BOOKWORM

The Cover designs of ROMANTIC PRINCE

First of all, the parchment look of the background comes from a shared antiquarian taste; the paintings, the emblem, the hidden meanings likewise. (It was probably the discovery of how much lay behind the seemingly plain adventure + history + love-story in Rafael's stories that bound me to him. We share a taste for the allusive and the elusive.)

These five paintings - starting from the back cover and clockwise from top left of the front cover - represent the periods and matter of the majority of Rafael's novels: the early to mid-Renaissance; the French Revolution; naval encounters in the late 17th century; and the early to mid-18th century.

The siege is from an illuminated ms, recording some events in the reign of Charles VII of France.

The Taking of the Bastille needs no further comment.

The naval encounter is by Willem van de Velde the Younger, and is called The Cannon Shot.

The lady is Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys, Countess of Pomfret, a traveller and writer, painted by Enoch Seeman. (I see Damaris Hollinstone in her.)

The gentleman is Sir Charles Frederick in Rome on the Grand Tour, painted by Andrea Casali. (I see Harry Gaynor in him.)

Starting with the top of the back cover, there is an emblem of the rose, evidently Rafael's favourite flower. Below is the famous, enigmatic painting by Caspar David Friedrich called The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. He has reddish hair, but that's a small detail. What is he thinking, dreaming, observing, imagining? Will he express his thoughts in a poem, a song - or a novel?

At the top is a coat of arms invented by me for Rafael. He gave azure for a blazon to both Bellarion and Colombino. French history supplied most of his fiction long and short. He was princely. Ergo, the coronet of a Fils de France! Laurels and a quill need no explanation. Note that what's below is not a motto. That would have been in a scroll. It is an honorific title bestowed by me (and approved by many), which gift will not come back to bite me as did a famous title, Fidei Defensor, given to Henry VIII of England .....

The books are a few with the brightest spines from my Rafael Sabatini library.