|
|

"A novel of adventure, comedy, and
mystery set in the France of Dumas' The Three Musketeers."
St Martin's Summer
The life of an heiress is in jeopardy and her only hope is
to place her trust in the wiles of a middle-aged swordsman
with no use for "women's troubles." As the plots of the
conspirators converge it will take all the wiles and accumulated
wisdom of Martin Marie Rigobert de Garnache uncover their
identity, to save Valerie de La Vauvraye and keep his promise
to his Queen.
published by The Riverside Press Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1909
- St Martin's Summer is no longer in copyright.
- Reprints are widely available, and reading copies can be found
on most used book and auction sites.
- The text of St Martin's Summer
- is available online at Project
Gutenberg, Munsey's
or Arthur's
Classic Novels.
"Saint Martin's summer" refers to a period of fine weather
unexpectedly late in the year, and the title of this work
alludes to the advanced age ("close upon forty years") at which
the hero finds romance. This is the most broadly comedic of
all of Sabatini's novel-length works, and is surely an homage
to Alexandre Dumas.
Martin Marie Rigobert de Garnache, "astute and wily as a fox,
brave as a lion, and active as a panther," is first cousin to
D'Artagnan in his devotion to duty and resourcefulness in
carrying out his assigned tasks. Unlike D'Artagnan, he finds
serving his Queen (in this case, the queen-regent, Marie de
Medicis) trying to his warlike spirit. It is a particular
trial to M. de Garnache to find himself ordered to leave the
comforts of Paris behind and ride to Grenoble, with only his
servant Rabecque in tow, to release the heiress, Valerie de
La Vauvraye, from the Chateau de Condillac and the influence
of the dowager marquise, who intends that Valerie should
marry her own son, Marius, rather than her stepson, the
presentand absentmarquis, off taking part in
the Italian wars.
"Let me tell you that this is the first time in my life that
I have been concerned in anything that had to do with women,"
Garnache informs the seneschal of Dauphiny, upon presenting
his credentials; however, "being a soldier and having
received my orders, I was in the unfortunate position of
being unable to help myself."
The Marquise is ruthless and determined to thwart the queen's
emissary, but after a week on the road, sleeping in bad inns,
Garnache is in no mood to brook opposition. Having made up
his mind that Valerie (a sensible girl who does not need to
pack heavily for her trip to the capital) is indeed being
held against her will, he wins free of the chateau, by using
Marius as a hostage, and returns to Grenoble with Valerie
before him on the saddle.
Now Garnache is convinced that he has finished with the heavy
lifting and, despite Valerie's plea that they put some more
distance between themselves and the de Condillacs before
sleeping, he decides to spend the night in Grenoble. Not only
is it raining heavily but, mysteriously, he cannot find a
coach for hire anywhere in the city, nor even a horse at
the post-house...
Humor is hard to learn to use gracefully, and I often think
that Sabatini, with his love of irony, laid it on rather thick
(he got better over time). But to the extent that he was
drawing on, possibly learning from, Dumas in the writing of
this book, the comedy works very well. The book has a good
deal of swordplay, an appealing romantic plot, and some
interesting stabs at word painting, as well.
Here, for example, is the book's opening sentence: "My Lord
of Tressan, His Majesty's Seneschal of Dauphiny, sat at
his ease, his purple doublet all undone, to yield greater
freedom to his vast bulk, a yellow silken undergarment
visible through the gap, as is visible the flesh of some
fruit that, swollen with over-ripeness, has burst its
skin."
This is an early novel, but not one to which Sabatini
apparently felt it necessary to add a disclaimer when it
was published in the U.S.
Claudia Rex
If you have a review to submit, please send it to
the webmaster, rimfire
|