Scaramouche! Scaramouche! Will you do the Fandango?
He was born with a keen sense of the ridiculous and an innate sense that the world was mad. Cynical and critical of all the fashionable sentiments gripping young minds on the west bank of the Rhine. He came into this world to become a man without birth or tribe, unacceptable among the nobility, a stranger among the bourgeoisie and the commoners. Loyalty and lust for revenge alone fundamentally turned the life of the simple lawyer from Gavrijak upside down.
Rafael Sabatini (1875 - 1950) was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure. At a young age, Rafael was exposed to many languages. By the time he was seventeen, he was the master of 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. Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year. He consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said, "all the best stories are written in English. " In all, he produced thirty one novels, eight short story collections, six nonfiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and a play. He is best known for his world-wide bestsellers: The Sea Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), Captain Blood (1922) and Bellarion the Fortunate (1926). Other famous works by Sabatini are The Lion's Skin (1911), The Strolling Saint (1913) and The Snare (1917).
This book is more than an entertainment than a comedy or, rather, a tragicomedy. "Scaramouche" carries the self-irony of Sabatini, the invigorating theatrical energy of the Commedia dell'arte and the explosive atmosphere of the Great French Revolution. The author managed to achieve in his work in harmony between the best literary traditions of the time, and therefore this novel is easy to read, like a play with sparkling humor, lively dialogue and comical situations.
The main character embodies the spirit of an actor, if you want a lyricist, by vocation. Educated, not constrained by unnecessary limits of propriety, witty, well-read, daring and dexterous. His word strikes like a sword, his jabs are deadly, his speeches are explosive, his actions are reckless. André-Louis Moreau, guided by the finger of fate, tries on the role of the Count of Monte Cristo, but the scale of his revenge goes beyond the boundaries of a single human destiny. Beginning as an OMNES OMNIBUS, André-Louis escapes from the police to try on the role of Scaramouche and spend months and even years in a theatrical troupe. Through the power of his oratory, our hero plays on the feelings of the oppressed and awakens a deadly machine.
The novel is political, although the author's position is as unclear as that of André-Louis himself, however, Sabatini, through the mouths of his characters, gives a comprehensive answer to the reasons for such an important historical event. Through the eyes of educated young people, the reader can see the senselessness and stupidity of the political line of the nobility and the clergy, who have entered into a struggle with the third estate to preserve the centuries-old tradition of legalized slavery. The political and social crisis is exacerbated against the background of senseless cruelty and greed of the privileged classes, and the third estate is joined by the wealthy bourgeoisie, who want, with their earned capital, to ensure a greater weight in society, on a par with the generic nobility.
The legitimate result is a general revolt. The weak-willed king, loved by the commoners by inertia, commits one foolish act after another, now in conflict with the National Assembly, now trying to reinforce bondage. And the privileged continue to rely on brute force. This is where the reckoning comes in. The people respond with force for force, brutality for brutality, and a bloody wave sweeps across France, sweeping away the old orders, families, palaces, and so on. And we can see the outcome in the history books.
I've seen the film adaptation, greatly simplified and not so sharp-social, which essentially reduced everything to a love line and a confrontation between André-Louis and enemy number one, the Marquis de Latour d'Azur. Sabatini managed to achieve a balance between the personal and the social, the self-interested and the altruistic, the romantic and the base. Therefore, the work lives and breathes, and the pages are not covered with the dust and plaster of bygone centuries. It seems that Scaramouche is relevant even now, time has no power over the immortal work. And we are again ready to admire the game of a born actor, to observe his cunning intrigues and listen to his poisonous speeches, to laugh at jokes and scowl at his pranks.
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