Rafael Sabatini Books In Order

Publication Order of Scaramouche Books

Publication Order of Captain Blood Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Rafael Sabatini was a well known Italian-English author of romance, adventure, and literature & fiction novels. He is particularly famous for writing the worldwide bestsellers such as Scaramouche, Bellario the Fortunate, The Sea Hawk, and Captain Blood. His writing career comprised of 34 full-length novels, 8 short story collections, 6 nonfiction books, several plays, and many uncollected short stories. Author Sabatini was born on April 29, 1875, in Iesi Italy. His father was an Italian named Vincenzo Sabatini and his mother was an English citizen named Anna Trafford. Both of them worked as opera singers before they took up the job of teaching. Sabatini was very young when he was exposed to multiple languages. He used to live in England with his grandfather, attended school in Portugal, and lived in Switzerland during his teenage years.

Sabatini had become an expert in five languages by the time he reached the age of 17 and returned to live in England permanently. Shortly after, Sabatini became proficient in English as well. When he started writing, he deliberately chose to write all his work in English because he believed that the best works are produced in English. Following a short stint in the world of business, Sabatini became involved in the world of writing. During the 1890s, he wrote many stories and was able to publish his first novel in 1902. Sabatini married for the first time in 1905 when he met and married a Liverpool merchant’s daughter named Ruth Goad Dixon. It took Sabatini more than 20 years to achieve literary success with his 1921 book called Scaramouche. This historical romance novel is set at the time of the French Revolution.

After Scaramouche became an international bestseller, Sabatini followed it up with another internationally successful book called Captain Blood. With the success of this 1922 book, Sabatini rushed to put his earlier novels into reprint. The most popular book of that lot was the 1915 novel called The Sea Hawk. Author Sabatini had gone on to establish himself as a prolific writer of his time. He used to produce one book every year, approximately and maintained a huge level of popularity among the readers through several decades that followed. A few of his novels were made into movies in the silent era. When the sound era arrived in the world of filmmaking, three of Sabatini’s books were adapted into notable movies, starting from 1940 up to 1955. Sabatini’s novel, Bardelys the Magnificent, was adapted into a popular movie of the same name in 1926 under the direction of King Vidor and starring John Gilbert in the lead role. The film is considered lost as no reel is available anywhere.

A restored version of the movie was premiered in 2010 on TCM. The 1923 adaptation of Scaramouche stars Ramon Novarro in the main role, while Sea Hawk’s 1924 adaptation features Milton Sills in the central role. Both these films are surviving even today. In 1940, another adaptation of Sea Hawk was made and produced with Errol Flynn as the primary character, which had the same title and a completely different story. Sabatini had a son named Rafael-Angelo Sabatini, who died in a car accident in 1927. Four years after this tragic incident, Sabatini divorced Ruth Goad and moved to Clifford, Hertfordshire from London. In 1935, Sabatini married his ex-sister-in-law named Christine Dixon, who was a sculptor by profession. Tragedy struck this marriage as well when Christine’s son was killed on the day of receiving his RAF wings. During the 1940s, Sabatini was mostly ill and was forced to limit his writing works. He eventually died on February 13, 1950, in Switzerland.

The Captain Blood series written by author Rafael Sabatini is comprised of three books released between 1922 and 1936. It is set in the Carribean in the 1680s and features Peter Blood in the central role. The debut book of this historical fiction series is entitled ‘Captain Blood’. It was originally released in 1922 and re-released in 2006 by the Echo Library publication. Sabatini has set this novel in Barbados in 1686. Initially, Peter Blood is introduced as an Irish soldier and physician living in England. He gets accused of treason and sent to the Caribbean as a slave. Peter Blood escapes captivity and goes on to become the deadliest pirate captain. His glorious adventures do not come to his help when the lady he loves tells him that she cannot love a pirate and a thief. The woman is the daughter of the man under whom he has made to serve. Even when Peter Blood achieved triumph over the enemies of England, his heroics are not welcomed and the love of his life keeps distancing herself from him farther and farther.

The second volume of this series is known as ‘Captain Blood Returns’. It was first published in 1931 and republished in 1978 by the Amereon Ltd publication. This book continues to depict the adventures of the much-loved and feared pirate Captain Blood. His fame continues to spread across the wide seas as he gets the title of Robin Hood of the Spanish Main. In this novel, Sabatini has shown that Captain Blood’s latest exploits take him to new and exciting adventures with more swashbuckling and interesting adventures. Captain Blood’s adventurous activities involve winning highly valuable treasures, defeating enemies, rescuing crew members from death, etc. His heroic deeds help spread the tales of his adventures across land and sea. Many critics saw this book as a decent work of swashbuckling fiction.

The character of Captain Blood emerged as a perfect hero again in this novel. Many other critics reviewed the book by commenting that it has zero flaws. Author Sabatini has actually written this novel by breaking it into a few short stories, which supposedly took place in the background of the first book’s timeline. This was seen as a nice idea by many reviewers and critics. Even the characters other than Captain Blood look exciting. Author Sabatini was praised for describing a well-written story. His writing style and storytelling abilities were also appreciated by numerous critics and fellow writers. The immense success of this book gave a tremendous boost to Sabatini’s career as he moved on to write another sequel featuring Captain Blood and many other full-length books in the later years.