'He was born with a gift of laughter'
Rafael Sabbatini’s 1921 novel Scaramouche opens with these famous lines
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony. His very paternity was obscure, although the village of Gavrillac had long since dispelled the cloud of mystery that hung about it. Those simple Brittany folk were not so simple as to be deceived by a pretended relationship which did not even possess the virtue of originality. When a nobleman, for no apparent reason, announces himself the godfather of an infant fetched no man knew whence, and thereafter cares for the lad’s rearing and education, the most unsophisticated of country folk perfectly understand the situation. And so the good people of Gavrillac permitted themselves no illusions on the score of the real relationship between Andre-Louis Moreau—as the lad had been named—and Quintin de Kercadiou, Lord of Gavrillac, who dwelt in the big grey house that dominated from its eminence the village clustering below.
About the Author
Rafael Sabbatini (1875-1950) was a prolific and best-selling Italian-British writer whose best-known works include The Sea-Hawk, Scaramouche, and Captain Blood. Many of his works were made into films.
You can read the novel Scaramouche here
Curator’s Corner
This week’s newsletter is in memory of my father, Gordon M Shepherd, who died a year ago today. He loved the opening line of this novel and quoted it often, with a smile.
He was the original inspiration for LitHits through his life-long habit of jotting down and often memorizing bits of poetry or lines from novels that he came across and found striking. He relished these and loved to share them with friends and family, and hear what we thought of them, too.
You can read the ‘In Memoriam’ newsletter we did for him last year, featuring one of his favourite poems, ‘Fern Hill,’ by Dylan Thomas, here
—Kirsten
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