Résumé
Résumé de Le Faucon des mers
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love sea tales, duels, daring escapes and old-fashioned heroes, with betrayal, revenge and love tested by a new identity.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Sea-Hawk is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, published in 1915. It is set in the reign of Elizabeth the First. Sabatini was a master of the swashbuckling tale, and here he follows an English gentleman from a quiet manor house in Cornwall to the slave galleys of Spain and the corsair ports of North Africa.
The hero is Sir Oliver Tressilian, a man of honour who loses his name, his freedom and his home through the scheming of someone close to him. You get a story of betrayal and survival, of one man remaking himself under another name, and of a long wish to set things right. You also get a picture of the Mediterranean world of that age, where Christian and Muslim ships raided one another and captives were chained to oars. The book moves fast and keeps its eye on one question. What does a wronged man become when everything is taken from him? Let us begin in Cornwall, where Oliver still has everything to lose.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A gentleman of Cornwall at homeFree
- 2A brother's treachery destroys a good name
- 3Chained to the oar in a Spanish galley
- 4The Hawk of the Sea rises in Algiers
- 5Revenge, love and the cost of a new identity
- 6How Sabatini tells it
Point clé 1 sur 6
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.
Two people stand close to him. One is his half-brother Lionel, who shares his house and his family name. The other is Rosamund Godolphin, the woman Oliver loves and hopes to marry. Sir John Killigrew, a friend from the same seafaring world, also belongs to this early circle.
The opening is quiet on purpose. It lets the reader see how much a man can lose in a single stroke. A listener who knows that Sabatini writes about falls and reversals will watch Lionel closely. The calm of Penarrow is set up so that it can be broken, and the rest of the book depends on how heavily Oliver's early life weighs on him afterwards.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Sir Oliver Tressilian
- Oliver is an honourable Cornish gentleman and seafarer, Lionel's half-brother and the man Rosamund loves.
- Lionel Tressilian
- Lionel is Oliver's half-brother, sharing the family house while scheming against the man who trusts him.
- Rosamund Godolphin
- Rosamund is the woman Oliver loves, whose trust and good opinion matter deeply to him.
- Sir John Killigrew
- Sir John is a Cornish gentleman of the sea, belonging to the same seafaring world as Oliver.
- Asad-ed-Din
- Asad-ed-Din is the Basha of Algiers, a ruler whose favour matters to Oliver as a corsair captain.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 122,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h 10 min
- Listening time13 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Le Faucon des mers
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.
Who is Lionel Tressilian?
Lionel is Oliver's half-brother. His treachery against Oliver at home in Cornwall is the cause of Oliver's fall, and it drives the story that follows.
Is The Sea-Hawk hard to read?
No. Sabatini writes in a clear, brisk style with strong plotting and short scenes of action. The story is easy to follow.