num_pages: 272
description: Perez-Reverte wrote the Captain Alatriste seies as a homage to the adventure books that had been his own initiation into the world of reading as a boy - books such as Dumas's The Three Musketeers.Captain Alatriste is a swordsman for hire in Spain in the 1620s - a time when Court intrigue is high and the decadent young king has dragged the country into a series of disastrous wars. As a hired 'blade', Alatriste becomes involved in many political plots and must live by his wits. He comes face to face with hired assassins, court players, political moles, smugglers, pirates and of course, the infamous Spanish Inquisition...All the stories are told by Inigo Balboa, Alatriste's young page. The cast of characters also includes Quevedo, an irrepressible subversive poet who likes to start fights in the local tavern, the kind-hearted innkeeper and ex-prostitute who shares Alatriste's bed, the elegant Count of Guadalmedina, the beautiful but deadly Angelica de Alquezar, and a whole host of underworld figures.
language: English
title: Captain Alatriste
titlecomplete: Captain Alatriste (Adventures of Captain Alatriste, #1)
characters: Perez, Juan Vicuna, Luis de Alquezar, Gaspar di Guzman, Avvocato Calzas, Don Francisco de Quevedo, Bartolo Cagafuegos, Caridad La Lebrijana, Martin Saldaña, Gualterio Malatesta, Emilio Bocanegra, Íñigo Balboa y Aguirre, Carlo Principe di Galles, Diego Alatriste y Tenorio, Angelica de Alquezar, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, Guercio Fadrigue
genres: Spain, Fiction, Mystery, Swashbuckling, Spanish Literature, Historical, Historical Fiction, 17th Century, Adventure, Novels
ratings_count: 14821
places: Spain
series: Las aventuras del capitán Alatriste
publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of Orion)