13 h 34 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a man of honour become when his own family takes away his name, home and freedom?
In Elizabethan Cornwall, Sir Oliver Tressilian lives at Penarrow, respected and secure. Then his half-brother Lionel’s scheming destroys his good name. Oliver loses the life he knows, while the good opinion of Rosamund Godolphin, the woman he loves, matters deeply to him. Carried out to sea against his will, he faces captivity in a Spanish galley.
Rafael Sabatini’s The Sea-Hawk follows Oliver from Cornwall to the corsair ports of North Africa, where survival means taking another name. Across a Mediterranean of raiding ships and captives chained to oars, adventure meets romance. Oliver longs to set things right, but revenge puts pressure on the honour he still hopes to keep.
What you’ll discover
- Betrayal close to home A brother’s plot turns the safety of a shared home into the source of Oliver’s ruin.
- Life at the oar Follow a respected gentleman into captivity, where freedom gives way to the chains of a Spanish galley.
- The corsair world Enter the ports of the Barbary coast, where Oliver must build a life under another name.
- Love amid the wreckage Rosamund’s good opinion matters deeply to a man stripped of almost everything he values.
- The pull of revenge Brisk chapters carry a sharp question: how much can Oliver change without losing his honour?
Who will love it
For readers who love sea tales, duels, daring escapes and old-fashioned heroes, with betrayal, revenge and love tested by a new identity.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A gentleman of Cornwall at home
- A brother's treachery destroys a good name
- Chained to the oar in a Spanish galley
- The Hawk of the Sea rises in Algiers
- Revenge, love and the cost of a new identity
- How Sabatini tells it
Who’s who
- Sir Oliver TressilianA Cornish gentleman and seafarer of honour, wronged by those he trusts, who must remake himself under another name to survive and to set things right.
- Lionel TressilianOliver's half-brother, who shares the family house and whose scheming against Oliver sets the whole story in motion.
- Rosamund GodolphinThe woman Oliver loves, whose good opinion of him is the thing he can least afford to lose.
- Sir John KilligrewA Cornish gentleman of the sea and a friend of Oliver, part of the seafaring world he comes from.
- Asad-ed-DinThe Basha of Algiers, the ruler whose favour matters to Oliver once he becomes a corsair captain.
Formats and delivery
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- Audiobook
- 13 h 34 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear El halcón del mar in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
El halcón del mar
by Rafael Sabatini · 1915
Betrayed by someone close to him, a Cornish knight fights to reclaim his name and freedom.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Sea-Hawk is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, published in 1915. It is set in the reign of Elizabeth the First.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A gentleman of Cornwall at home
The story opens in Cornwall, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Sir Oliver Tressilian lives at Penarrow, the family house, and he is a respected gentleman of the county. He is a man who has been to sea and knows ships, and he belongs to the world of west country sailors who fought England's wars against Spain.
The Cornish coast matters in this book. It is a place of harbours, of men who go out to sea and come back with tales, and of a gentry that is half landowner and half adventurer. Sabatini uses it to show what Oliver has at the start. He has land, a good name, friends among the seafaring gentry, and the respect of his neighbours.
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What is The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini about?
It is an adventure novel about Sir Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman in Elizabeth's reign who is betrayed, taken to sea and enslaved, then becomes a Barbary corsair known as the Hawk of the Sea.
Who is Sakr-el-Bahr in The Sea-Hawk?
Sakr-el-Bahr is the name Oliver Tressilian takes as a corsair in Algiers. In Arabic it means the Hawk of the Sea, and it gives the novel its title.
When was The Sea-Hawk written and is it a true story?
Sabatini published it in 1915. It is fiction, but it is set against real history: the age of Elizabeth the First, the conflict with Spain and the Barbary corsairs of North Africa.
The author
Rafael Sabatini
1875–1950 · Italian-English historical novelist
Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) was an Italian-born writer who wrote in English. He was born in Jesi, Italy, and settled in England in 1892. His novels include The Sea-Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), and Captain Blood (1922). He also wrote biographies and short stories. He died in Adelboden, Switzerland.
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