Customer Reviews

St. Martin's Summer

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Saint Martin's Summer is one of Sabatini's second-tier books, good but not great. The title refers to what we now call an Indian Summer, and in this novel it has a double meaning.

The soldier Martin de Garnache is dispatched by the Queen Regent of France into Dauphiny to retrieve Mlle. Valérie de La Vauvraye, who managed to write her begging aid and deliverance from the Dowager Duchess of Condillac. The Duchess, her guardian and quite a powerful figure in the province, was prepared to force de La Vauvraye's marriage to her son, even though the girl was betrothed to the Duchess's absent stepson, the new Duke. Valérie views that more as a matter of pledged word than something for enthusiasm, however.

Naturally, the Duchess is not thrilled about the royal intervention, and with the aid of the gross and besotted Seneschal of Dauphiny and some hired troops, she sets out to frustrate Garnache's mission.

The middle-aged (for the era) soldier, meanwhile, wants little to do with feminine nonsense and finds the whole mission humiliating. But for him, duty is duty, and he finds the young lady more endearing as he faces tremendous obstacles in getting her away from Condillac. That feeling is reciprocated, and as matters are resolved Valérie points out that the morrow is Saint Martin's Day and though it is November it is yet warm. She tells Garnache, who understands the allusion, that he is still a long way yet from the November of his life.

Though one of Sabatini's earlier novels, Saint Martin's Summer is pretty well done in terms of writing and story, and if you enjoyed some of his more well-known and more complex books, I would recommend this as well.

This book is much weaker, though less predictable, than Sabatini's preceding novel, _The Shame of Motley_. The plotting is tedious enough (much of it pointless) that I couldn't get through it. On the other hand, it's not in his usual mode with his usual stock characters and incidents.

I like this best of all the early works of Sabatini that I have read. Like most of these, this novel is available on-line, but, for me, it is much more enjoyable to read in book format. I, therefore, welcomed this inexpensive edition made available on Amazon.

As other reviewers have noted, this novel lacks the complexity of plot and the depth of character of Sabatini's better known works such as Scaramouche or Bellarion, but, in my opinion, it makes up for it in its rollicking good humor and its robust action and sword play. It is like Dumas at his best without his moral ambiguities.

I loved the ending of the story. It is popular, and must be saisfying, to witness someone with unlimited resources concoct a scheme of absolute, complete revenge. This popularity is clear from the great number of adaptations and new editions of The Count of Monte Cristo. But it is more satisfying, I believe, to see, as we do in this story, someone faced with very limited resources who, nevertheless, is able to concoct a scheme that enables him to execute almost perfect justice tempered by disciplined mercy. I think this story deserves to be better known.