-
and other mixed results
On 23 March 2015 I posted a
piece here about the paintings used in covers of Rafael Sabatini’s books as
published by House of Stratus.
At that time there were
seven covers for which I had not traced the paintings that were their sources. (I do not find the remaining five of any
interest.)
Now I have three more
sources, including an intriguing result, and an instance of frustration – a case
familiar to me in the past eleven years.
Bellarion –
Gerard Terborch – Gallant Conversation aka
Parental Admonition, detail Photoshopped cleverly.
Love-at-Arms -
Giovanni Mansueti – Miraculous healing of the daughter
of Benvegnudo da San Polo (detail)
Turbulent
Tales - Abraham Jansz Storck - Battle of Zuidersee, October
1573
The last took a great deal
of time and effort to track down, especially as there are two paintings of the
same date, and almost identical. Who
copied whom? The one by Storck is in the
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. There the date given to this painting is
1663.
Another with the same subject is
so alike it might be a copy. But is
it? This one is by Jan Theunisz
Blanckerhoff, at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
And the museum gives it the date – 1663.
*
The
Sea-Hawk – The only image I can find online that exactly
matches, has no source, and is part of a book cover or a poster.
*
By far more disappointing
is the result reported by Stephen Wainwright of England. He is no relative of Rafael Sabatini, but
related to Rafael’s first wife through her mother. Last October he visited the house in Maghull
that once belonged to Rafael Sabatini’s grandfather, John Jelley, and is now No 1
Station Road. A house in which the boy
Rafael spent about four years as a child, and an unspecified time on his return
to England at seventeen. The present
owners were friendly – then – and showed him the upstairs bedroom which had
been Rafael’s as a youth. When renovating the house the
owner had found a few letters and documents written by Rafael, a cane with his
initials on it, and in the stables outside some childish graffiti which it is
claimed he wrote regarding a "Captain Blood". The owners said Stephen Wainwright could
organise a date with them to view all this properly. (Quoted almost verbatim from his e-mail to
me.)
But when he did try to
arrange a viewing, they refused it. The
impression he got is that they feared he might “lay claim to bits and
bobs”. Quite inexplicable, and a sad
ending.
*
What would compensate
amply would be for someone to gain access to the correspondence between Rafael
Sabatini and Houghton Mifflin that is housed in a Harvard library, especially the
correspondence from 1929 to 1939. One
aim would be to look for any mention of his plans for the continuation of the
Scaramouche story: any mention of the planned trilogy, of the immediate story
following André-Louis’ escape over the border along with the Kercadious; of
reading about François Chabot and de Batz, of the last days
of the Venetian Republic, of Quiberon.
This is a matter that buzzes in my mind like an obstinate bumblebee.
In January 1930, Rafael
was planning a novel taking André-Louis to Venice. That same month he walked out on his wife and
by May he was in Paris. In November he
said he had been reading about the French India Company affair. In April 1931, the first part of Scaramouche the Kingmaker appeared (as a
serial).
What options did French
history offer Rafael? By April 1794 the self-proclaimed
Louis XVIII was in Verona, a part of the Venetian Republic. He remained just over two years, and in May
1796 had to leave. The final year of the Republic’s life offered scope for a story of adventure – but
suitable for André-Louis? What could he
be doing from August 1792 until May 1796?
It is true that the disastrous landing at Quiberon Bay took place in
June 1795, but Rafael would have to give it scant attention if he was to take André-Louis
zigzagging across Western Europe to both Quiberon and Venice. Besides, Venice
was a byway, whereas Quiberon effectively extinguished realistic hopes of a
restoration of absolute monarchy in France.
Rafael, footloose and
fancy-free in Paris during the early months of 1930 (and undoubtedly in May) could spend time in the national
library or in the bookshops. The Apologia of François
Chabot, the many books by G. Lenotre, were all to hand. Is that how he found his continuation of
André-Louis’ story? Yet, at the end of
this continuation, André had to return to Hamm in search of the
Kercadious. There could be no further
involvement in the French Revolution’s course.
However, there remained two tempting episodes to explore: the taking of
Venice, and the landing at Quiberon.
In January 1930 it was
Venice that Rafael had been looking to.
And after Scaramouche the
Kingmaker, in November 1931, Rafael was already telling an interviewer that
there would be a third book. Almost at
once, his imagination had turned back to Venice, although in a different
period. Nevertheless, the dreaded secret
tribunal had a place in his long story, together with the informers/ spies.
The novel about the French
Revolution in Venice, so to speak, was ready for serial publication in August
1933. This is where the correspondence
with Houghton Mifflin would be so valuable.
It might tell us when he had first thought of writing about Quiberon. It seems to me significant that the disaster at
Quiberon comes into the beginning of Venetian
Masque. It is almost too much to
expect that Rafael wrote about his plans for The Marquis of Carabas. Yet
Ferris Greenslet was a very close friend, and Dale Warren, if not as close, was
another friend.
*
Dreams, dreams. If only someone could try to read that
correspondence.....
*
Meanwhile, it is worth
reading straight on from the end of Scaramouche
into the first few chapters of Scaramouche
the Kingmaker. André seems to carry
on from what he had become by the end of the first novel; Aline appears to slip
back to what she was before the ‘revelation scene’. Then, noticeably only if one is looking
close, else without a hiccup, they change into the characters they are required
to be for the new story. Or so I have
found.
