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The year is 1866 and revolution is brewing in Spain. The corrupt Bourbon queen, Isabella II, is slowly losing her grip on power as equally corrupt exiled politicians vie to be her successor in a new republic. Against this background of political upheaval, Don Jaime goes about his business, teaching a dying art to a dwindling number of students. This is a man who resists changing times; to a friend he explains, "I have spent my whole life trying to preserve a certain idea of myself, and that is all. You have to cling to a set of values that do not depreciate with time. Everything else is the fashion of the moment, fleeting, mutable. In a word, nonsense." But then Adela de Otero--a woman with a mysterious past and an amazing talent for swordplay--comes into his life, and Don Jaime's world is turned upside down. As always, Pérez-Reverte offers literary excellence, a thumping good mystery, and fascinating insight into an arcane practice, in this case, fencing. Though the 19th-century politics in the book may resonate more with a Spanish audience than with English readers, the moral at the heart of The Fencing Master is universal: "to be honest, or at least honorable--anything, indeed, that has its roots in the word honor." In this, Don Jaime and Arturo Pérez-Reverte both succeed. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Much later, when Jaime Astarloa wanted to piece together the scattered fragments of the tragedy and tried to remember how it all began, the first image that came to his mind was of the marquis and of the gallery in the palace overlooking the Retiro Gardens, with the first heat of summer streaming in through the windows, accompanied by such brilliant sunlight that they had to squint against the dazzle on the polished guards of their foils. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thrust through the heart,
By
This review is from: The Fencing Master (Paperback)
Perez-reverte has an excellent portfolio. The Club Dumas was a mystery enhanced by the world's underground commerce in ancient texts, and characters out of ancient romances. In The Fencing Master, he relates the story of an aging (50) fencing master barely surviving off the teaching of noble numbskulls, a mysterious femme fatale looking for a fencing lesson, and a twisted plot of revenge, all set in an unsettled period of Spanish history.The story is told through the eyes and mind of Don Jaime, who is long resigned to being a bachelor, and a member of the genteel poor. Although his body is slowly failing, he is still the best fencing master in the city, and knows several excellent and little-known thrusts. The femme fatale, Adela de Ortero, approaches him to learn such a thrust, and eventually, spurred by poverty, lust, and her unexpected fencing expertise, ... Although the plot is relatively predictable, that's not the purpose of this book. Perez is, as usual, an expert at evoking a mood, an era, and the internal uncertainty of an ordered mind. The era is the death of Spanish classicism, including the art of fencing, and the revolution of 1868. No, you don't have to know the history to enjoy the story, just bask in it. The language is deceptively simple, whether it is the author's or the translator's. It drags you into the story and keeps you there. Yes, it takes a few minutes to get used to the language, but by the second chapter, the rhythm is well established, and becomes part of you. This is not Stephen King. Climb in and enjoy!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Perez-Reverte Redux,
By David W. Nicholas (Montrose, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fencing Master: A Novel (Paperback)
This novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte is something of a departure from his other books. Instead of a book set in modern times where the story connects to the past, this story actually takes place in the past, back in 1868 when the Spanish monarchy was on its last wobbly legs. The protagonist and title character is Don Jaime, a fencing master in Madrid who has had most of his life defined by the art (he insists on calling it that rather than a sport) and by his conception of honor, which was probably old-fashioned when he was a young man, and is now sadly outdated. He has killed men in fencing duels, and had to flee Spain as a result, living for years in exile in France (there's no explanation in the plot, at least as far as I could see, for his rehabilitation so that he could live in Spain again) and learning from a master fencer there.In Madrid, he teaches fencing mostly to young boys whose parents are wealthy, well-born, and spoiled. He has several adult students, however, and one in particular, a dissolute libertine of a nobleman who enjoys the passtime of fencing. Don Jaime's only other social contacts consist of an unofficial social club who meet daily at a local restaurant and argue about politics, society, and so forth. These arguments provide (as one of the other reviewers pointed out) exposition for the political turmoil of 1868 Spain, which would otherwise be obscure to most. Into Don Jaime's fading world of honor and dignity steps a woman. She is (of course) gorgeous and turns out to be intelligent and (naturally) a wonderful fencer also. Don Jaime takes her on as a pupil, at first reluctantly, and begins to simultaneously fall in love with her. But things go awry, the bodies begin to pile up, and Don Jaime, in the middle of things, is in some trouble because while he's very skilled with a foil, he's basically a babe in the woods when it comes to political intrigue. This is a very good novel, full of layers and textures, as all of Perez-Reverte's novels are and do. The plot is a bit more obvious than in some of his other books, and has bits and pieces of plots from other detective novelist, borrowing from Agatha Christie and Mickey Spillane with no compunctions. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don Jaime, where are you now?,
By "skeeterpoke" (Duvall, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fencing Master: A Novel (Paperback)
Arturo Perez-Reverte makes me wish I could read Spanish. That is - possibly - the only way his works could get any better. I've read all of his novels that have been translated into English, and "The Fencing Master" is the one that grabbed me by the lapels, so to speak, and dragged me into 19th-century Madrid. I must say I was not inclined to put up much resistance.The story centers around Don Jaime, an antiquated fencing master, one of the last of a dying breed in an age where the pistol is gaining popularity as the means civilized men use to kill each other. Don Jaime lives his life according to a personal sense of reality, one that revolves entirely around the concept of honor. He realizes that he is a fossil, and that others may look at him as an aging dandy, but he does not mind. In fact, he hardly notices the outside world at all. Until one day he is summoned to the house of a beautiful young woman, who demands to know the secret of the unstoppable thrust (Don Jaime's personal invention). And nothing in the fencing master's world is ever the same again. To give the story away would be criminal, but rest assured intrigue, politics, and mystery abound. Mr. Perez-Reverte has done his usual prodigious amount of homework, and Madrid in the late 1860's springs to life from the page. I probably know even less about fencing than the average person (my information comes solely from period-piece movies), and the sword fights described kept me awake long into the night. Even week nights. The final bout is a masterpiece of suspense and beauty, an illustration of the age-old struggle between good and evil, hope and despair. My only niggling question is, how did the beautiful young woman acquire that enigmatic little scar at the corner of her mouth? In short, a fantastic read.
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