The Lion's Skin [Paperback]

Rafael Sabatini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2009

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish (February 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1437899285
• ISBN-13: 978-1437899283
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A sin of Sabatini's literary nonage, June 11, 2003

By 

janowacki (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lion's Skin (Hardcover)

After scoring hits two decades into his career with Scaramouche and Captain Blood, Sabatini's American publishers began reprinting some of his earlier works, though he tried to suppress the ones he thought inferior. But even those were being brought across the Atlantic and he eventually agreed to their republication as well, only with an apologetic preface branding them "sins of [his] literary nonage" that he would rather "bury in oblivion." The Lion's Skin is one of those books.

Justin Caryll was raised by his guardian, Sir Richard, knowing neither his deceased mother nor his father, the Earl of Ostermore. Ostermore and Sir Richard had been friends and suitors of the same woman, and Richard grew to hate his friend after the former won the French lady and then went back to England, abandoning her pregnant and alone. At her dying request, Richard raised her son, and Caryll was taught that one day he would be called upon to exact revenge on his father.

As the book begins, Justin Caryll is an adult who journeys to England with the means to ruin his father, only he has misgivings about the whole idea. As he tries to decide what to do, he makes Ostermore's acquaintance, earns the enmity of Ostermore's son -- Viscount Rotherby -- and gets on rather well with Ostermore's ward, Hortensia Winthrop (what a name!). Meanwhile, he is rightfully suspected by his enemies of being a Jacobite agent and he realizes that there is very little to hate in his mild-mannered father.

In the end, Rotherby and a few others think they have what they need to get Caryll out of the way, but too late they learn the meaning of that phrase from Henry V that inspired the title, and which Caryll actually quotes: "the man that once did sell the lion's skin/while the beast liv'd, was killed with hunting him."

The story is fairly good, the writing mediocre, and the historical accuracy not all that great (I think). Still, it's entertaining.

Aspects of this remind me of other Sabatini novels, making me wonder whether he re-wrote certain elements into later works. Ostermore is a lot like the Lord of Gavrillac and the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr in Scaramouche, and there are similarities to Master-At-Arms and a few other books as well.

The Lion's Skin is worth a read, but only after you've covered Sabatini's better novels first.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nonage redux, July 4, 2010

A Kid's Review

Janowacki's review covers this book quite well; I'll merely note that I reverse his opinion of the story and the writing. I found the ending quite gripping, and the portrayal of the self-possessed protagonist is almost worthy of Sabatini after he mastered his craft. But the story is remarkably un-Sabatini-esque. Very little actually happens, and even less is done by the hero; perhaps Sabatini had been a little too influenced by Hamlet...