Make It Yours – See Your Price On Amazon!
Your Sales Price $5.22 - $0.29
A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
The kindly reception accorded to the first volume of the Historical Nights Entertainment, issued in December of 1917, has encouraged me to prepare the second series here assembled. As in the case of the narratives that made up the first volume, I set out again with the same ambitious aim of adhering scrupulously in every instance to actual, recorded facts; and once again I find it desirable at the outset to reveal how far the achievement may have fallen short of the admitted aim.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: Greg in Houston
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very good read and very plausible
Review: Forgotten history interpreted by Sabatini. Very good read and very plausible.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: sabatini’s working tools
Review: Rafael Sabatini was a great teller of tales and the tales seem based on solid research without ever getting too solid for the reader. these short stories based on historical incidents often relate to the full length novels he wrote, but they stand on their own for rollicking readability. and, btw, the price is certainly right for Sabatini on kindle — free or almost
Reviewer: Alyssa A. Lappen
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Highly entertaining, slightly fictionalized history
Review: The first edition of this second volume of Historical Nights’ Entertainment, 2nd series, contained 11 historical stories, all based largely (albeit not entirely on historical facts), was published in 1919. The second edition came out in 1924 with an additional three stories original published in Sabatini’s 1912 collection on Cesare Borgia, entitled Justice of the Duke.As with the prior volume, Historical Nights Entertainment First series, Sabatini wrote strictly on historical figures and by his own admission took some liberties (“wider latitude,” he calls it) with the facts.The first of these, “The Absolution,” concerns Alfonso Henriques of Portugal, who assembled an army at age 17 to repel the invasion of Alfonso VII of Castile. In the process of wresting rightful control of his kingdom from a foreign invader, Alfonso managed to offend the Pope, who then sent a Cardinal to intervene. And then to defend his kingdom, he offended the Cardinal. This is the story of how Alfonso achieved absolution.Next comes a tale of the False Demetrius, who deposed Boris Gudonov. Here is slightly more fabrication, as the real identity of the false Demetrius was never really learned, and Sabatini makes certain assertions that, although entirely possible, are his own reading of the siutation, and nothing more.Likewise, in the third story, “Hermosa Fembra,” which concerns a certain episode during the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, Sabatini confesses in his preface that he actually combined two stories, and made one of a piece of them.The book comes to a second false prince in “The Pastry Cook of Madrigal,” in which he tells of a pastry cook who pretends to be the long lost prince Sebastian, which he of course is not.Fifth, in “The End of the Vert Galant,” Sabatini treats us to the story of the demise of King Henry IV of France and Navarre, who crossed his Flornetine wife Maria de Medici when he grew enamoured of a 20-year-old beauty who was did not return his affection, Charlotte de Montmorency. This set of a tangled web of schemes that ended in Henry’s assassination, and this tale, with one alteration, tells more or less the chain of events that led to that downfall.Sabatini also provides his spin on the murder of Amy Rosbart, the young wife of Lord Robert Dudley, who fell to her death down a flight of stairs in a case whose exact cause was never determined. Of course, it had been widely suspected that Queen Elizabeth I would have liked to have married Dudley, which created certain problems when his wife suddenly fell to her death. This is a story that has been the subject of films and other books, but notheless Sabatini gives a compelling narrative that is entirely plausible.In “Sir Judas,” Sabatini tells of the figure, Sir Lewis Stukeley, the Vice Admiral of Devon and a friend and kinsman to Sir Walter Raleigh, who led to the demise of the renowned explorer. It is a fasinating story, and one I’d not read in any previous form.We also find a story of George Villiers, a rather insufferable Duke of Buckingham, who innsolently sought the affections of Anne of Austria.Three more stories of historical figures, all equally adept, take our attention until we come to the final three titles in this collection, all related to Cesare Borgia.As with all the works of Rafael Sabatini, these stories are extremely well written. While I not enjoy them quite as much as the previous Sabatini works I’ve read, the stories are still worth reading, and I recommend the volume.
Price effective as of Apr 13, 2025 04:21:35 UTC
As an Amazon Associate Dealors may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
