Swashbucklers and Pulp-Style Adventures

[Margaret]

Annis has just reviewed Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road for www.HistoricalNovels.info (see http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Gentlemen-of-the-Road.html), and it got me thinking about this genre of masculine adventure, which I think is really the male counterpart of historical romance. Gentlemen of the Road is Chabon's let's-have-fun novel that is a deliberate throw-back to the old pulp-style historicals of the first half of the 20th century. Those stories, like the dime novel cowboy stories, are probably one of the reasons why historical fiction got a bad name and is only now starting to get more respect because of the many authors whose research is excellent and whose style is in the more literary vein that pleases reviewers at the major newspapers and magazines.

But the old swashbucklers still have a following. Who hasn't seen Captain Blood, the movie made from Rafael Sabatini's novel? While researching examples of pulp historicals for the review post, I discovered that a surprising number of these have been reprinted in modern editions. Robert E. Howard was probably the instigator of this genre in the 20th century. Then there was Harold Lamb, L. Sprague de Camp, and others. Does anyone here read these oldies?

[donroc]

Yes, I grew up with the swashbucklers, which I never considered to be pulp. So many were made into entertaining film.

I still return to Sabatini on occasion and have fond memories of Costain, Shellabarger, Edson Marshall, Schoonover, Slaughter, Feuchtwanger, early Frank Yerby, and so many others who inspired me in my youth to dream one day of writing HF.

Yes, their MCs were males and as boys we wanted to buckle the swash with them.

[chuck]

Yes, I grew up with the swashbucklers, which I never considered to be pulp. So many were made into entertaining film.

I still return to Sabatini on occasion and have fond memories of Costain, Shellabarger, Edson Marshall, Schoonover, Slaughter, Feuchtwanger, early Frank Yerby, and so many others who inspired me in my youth to dream one day of writing HF.

Yes, their MCs were males and as boys we wanted to buckle the swash with them.

All great reads.....As a young lad I was blessed to read some of the above classics with illustrations by Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth....I miss those great books with those beautiful prints.....they made the characters and story come alive....Today I'm sure it would be to expensive to include prints....

[donroc]

All great reads.....As a young lad I was blessed to read some of the above classics with illustrations by Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth....I miss those great books with those beautiful prints.....they made the characters and story come alive....Today I'm sure it would be to expensive to include prints....

I still have my four volume Howard Pyle Scribners Brandywine edition of King Arthur and his knights. As you say, beautiful prints. They have been reissued for $19.95 each, I believe, but I have no idea about the quality.

Mine cost $3.95 in the early 1940s -- expensive for that era.

[MLE]

OK, Yerby is definitely swashbuckler, cranked out for the pulp market. Some of Sabatini is and some isn't. Shellabarger isn't. Schoonover, at least the two books I have tried to get through, definitely (research stinks). Costain hangs on the edge, but some of his are definitely literature. Both Costain and Shellabarger also wrote history books as well as HF.

Dumas is swashbuckler turned classic. So is the Scarlet Pimpernel. It seems like the Flashman series is an over-the-top sendup of the swashbuckler pulp novel.
Would you call Zane Grey's westerns a variant of this?

I think that historical romance has done more to give HF a bad name than the swashbuckling genre.

[chuck]

Pulp Westerns?....I think of Max Brand.....Are we teetering on the brink of leaping into a general discussion about Pulp Fiction?....could be fun....It definitely had influences on HF.....

[TerriPray]

Boy's Own fiction is another name for 'swashbuckling' and it's partly what UTM (the small press I'm with) is attempting to do.

[Ludmilla]

I love swashbucklers and westerns, but I only read them occasionally as a treat, and I've probably gotten more exposure to them through films than through books. Sabatini and Shellabarger are two that I read a lot of when young, along with some of the books of Robert Louis Stevenson. A lot of people remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote historical adventures. The White Company is one that is a lot of fun to read. Takes place during the time of Edward III. Another good old-fashioned one is Mary Johnston's To Have and To Hold (set in colonial Jamestown) -- might be labeled historical romance, but the pirate sections definitely place it on par with something like Captain Blood (and it is one of those that I think was reissued in recent years with a lovely new cover).

[Margaret]

Sir Walter Scott was pretty swashbuckling, too, wasn't he?

[Melisende]

Currently reading GMF's "The Reavers" - certainly plenty of swash and buckle - considering the "leading man" is described as extremely Errol Flynn-like!

[Volgadon]

Interesting that nobody has mentiuoned Jeffery Farnol yet. He had some great opening lines, and his books are the classic definition of a swashbuckler. That said, give me Sabatini any day of the week.

[annis]

After our discussion on the old HFF about Charlemagne, Volgadon mentioned Harold Lamb, and I managed to track down a copy of his novel "Durandal". I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my venture into nostalgia territory- it was a real breath of fresh air to read a classic Boy's Own adventure written in a more innocent age (in historical fiction terms, anyway).

A young Crusader and his comrades are betrayed by the Byzantinian emperor and most are killed. Sir Hugh seeks redress, and has many adventures as he tries to avoid death at the hands of Imperial agents, including one which leaves him entrusted with Roland's legendary sword.
Honor and the comradeship of brothers-in-arms are of great importance, and though there's plenty of smiting and hewing, the violence is not dwelt on in graphic detail. There is romance, but again, it's of an idealised variety. It still had plenty of action and I loved it - and I did enjoy those line drawings- they were definitely cool!

If anyone else is interested in reading it, look for the 1931 ed., which has the two original stories, "Durandal' and "sea of Ravens" linked into one complete novel by means of some shorter tales.
"Durandal" and "Sea of Ravens" were reprinted in the '80s, but the additional bits are missing.

[Volgadon]

OOh, I forgot about Lamb. His Cossack stories are great swash.

[annis]

Harold Lamb's Cossack stories are amongst those still in print, I think. Lamb obviously had an interest in Asia and Eurasia. Quite a bit of "Durandal" takes place amongst the conquering hordes of Genghis Khan. The hero, Sir Hugh, becomes one of Genghis Khan's warriors.

Has anyone read Louis L'Amour's "Walking Drum (http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Drum-Louis-LAmour/dp/0553050524/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221260324&sr=8-1)'? It's definitely written in the high adventure tradition. I hadn't heard of it until Margaret mentioned it on her Historical Novels info site, but it's a really good read, and particularly interesting in that it's set largely in the Muslim world. L'Amour intended it to be the first in a trilogy, but unfortunately died before he got to the next two books.

I feel that there was a bit of a revival in the epic swahbuckling genre in the '80s- I'm thinking of books like Michael Ennis' novel about Harald Hardrada, "Byzantium" and Gary Jennings' one about Marco Polo, "Journeyer".

[MLE]

I read the Walking Drum. Lots of fun, and a typical undefeatable hero. I sure would hate to be one of his women, though -- they get picked up and dumped/killed off with such astonishing regularity it is really amazing.
The second time I tried to read it, all the author's philosophizing via the character wore a little thin. Maybe because I know so much about Islamic history now, and it was apparent that L'amour didn't. And the man was really a late-20th-century mindset in medieval fancy-dress. Completely skeptical and endlessly creative. I kept expecting him to invent the rifle.

[sweetpotatoboy]

Has anyone read Louis L'Amour's "Walking Drum (http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Drum-Louis-LAmour/dp/0553050524/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221260324&sr=8-1)'?

I read Walking Drum earlier this year and, personally, found it to be disappointing. It wasn't without its fun elements but I found the plot and characterisation heavy-handed and implausible. I agree with MLE that the author's attempts to push philosophy and his own purported knowledge and learning through his protagonist were somewhat off-putting.

[Margaret]

Annis, our Queen of Swash and Buckle, has just reviewed another great one: Harold Lamb's 1931 classic, Durandal. The review is at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Durandal.html. Not only does it sound like a really fun novel that is also based on sound historical research, the 1981 and 1983 editions have pictures!

Terri, do tell us more about UTM.

[Kveto from Prague]

a spanish mate of mine knew i like historical fiction and bought me the captain Alatriste novels by perez-reverte. he said they are all the rage in spain at the moment. swashbuckle with a lot of 1620s Spanish politico thrown in.

highly recommended

[Spitfire]

I dont know if you would group the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forester in this group, but I really enjoyed them.

[annis]

Perez-Reverte took Alexandre Dumas as his inspiration and the "Captain Alatriste" novels are definitely in the swahbuckler category. There's a "Captain Alastriste" movie out as well, starring Viggo Mortensen as Alastriste. The original version is in Spanish ( the versatile Viggo speaks Spanish fluently), but there is an English language version available as well.

Spitfire, I'd say that CS Forester's "Hornblower" books were probably inspired by one of the nineteenth century authors of high adventure stories, Frederick Marryat, who wrote classics like "The Naval Officer" and "Mr Midshipman Easy".

Did someone mention Errol Flynn in relation to george MacDonald Fraser? I've always thought that EF would have made a perfect movie Flashman!

[Volgadon]

I think that GMF said somewhere that were EF living, he should play Flashie.

[Vanessa]

Talking of Errol Flynn, has anyone read The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair Thompson (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/margaret-cezair-thompson/pirates-daughter.htm)? Another one on my TBR pile!!

[Alaric]

I think that GMF said somewhere that were EF living, he should play Flashie.

Yes, that was his preferred casting for Flashman. Daniel Day-Lewis was the other especially after the way he was kitted (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3365378304/tt0217505) out in Gangs of New York.

[Margaret]

Errol Flynn had wonderful teeth. Remember the scene in Captain Blood where he stashes a dagger between them while climbing the rigging to leap into an enemy ship? And he was one of Annis's fellow New Zealanders, too.

[diamondlil]

I think you will find that Errol Flynn was an Aussie.

[Alaric]

Being a Tasmanian makes that questionable. :p

[diamondlil]

Now now. Don't be like that!

[donroc]

Being a Tasmanian makes that questionable. :p

The devil you say! ;)

[Margaret]

Mea culpa - Tasmania it is. Wikipedia has a fun entry on Mr. Errol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Flynn.

[chuck]

Ef was and is still one of my favorite actors....I wonder if he ever played a serious role with no Swash and Buckler story line?.....In his later years he did a couple of films with no action.....I can't remember them....

[chuck]

Mea culpa - Tasmania it is. Wikipedia has a fun entry on Mr. Errol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Flynn.

Yes, that was his preferred casting for Flashman. Daniel Day-Lewis was the other especially after the way he was kitted (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3365378304/tt0217505) out in Gangs of New York.

a few thoughts on who could do justice to Flashman in films...A young Alan Rickman, Tim Roth, or Jude Law....I concur on the other choices and yes EF would been a outstanding Flashie......BC's Sharpe....I would suggest Russel Crowe for starters....

[Alaric]

Nobody else could be Sharpe after Sean Bean. :)

[Volgadon]

Quite true, though I think it's getting ridiculous with these new films showing the middle-aged Sean Bean as Sharpe.

[Vanessa]

I don't mind Sean Bean at any age!http://bestsmileys.com/love1/20.gif:D

[annis]

Hear, hear, Vanessa!

Though when it comes to the Sharpe series I have to admit that my image of Richard Sharpe as a dark, tall and lean man with hard-faced good looks did keep getting in the way.

[chuck]

Hear, hear, Vanessa!

Though when it comes to the Sharpe series I have to admit that my image of Richard Sharpe as a dark, tall and lean man with hard-faced good looks did keep getting in the way.

I always liked BC's description of Sharpe's uniform; breeches with leather inset taken from a dead French Cavalry officer, the nasty looking sword and that facial scar that gave him a hard look.....and of course his warm and fuzzy personality...not.....really like Sean Bean's many films....His Sharpe had the right edge, attitude, but something was lacking...Some BBC productions were better than others.....Wish they would do a major film on some of BC's Sharpe novels ..Wishful thinking......BTW....SB was an excellent Boromir LOTR

[annis]

SB would make a great Viking or Anglo-Saxon warrior - maybe they'll do a TV series of the Uhtred stories?

Poor Margaret, you accidentally stepped in it by calling Errol Flynn a New Zealander! Although Aussies and Kiwis are family there's a goodly amount of sibling rivalry between them, especially when it comes to sport :) Sometimes we compete in claiming famous people, like Russell Crowe, who was born in New Zealand but grew up in Australia.

[Alaric]

I don't mind Sean Bean at any age!http://bestsmileys.com/love1/20.gif:D

http://www.sharpefilm.com/theimages/9/sharpe009.jpg

Not exactly buyable as a young man any more though. :p

[Margaret]

LOL, Annis. A bit like the U.S. and Canada.

[diamondlil]

SB would make a great Viking or Anglo-Saxon warrior - maybe they'll do a TV series of the Uhtred stories?

Poor Margaret, you accidentally stepped in it by calling Errol Flynn a New Zealander! Although Aussies and Kiwis are family there's a goodly amount of sibling rivalry between them, especially when it comes to sport :) Sometimes we compete in claiming famous people, like Russell Crowe, who was born in New Zealand but grew up in Australia.


This is a totally personal opinion (ie I am not speaking the other 20 million plus Aussies) but you can keep Russell Crowe! LOL!

[Vanessa]

http://www.sharpefilm.com/theimages/9/sharpe009.jpg

Not exactly buyable as a young man any more though. :p

Oooh, that was a shock for me at this time of the morning! (8am UK)!! No, he's not a spring chicken any more but he's just got that lovely rugged rough about him. Sheffield lad made good!