The Shame of Motley： being the memoir of certain transactions in the life of

Rafael SabatiniProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
435K words
Chapters
44

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Historical AdventureFate and FortunePower GamesAntiheroJianghu FeudConspiracy and RevengeChivalryMemoir StyleBaroque EraItalian Setting

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Shame of Motley: being the memoir of certain transactions in the life ofAuthor: Sabatini, Rafael, 1875-1950,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 2002

Editor's review

This is a historical adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, told in the form of a first-person memoir in which the narrator is drawn into conspiracy, betrayal and duels against the backdrop of strife among the Italian city-states. Sabatini excels at driving the story forward with tight pacing and dramatic scenes; his characters waver between honor and self-preservation, and the plot is dense with twists, offering the typical pleasures of popular historical romance. Its value lies in a brisk narrative experience and in letting readers sense the style of early twentieth-century English-language historical adventure fiction. Readers should attend to the narrator's reliability and self-justification—this layer of irony is where the book's interest lies. Suitable as light reading for a commute or holiday, and as reference for readers studying popular literature and the historical novel as a genre.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. First learn a little about the Italian Renaissance city-states, then enter the plot
  2. Attend to the narrator's self-justification and reflect on his reliability
  3. Read chapter by chapter, reviewing the key turns at the end of each
  4. Read alongside comparable works such as Scaramouche

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers new to historical fiction? Yes. The story is driven mainly by adventure and plot; although the historical setting is specific, it does not obstruct understanding, and readers unfamiliar with the history of the Italian city-states can still follow the main line. A little background on Renaissance Italy will make the reading experience smoother.
What does Motley in the title refer to? Motley originally refers to the parti-colored costume of a clown or jester, and by extension to a mixed, motley image. In the title it hints at the absurdity and disrepute of the narrator's identity and situation; its precise meaning needs to be understood in light of the plot and should not be simply equated with a literal translation.
Is this Sabatini's representative work? Sabatini is better known for works such as Scaramouche and The Sea-Hawk; this book belongs to the same sequence of his historical adventure novels. The material provides no information on sales or reception, so readers may treat it as supplementary reading for understanding the author's narrative style rather than the only entry point.

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About the author

Rafael Sabatini Author · Italian-born British · 1875–1950

Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) was an Italian-born British novelist. Born in Jesi, Italy, to an English mother, he became a British citizen in 1918. He is known for historical adventure romances, including Scaramouche: A Romance of the French Revolution, Captain Blood and The Sea-Hawk, as well as Bardelys the Magnificent and Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History. The library holds 19 of his works, spanning novels and historical writing, often set amid revolution, piracy and courtly adventure, with tight plots and vivid characters. He wrote more than thirty novels in his lifetime, many of which were adapted for the screen, leaving a lasting influence on adventure fiction and film.