fiancee of the marquis. André will end up joining to a group of showmen who will teach him to be a good swordsman and help him carry out his revenge.

More titles

• Bardelys the Magnificent. King Vidor adapted it to the cinema in 1926.
• The shame of the jester
• The summer of San Martín
• Anthony Wilding
• Whims of fortune
• Bellarion
• The romantic prince
• Nobility
• The lost king