?Last Wednesday he had been engaged in moving an audience of Rennes to anger; on this Wednesday he was to move an audience of Guichen to mirth....” Once he was André-Louis Moreau, a lawyer raised by nobility, unconcerned with the growing discontent among France's lower class?until his friend was mercilessly struck down by a member of the aristocracy. Now he is Scaramouche. Speaking out against the unjust French government, he takes refuge with a nomadic band of actors and assumes the role of the clown Scaramouche?a comic figure with a very serious message?. Set during the French Revolution, this novel of swashbuckling romance is also a thought-provoking commentary on class, inequality, and the individual's role in society?a story that has become Rafael Sabatini's enduring legacy. With an Introduction by Gary Hoppenstand