1680 til 1689

Dr Peter Blood has put his soldiering past behind him. He is happy tending his geraniums and his patients in a quiet English town.But a moment of mercy sees him sent to be a slave in Barbados - and puts him on the path to becoming a fearsome pirate captain.In this swashbuckling, globe-spanning adventure, Blood is caught up in the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion and saves the life of one of the rebels.Notorious "hanging judge" Jeffreys sentences him to 10 years as a slave. There, he falls in love with the daughter of the man who owns him. But he risks it all by stealing a Spanish ship that attacked the town and then sailing off to form a band of pirates.The glory of the high seas and the sound of clashing swords thrills Captain Blood. All of the time, he yearns to be with the woman he loves - who refuses to be with a thief and a pirate.It looks hopeless. But there may just be a chance...'Captain Blood' was made into a 1935 film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Basil Rathbone, who later played 'Sherlock Holmes'.For fans of 'King Solomon's Mines' by H. Rider Haggard and 'The Black Arrow' by Robert Louis Stevenson.Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) was an Italian-English writer, known for his romance and adventure novels.He wrote 34 novels, eight short story collections, six non-fiction books and several plays. He wrote short stories at first, before publishing his first novel in 1902. However, literary success did not arrive until the publication of 'Scaramouche' in 1921.His other most famous works were the novels 'The Sea Hawk', 'Captain Blood' and 'Bellarion the Fortunate'.Sabatini spoke six languages, but chose to write in English because "all the best stories are written in English".

Caraibi, 1680 circa. La bella Priscilla Harradine si imbarca sulla nave Centaur per fare ritorno in Inghilterra. Al suo fianco l’appiccicoso Maggiore Sands. Priscilla non fa in tempo a fare amicizia con Charles de Bernis – misterioso quanto affascinante bucaniere francese – che la loro nave viene attaccata dalla temibile Cigno Nero, comandata dal famigerato pirata Tom Leach. La faccenda sembra mettersi molto male, se non che Charles potrebbe avere un asso nella manica: non appena rivela a Leach di essere a conoscenza di una ricca flotta spagnola, carica zeppa d’oro, il destino dell’improbabile compagnia sembra riservare nuove, incredibili, avventure...Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) nasce a Jesi, figlio di due cantanti d’opera rispettivamente italiano e inglese. Cresciuto dunque in un ambiente cosmopolita, diviso fra Inghilterra, Portogallo e Svizzera, già a diciassette anni padroneggia cinque lingue. Inizia a scrivere i primi racconti attorno ai vent’anni, anche se il primo vero successo lo avrà solo col romanzo "Scaramouche" (1921). Da allora produrrà romanzi a un ritmo notevole – anche uno all’anno – creandosi un nutrito seguito di lettori fedeli, grazie anche a libri come "Captain Blood" (1922), "Bellarion the Fortunate" (1926) e "Venetian Mask" (1937). La scelta di scrivere in inglese, come ammesso da lui stesso, sarebbe dipesa dal proposito di emulare la ricchissima letteratura di età vittoriana.

Ein Richter, der sich selbst richten muss. In Kleists bekannter Komodie "e;Der zerbrochene Krug"e; wehrt sich Dorfrichter Adam gegen die Anklage, er hatte einen Krug zerstort, und nicht nur das. Im Verlauf der Gerichtsverhandlung versucht Adam die Zeugen zu manipulieren. Was genau passiert ist, kommt nach und nach ans Licht. Der Aufbau des Enthullungsdramas erinnert an die Odipussage, wahrend der Mix aus Tragik und Komik shakespearesque erscheint.-

Wie gelang die Rettung Wiens vor dem Osmanischen Reich? Als im Fruhjahr 1683 in der agyptischen Hafenstadt Rosetta die Schiffe zweier venezianischer Kaufleute beschlagnahmt werden, stehen alle Zeichen auf Krieg: Das Osmanische Reich plant, das christliche Abendland zuruckzudrangen und den Kaiser von Wien zu sturzen. Der Herrscher Rosettas halt seit geraumer Zeit einen Malteserritter, Adrian von Rimburg, gefangen, der einen Brief an den venezianischen Dogen ins Lateinische ubersetzen soll. Doch der Ritter ist in zweierlei Hinsicht in Lebensgefahr und gelangt nur mit Hilfe der verheimlichten Tochter Bassas zum Hafen. Wird er es von dort aus in die Freiheit schaffen? -

Die womoglich erste deutsche Kriminalnovelle: Eine Serie von Morden erschuttert Paris im Jahr 1680. Die Opfer sind immer Adlige, die auf dem Weg zu ihrer Geliebten sind, um ihr Schmuck zu schenken. Als ein junger Mann dem Fraulein von Scuderi eine Schmuckschatulle uberbringt, die sich als das Goldschmiedewerk des beruhmten Cardillacs herausstellt, gerat die Sache schon bald aus den Fugen...-