The Fencing Master

The reviewers of this book have said most things about this excellent novel. It is refreshing to read a well constructed novel which creates the characters with considerable panache. The translation is superb and misses none of the tensions in the plot. What is equally refreshing in this day and age is a novel that is both realistic and romantic in true meaning. Language is used beautifully and brings to life an age, and a man to whom honour is his code. I look forward to reading more of Arturo Perez-Reverte's work.

If, like me, you tire of some of the near 1000 page novels, The Fencing Master will be a pleasant experience.It's about 200 pages long and a text book example of how to craft a novel as sparingly as it should be.There's little in the book that is padding or noise, no pointless sub-plots, no agonisingly tedious product placement (Stieg Larsson, take a bow...), no self indulgent waffle (JK Rowling?) and no technically flawed techno-babble (that's aimed at you Clancy!).The story is as sharp and precise as the Fencing Master's rapier thrust with every word key to the development of the story. It revolves around the 'out of time' Fencing Master's friends, acquaintances and clients and a brewing Spanish Revolution.I bought this book mostly because I'm a (rather poor) fencer, but it will (mostly) appeal to anyone.If I had to find a flaw it would be that the Fencing Master's circle of friends are not well defined or easy to remember who is who, but that's probably partly my fault as I struggled with the different Spanish names.Since reading this excellent book, I've also bought the Flander Panel and the Dumas Club, which I hope will be as good.

My aunt loved this book, I sent it to her because I had I like it so much. The characters are are well written, they come to life. My aunt is 97 and likes a good detective story,as the fencing master is an older man I thought she would identify with him. Now I will send her the Sevilla Comunion also by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

Manages to make you feel as though you are back in time and the feel of the place really works well. The story has a little too much politics for me and the outcome was predictable. He has written some classics this isn't one of them.

This was Perez-Reverte's first historic novel, featuring a 50-something traditionalist fencing master who ends up getting sucked into an awful scheme by the cunning & evil femme fatale of the story, Adela de Otero, who is pretty adept at handling the foil herself. Set against the feverish background of Madrid in 1868 just prior to the revolution that ended the inglorious reign of Isabella II. Good stuff!

A well-written book from an author whose work I like. A good read.

A brilliant read

Masterful, in an old fashioned sort of way.

Great book, I would highly recommend it. It exposes human nature.

very satisfied

Review of "The Fencing Master" -- Arturo Perez-ReverteBackground abstract from the text: "In Madrid in 1868, fencing master and man of honor Don Jaime is approached by a mysterious woman who seeks to learn the secret of the unstoppable thrust, an arcane technique known only to him. All too soon he finds himself in the vortex of a plot that includes seduction, secret political documents, and more than one murder. Rich with the historical detail of a decaying world that agonizes--as does the world of fencing itself--over the ideals of honor and chivalry, The Fencing Master is superb literature and a true page-turner."This is the second Perez-Reverte book I've read and I have to admit I really like his intelligent style of writing. I found the first half of the book to open very slowly building the back-story for the protagonist (Don Jaime Astarloa) and potential love interest with Adele De Otero who insistently pleads with him to teach her the fencing secret he perfected; "the unstoppable thrust."*Spoiler here* Do not continue if you have not read the book. The second half of the book quickly builds suspense and intrigue ending with a shocking conclusion. The final part of the story ends with Don Jaime discovering that Adele was acting as the agent of espionage for powerful economic interest(s) she was indebted to. She attempts to kill her Maestro with the same fencing thrust maneuver she learned from him but with which he executes with the skill of "The Fencing Master" leading to her demise (with the thrust through her eye socket).Well done and rife with a vivid historical backdrop and references. Five stars.JP

The Fencing Master is a demonstration on how "simple" it is to write a novel. The recipe is: focus on a central character, add a couple of strong supporting figures, mix in a bowl of historical setting, and add the spices of love/passion, intrigue, guilt, and honor. However, as in the kitchen, a recipe is only as good as the chef that prepares it.Arturo Perez-Reverte deserves the accolade "chef" He created a tasteful and satisfying mystery/thriller that anyone seeking a good read will certainly enjoy. While most reviewers are quick to point out the moral aspects of the novel, one hopes that Perez-Reverte intuitively constructed the story without trying to deliver a message. If the reader gains moral inferences, so be it. More important is that he has written a compelling entertainment.Readers might enhance their pleasure as we did by "casting" the characters for a movie as each entered the story line. While long gone stars such as Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks leap to mind, there are any number of current actors who could admirably fill the roles.

Here is a tale of an aging fencing master in mid-19th century Spain, a man out of sync with his times, barely aware of the political turmoil swirling around him or of the changing fashions and world in which he lives. Devoted to his arcane medieval art of swordsmanship, in an age of pistols and crass commerce, he lives in a museum-like apartment, sustaining himself by teaching fencing to a few less-than-promising students, the sons of the lesser nobility. Himself a commoner, he is the picture of the faded gentleman, a man more suited to the nobility than many of those who are his social superiors and to whom he must defer.Without family or real friends (excluding a few local cafe acquaintances with whom he has little in common save loneliness and a sense of marginalization), the fencing master observes his own slow physical decline and is acutely aware that his best years are behind him . . . his future but one thing: the inevitable loss of bodily strength and skill with the blade (which, alone, sustains him materially and spiritually). At the end of his lonely trail lies a sojourn in a hostel for the aged, attended by the nuns, until he breathes his last.Forseeing his own inevitable decline, he is no less aware that the art he espouses, no longer esteemed in the society in which he lives, will fade, like him, to a shadow of its former self, the more so as men of his ilk pass inexorably from the scene. And so, the old "maestro" devotes himself, in these fading days, to a book he is composing, a master work on the art he loves, and to developing the one thing that will, in his estimation, leave a real mark and make that work worthwhile, setting it apart from hundreds of other fencing treatises: the description of his hoped for grail, the "unstoppable thrust". But this, the ultimate fencing technique he longs to discover and document, eludes him, as it has throughout the preceding 30 years of his life.One day, as he struggles with his few students and his manuscript, a mysterious young woman, new to Madrid, summmons him to her apartments and presents an unorthodox request . . . that the maestro take her on as his student. Astonished and confused, as much by the alluring charm of his petitioner as by the inappropriateness of her request in a still conservative Spain, the maestro wavers . . . drawn to a youthful and mysterious beauty that awakens in him old dreams and remembrances. And yet he bridles at this proposed violation of those venerable traditions that are the one consoling constant in his life.But the lady isn't quite what she seems and her purpose in soliciting the special lessons is hidden from him because of the confusion her raven black hair, smooth skin and brightly blue eyes stir in his heart. And so he is charmed enough to entertain the idea . . . a step that will have seismic repercussions on the small and carefully ordered world of his life.This tale, of a noble soul on the edge of that abyss which awaits us all, is moving and perceptive. As the old maestro succumbs to a brief revival of his youthful spirit, he is sucked into a vortex of intrigue and murder and will face what will prove to be the most dangerous duel of his professional life. In this he loses and finds himself again.Although the second half of the book bogged down a bit with the details of a somewhat cryptic correspondence, the power of the book's insight into a man's final and most deadly challenge more than offset this apparent loss of dramatic focus. I have read few books as good as this one. I almost feel honor bound, myself, to move a whole slew of other books I have reviewed here down a notch in my estimation just to make room for this one.SWMauthor of  The King of Vinland's SagaThe King of Vinland's Saga