Scaramouche (novel) Scaramouche (novel) Scaramouche is an historical novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1921. A romantic adventure, "Scaramouche" tells the story of a young lawyer during the French Revolution. In the course of his adventures he becomes an actor portraying "Scaramouche" (a roguish buffoon character in the "commedia dell'arte"). He also becomes a revolutionary, politician, and fencing-master, confounding his enemies with his powerful orations and swordsmanship. He is forced by circumstances to change sides several times. The book also depicts his transformation from cynic to idealist. The three-part novel opens with the memorable line: "He was born with a gift
Who Paid the Piper? the importance and the need to secure "liberal values and institutions". Jeremy Isaacs in "The Spectator" wrote that the book has portions that are humorous, citing reactions to figures who learned that they were subsidised by the CIA. He concluded that it was a "hammer-blow of a book". Joffe criticised the book for equating the U.S. propaganda efforts with those from the USSR in a "a strident anti-anti-Communism that refuses to accord the Western cause the moral worth it deserves, considering the wares the totalitarians were hawking." He characterized the book as having "careless sourcing" and "ad hominem slurs". Roazen