- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Harvest/HBJ Book; First Edition edition (Sep 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156006847
- ISBN-13: 978-0156006842
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,397,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Described as a "master of the intellectual thriller", Arturo Perez-Reverte has established himself as a major figure in European fiction. The English translation of The Fencing Master, first published in Spanish in 1988, follows the critical success of The Flanders Panel and The Dumas Club.
Contemplative, skilful, and--in a quiet way--melancholy, The Fencing Master is a foray into historical fiction: Perez-Reverte draws his figures against the background of a Madrid sweltering on the eve of Spain's September Revolution in 1868. Each of its eight chapters begins with an epigraph to the art which emerges as a way of interpreting the world through this novel: fencing. Jaime Astarloa, the master, has made fencing his life and legacy, and it's through his eyes--the eyes of a man who wants to resist the vulgar progress of 19th-century politics and passions--that the mystery, and tragedy, of the book unfold. It begins with a woman who wants to learn fencing--"At that moment, someone knocked at the door, and nothing would ever again be the same in the fencing master's life"--, a woman who draws Astarloa into a world of political and erotic intrigue which will test his art to the limit.--Vicky Lebeau --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amanda Craig, The Times
‘The author is in the best sense a romantic and to read him is to rediscover the delights of Dumas and Conan Doyle’
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Much later, when Jaime Astarloa wanted to piece together the scattered fragments of the tragedy and tried to remember how it all began, the first image that came to his mind was of the marquis and of the gallery in the palace overlooking the Retiro Gardens, with the first heat of summer streaming in through the windows, accompanied by such brilliant sunlight that they had to squint against the dazzle on the polished guards of their foils. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Much later, when Jaime Astarloa wanted to piece together the scattered fragments of the tragedy and tried to remember how it all began, the first image that came to his mind was of the marquis and of the gallery in the palace overlooking the Retiro Gardens, with the first heat of summer streaming in through the windows, accompanied by such brilliant sunlight that they had to squint against the dazzle on the polished guards of their foils. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It ended too quickly (and I was amazed to like it),
By A Customer
This review is from: The Fencing Master (Panther) (Paperback)
OK. Firstly, I read very little historical fiction. Secondly, I read very little which was not written in English. No reason why not, but that's how it is. Thirdly, I know nothing about fencing. But I enjoyed this book immensely. I bought it (from a normal bookshop, I confess) because I liked the cover and was interested in the first few pages. It's short, and usually I prefer longer books - it can give the author more time to explore their characters, but this is short and perfectly formed. Don Jaime, the fencing master, is getting older and sees his living starting to dry up as swords and the art of fencing are replaced by more 'modern' weapons and pursuits. He uses fencing, and his pursuit of the perfect, unstoppable thrust to give his life form and context, ever unchanging against the background of turmoil engulfing Spain. His life is turned upside down when a woman, beautiful and mysterious, persuades him to take her on as a student. He slowly finds himself falling in love with her, and his life is thrown into turmoil. One the one hand, this is a thriller, plain and simple. Refined and elegant, but a thriller nonetheless. On the other, it is a study of a man entering old age unable to cope with the changes going on around him, and trying to cling onto the past - for that reason alone it will endure. The only complaint I had about it is that the fencing terminology (of which there is much, as you would expect) is not explained. An appendix containing a glossary or perhaps even some diagrams would be tremendously helpful. I appreciate it's not really the kind of thing that books like this have, but if, like me, your knowledge of fencing is restricted to occasionally seeing it on the Olympics or in Zorro films, then all of the discussions or quatre and terce, foils and sabres is difficult to follow. That said, it's a minor complaint, and the book is very enjoyable, and surprisingly moving.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Failure in success.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Fencing Master (Panther) (Paperback)
Perez-Reverte's The fencing Master is in part a simple thriller but underneath the story line he develops some interesting themes. Primarily the hero, Don Jaime's inability to adapt as a ageing fencing master during Spain's September Revolution of 1868. A time when the sword was being replaced by ever more realiable rifle and revolvers as the primary weapons of war.Don Jaime lives in the past and tries to shut himself away from the turmoil occurring around him. His personel quest is to invent the unanswerable sword thrust. Despite his best endeavors Don Jaime is unwittingly pulled ever further into the intrigue occurring around him. Don Jaime is a man of great passion but with an inability to bring voice to that passion; he is a man of deed and unspoken honour. Alone even with people around him, he is put to the sword by the passion of a dark beautiful women who becomes his pupil. Adela de Otera is young, modern, outward thinking, dark and complex but also a superb fencer. The author contrasts Don Jaime Astarlo's ideal world where honour is upheld toe to toe with the real world in which a stab in the back is the reality. Jaime Astarlo's world is blown apart, you could view him as a failure through his inability to grasp reality and his naivity or a success in living to his ideals against all odds. Does the Maestro fail or do the people around him fail to match his standards? The thriller storyline in this book is quite predictable but it is the beauty in which the story is told and the characters portrayed that makes this a great book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric, intriguing and mentally stimulating,
By
This review is from: The Fencing Master (Paperback)
Madrid has always been an atmospheric city for me so overjoyed to have discovered this book that transports you there in the 19th century. The characters are well drawn, the plot is compulsive and the prose is beautiful. You are hooked on the first page because there is a story! Fabulous.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
