Italian writer Raphael Sabatini is famous mainly because of the cycle of novels about Captain Blood, a noble pirate, by the will of the fate of those deprived of their usual life and forced to take the path of revenge. But in fact, this writer has written much more books, they are just less known. However, Sabatini cannot be called a particularly prolific author either. But we must admit that the quantity he successfully replaced with quality.
The parents of the young Raphael were opera singers, who are pretty well known. But the first seven years of life were separated from them – driving around on tours, the parents decided that the baby would be better off with relatives, and sent him to relatives in England. By the age of seven, the future writer was fluent in English. He also spoke Italian, French and German.
He began to read at an early age, and he read books beyond his age. In particular, he read out the novels of Alexandre Dumas. Literary tastes determined the creative way of Sabatini – he himself wrote mostly adventure works. Thanks to his talent and success in this field, he is placed on a par with such recognized masters of the genre as Walter Scott and Jules Verne. He got his first job in the life of Sabatini, sitting down as a clerk in an office. Soon he began working with newspapers as a journalist. After publishing his first stories on the pages of these newspapers, he began to prepare for the publication of his novels.
Being a British subject, during the First World War, Rafael Sabatini worked for British intelligence. His knowledge of languages made him an excellent translator. The writer was widely known for his first novel, Scaramouch. Ten publishers refused to print the book, arguing that “nobody needs such books.” When in the end the book was still published, it quickly became famous. The most famous novel by Sabatini, which later became part of the whole cycle, is Odyssey of Captain Blood. This work has glorified the writer for the whole world. The only son of Rafael Sabatini died in a car accident. After this, the writer became depressed and even divorced, but did not abandon literary work. In total, 49 novels and many short stories have come out from under the pen of Sabatini.
