Retro Reads discussion

Open spoilers for this book fine & welcome! Also the thread for your final conclusions!

Have started Scaramouche and I am intrigued. More in a couple of days. Nice choice!

I've moved my own comment! In my defence my daughter is coming home from Aussie today & I'm all over the place!

Finished & I loved it. I thought the denouement at the end was over long & even if I hadn't read this book before I could see what was coming but this won't cause me to knock a star off.

I actually liked the way we saw Climène's true colours the same time as André-Louis did. The rushed relationship felt very true to life.

I also really liked the way Andre- Louis' story was integrated into the history of the time. I've rarely seen that done so well.

Carol ☀ Walking in Sunshine wrote: "I also really liked the way Andre- Louis' story was integrated into the history of the time. I've rarely seen that done so well."

Yes- just finished, wow, what a ride! I really enjoyed it, after having no idea what to expect.

I love how honest Andre is with himself, especially at the end when he is confronted with the news of his parents. I was gobsmacked, and he was Mr. Cool! But he was able to laugh at the absurdity of life and fate and all of it. He was a fascinating hero, I don’t think I’ve ever read one like him.

Carol ☀ Walking in Sunshine wrote: "I actually liked the way we saw Climène's true colours the same time as André-Louis did. The rushed relationship felt very true to life. "

This absolutely. I didn't feel Climène actually changed. We just saw a different side of her personality. The nature of rapid romance is to only see the sides of a person that are ideal and perfect.

And the fact is Climène was very young and from the little I've read those relationships were very pressed because it was a ticket to a lavish and glamorous world. I'm reading a bio of Tsar Nicholas that explored this angle via a relationship he had with a ballerina and literally everyone was like yep go be his mistress.

I also thought that if he lived now André-Louis would be a phenomenal vocational counselor. He seemed ready to launch into any career.

Just finished. Enjoyed it quite a lot. It is fun to re-read something that you haven't read since you were a young teen. Then I was all swept up in the adventure and the romance. I suspect I ignored the politics. This time around I found the politics the more interesting part. Sabatini did a masterful job of presenting the hub-bub of the time: the fervor of the political/philosophical clashes, the enthusiasm for change, the role of the demagogues.
I was also fond of our anonymous narrator, who provided insights into Andre's emotional life (via the 'Confessions') as well as letting us know when events were taking place.
One thought on Aline--Andre kept saying they were friends since their infancy, but surely Aline was several (5?6?) years younger than he was, right? Her attitude towards marrying the Marquis at the beginning of the book (the title! the glamor!) seems to be that of an 18 year old (and we've been told that Andre is 24 when our story begins).

Just finished! I really enjoyed the story's progression, although Andre seemed to me to already be a fully realized person who needed little growth, and things kept happening to and because of him.

The ideas he stated in the beginning, about how someone must rule, and the plutocracy were returned to in the end, when Paris was in chaos and the third estate wanted themselves blended into the aristocracy at the expense of the peasantry.

Barb in Maryland wrote: "Just finished. Enjoyed it quite a lot. It is fun to re-read something that you haven't read since you were a young teen. Then I was all swept up in the adventure and the romance. I suspect I ignore..."

Good point, I hadn’t thought, but you’re right, they tell us his age but not hers, and that does seem like a teen attitude, plus her purity and naïveté seem right out of the convent.

❇Critterbee wrote: "Just finished! I really enjoyed the story's progression, although Andre seemed to me to already be a fully realized person who needed little growth, and things kept happening to and because of him...."

He seemed an old soul, didn’t he? Great hero!

Kavan wrote: "Carol ☀ Walking in Sunshine wrote: "I actually liked the way we saw Climène's true colours the same time as André-Louis did. The rushed relationship felt very true to life. "

This absolutely. I di..."

Yes - I couldn’t help thinking of the movie Gigi, and what she’s told by her aunt about the women in her family, “It’s not that we don’t marry, it’s just that rather than get married at first, we get married at last.” With her mother being the opera singer offstage we only hear, and her father absent, couldn’t help wondering who Gigi’s father might be? She was definitely encouraged to become Gaston’s mistress!

I just finished it. I was impressed with how Sabatini arced the villain. He started out almost as a caricature of evvvvvvvvil and by the end he's shown as a highly complicated and troubled man.
It's a nice touch that the beginning of the story ("...and that was all his patrimony") and the end of the story both deal with Andre's parentage.
I'm not sure Andre really changed from the moment we first see him to the end. The only thing that changes is his understanding of Aline.

Evelyn wrote: "I'm not sure Andre really changed from the moment we first see him to the end. The only thing that changes is his understanding of Aline."

Agreed, he was who he was the entire time.

A complex young man, but so clever! Lawyer? Actor? Fencing master? Politician? What next? It made me wonder what he would have done if he lived now?
It was difficult to red at times due to sentence structure and word choices, but I enjoyed the challenge and learned new words and new definitions, too.

Finally started and it is fun so far. I'll read your comments when I am a bit further along.

A bit disappointed that NOT ONCE in the whole book did anyone invite Scaramouche to do the fandango :(

Evelyn wrote: "A bit disappointed that NOT ONCE in the whole book did anyone invite Scaramouche to do the fandango :("

*Spits tea through nose*

❇Critterbee wrote: "Evelyn wrote: "A bit disappointed that NOT ONCE in the whole book did anyone invite Scaramouche to do the fandango :("

*Spits tea through nose*"
Evelyn--LOL!! That has just made my day. Thank you.
Critterbee--
That's why I make sure that I do not have any food or drink near the computer. That way I can laugh without damage to self or electronics.

Barb in Maryland wrote: "Critterbee--
That's why I make sure that I do not have any food or drink near the computer. That way I can laugh without damage to self or electronics. "

Thankfully, I do not sugar my drinks, so my electronics do not take that much damage.

However, good advice!

Evelyn wrote: "A bit disappointed that NOT ONCE in the whole book did anyone invite Scaramouche to do the fandango :("

Thank you ! Of course, I read another book to get the song out of my head, but now it’s back!

I enjoyed this, as I have a weakness for swashbuckling. In "real life", I am a feminist and against violence, but as a child, I fell in love with D'Artagnan, Zorro, and Robin Hood, and their exploits. Of course these heroes always have some kind of code of honor, they aren't just violent for its own sake.

Although the story is episodic, with different sections not that well connected, the various milieus are fun. And I didn't see the twist at the end until just before it was announced.

Finished last night, what a fun read.

Evelyn wrote: "A bit disappointed that NOT ONCE in the whole book did anyone invite Scaramouche to do the fandango :("

HAH!

I'll chime in with those who were really impressed by the villain's character arc. That was surprisingly nuanced! Andre's was quite good too, even if he is a little too expert at everything he tries. :)

I also liked (besides Andre-Louis' character) the portrayal of how the French Revolution began and how it went on. I think it's easy to think The Guillotine and forget about all the rest - how there were not just two classes, the Aristocracy and everybody else, but a middle class with wide diversity, a commercial class and a servant class, among others. I thought it interesting that at one point Andre talked to a servant at an inn in order to get some information about what was happening, and it comes out that the servant wanted nothing to do with the rebels. I think we tend to think in black and white, for and against, and forget that always, everywhere, there will be nuances - lots and lots of greys.