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The Fencing Master (Panther)
 
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The Fencing Master (Panther) (Paperback)

by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 212 pages
  • Publisher: The Harvill Press; New edition edition (30 Dec 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1860466656
  • ISBN-13: 978-1860466656
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 491,128 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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

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 the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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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), 2 May 2000
By A Customer
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.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric, intriguing and mentally stimulating, 12 Jan 2005
By A. Gordon "annettego" (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What makes a book worth reading?, 15 Mar 2000
This review is from: The Fencing Master (Paperback)
If it changes the way you view yourself, if it makes you yearn to be something more, know more about a subject which was previously uninteresting to you, then I'd say a book is good. "The Fencing Master" did all that to me. Set in the revolutionary times of 19th century Spain, the story revolves around the ageing Maestro, adrift in a world that no longer seems to make sense to him. He lives by his code of honour and according to the rules of his craft, hiding from the changes that occur around him, until a beautiful stranger enters his life and changes it irrevocably. "The Fencing Master" is a book that, even though the intrigue might not be the most original, still manages to get five stars, mainly because of the way it describes the main character, his way of thinking, and, of course, his fencing. Now where can I find a teacher like that for my new hobby...?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Touche or Cliche? Why not both?
I write this review in part as a response to the accusations that Perez-Reverte's debue novel 'The Fencing Master' is more cliche than touche. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2003 by doctor-skel

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Prose
The reviewers of this book have said most things about this excellent novel. It is refreshing to read a well constructed novel which creates the characters with considerable... Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2003 by A. M. Speigal

5.0 out of 5 stars A grand old "ripping yarn"
Like a less intellectual Umberto Eco novel, this is a well written and intelligent thriller.

Senor Perez Reverte keeps the pace going all through the story, though you may guess... Read more

Published on 5 Oct 2002 by hypocrite_lecteur

3.0 out of 5 stars OK
For me 'The Fencing Master' turned out a bit of a disappointment. Despite drawing various parallels between life and the fencing strip the book simply fails to reflect the... Read more
Published on 23 Jul 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars A book with the rythm of a Fencing Bout
This book surprised me (it fell of the bookshelf while I was dusting? I hear you say...) Well, no! I only bought it because it's about fencing but I didn't know what to expect... Read more
Published on 5 Jul 2001 by A. Venediktou

3.0 out of 5 stars Touche Maestro
Jaime Astarloa is a Fencing Maestro trained in the old school of the Maitres d'armes.He spends his days teaching his art to those who aspire to his level and in search of his... Read more
Published on by dave-hill@talk21.com

4.0 out of 5 stars Well balanced thriller, and a delight
A best seller in Spain, it is little heard of here. An easy read, but with the background of the political turmoil of 19th century Madrid, I found it extremely fresh... Read more
Published on 16 May 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars Failure in success.
Perez-Reverte's The fencing Master is in part a simple thriller but underneath the story line he develops some interesting themes. Read more
Published on 5 May 2000

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