Author Topic: Spanish swashbuckler (Read 4125 times)

skirmishman · « **on:** February 27, 2008, 06:56:25 AM »

Good morning everyone when on holiday recently in Mallorca I saw two books in eglish about a captain during the period of the musketeers about early 17th century .Is this Captain Arliste (correct spelling?) and are they available in this country. The United Kingdom that is .

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KeyanSark · « **Reply #1 on:** February 27, 2008, 07:39:22 AM »

It is "Captain Alatriste" (could be translated as Sadwing). Not sure if the books are availiable in the UK, though.

Malamute · « **Reply #2 on:** February 27, 2008, 08:27:20 AM »

Yes you can get them on AmazonUK or Waterstones.

Plynkes · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2008, 08:35:52 AM »

There is also a motion picture with that Viggo Mortensen fellow in it.

PeteMurray · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2008, 12:28:49 PM »

Buy these books. You will not be disappointed.

twrchtrwyth · « **Reply #5 on:** February 27, 2008, 01:55:08 PM »

The Adventures of Captain Alatriste:Purity of Blood picked up in WHSmith reduced from £9.99 to £1.

Captain Blood · « **Reply #6 on:** February 27, 2008, 06:27:44 PM »

I keep reading about this here, but have never seen them in any bookshop...
Are they serious historical adventure, comical, or a mixture of both (a la the blessed and incomporable Flashy)?
And are they any good? (Pete's comment seems to suggest they are!) Are these books reminiscent of anything else a dullard like me might know?

PeteMurray · « **Reply #7 on:** February 27, 2008, 08:02:57 PM »

The history is dramatic, but otherwise impeccable. The writing is austere and beautiful, even in the translated version. The characters, with the exception of Alatriste and our narrator, are real people - and thus the book is the more beautiful.

There are comparisons to be made to Dumas' "Three Musketeers," to which I can only say that you can also compare Lester Dent and Dashiell Hammett. Only one of those authors has anything interesting to say about people who feel real.

Lowtardog · « **Reply #8 on:** February 27, 2008, 09:07:56 PM »

Pete, whats all this about Dinosaurs?

:wink: dont remember them in Altriste

Poiter50 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 28, 2008, 01:55:41 AM »

Must be available in the UK, my second hand shop here in Oz had several copies reduced from GBP 9.99 to 4.95 Oz. Same shop ships in container loads of remaindered or old stock from the UK regularly, often get some real gems.

KeyanSark · « **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2008, 08:24:07 AM »

Quote from: "Captain Blood"

Are they serious historical adventure, comical, or a mixture of both (a la the blessed and incomporable Flashy)?

Serious and dramatic, I'd say... Alatriste is a veteran of the Tercios de Flandes in the age of Felipe IV, when the spanish empire was beggining to crumble and all the gold from America was used to pay the religion wars while the people starved...

Alatriste is a man of honour, faithful to his king although he doesn't deserve it. Through the series we assist to the life of Alatriste, with some flashback periods inserted.

The destiny of Alatriste is known since the first book, as Iñigo, his kid-counterpart, is the narrator of the story, written many years after the events happened, when Iñigo is an old man. Alatriste's end is not important. What is important is what he does and how he does during all this years...

As the series start: "He was not an honest man, nor a pious one... but he was a brave man" (I am quoting and translating from memory, but that is the idea) :wink:

The series has been a best-seller here in Spain. All the poetry included in the books (I suppose the verses are lost in translation) are real poems from the Artist of the era, are incredibily well inserted to aid in the story development. As Pete said, almost all the characters in the series are real, historic, characters. This adds a lot of depth to the story.

PeteMurray · « **Reply #11 on:** February 28, 2008, 01:06:29 PM »

Even the translated Spanish of the poems is elegant and courtly - I would imagine that they are all the more brilliant in the original language.

Another Spaniard once wrote: "Reading translations is like looking at the back of a tapestry." Even so, this is a magnificent book.

Plynkes · « **Reply #12 on:** February 28, 2008, 01:18:24 PM »

I think I'll go with the translations when I get round to picking these up.

I still have nightmares about being made to read novels in Spanish at college.

Heldrak · « **Reply #13 on:** February 28, 2008, 02:55:50 PM »

Arturo Perez-Reverte books listed on the Amazon US site here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/104-3771782-3556703?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=captain+alatriste&x=20&y=16

All 3 Alatriste books are available as inexpensive remaindered hardcovers

The correct order is apparently:

1. Captain Alatriste
2. Purity of Blood
3. The Sun Over Breda

of further swashbuckling interest:

The Fencing Master

Aaron · « **Reply #14 on:** February 28, 2008, 03:14:07 PM »

I must say I found The Fencing Master and The Seville Communion to be let downs. Both were very engaging until the end, there they fell apart IMO. I love the Alatriste stuff, though. Nothing could be better for promoting Spanish history and literature.

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Author Topic: Spanish swashbuckler (Read 4125 times)

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