A Espada Sarracena

The Saracen Blade (1952) -- Aventura capa-e-espada, na Itália do Séc. XIII, com os heróis da VI Cruzada (1229) -- Pietro di Donati nasceu órfão no mesmo dia e hora que o Imperador Frederico II da Sicília e um laço de camaradagem e fortuna une os dois amigos de origens tão diversas. O arrogante Barão Siniscola traiu e matou o tutor que havia criado e educado Pietro, assim como havia morto o seu pai (um mestre ferreiro-espadachim que havia liderado uma revolta popular contra a tirania e a servidão imposta pelos Siniscolas. Pietro jura vingança contra toda a Família e, com o apoio de Frederico, casa com a igualmente orgulhosa filha do Barão para humilhar os Siniscolas. A vingança será difícil, já que - apesar do desprezo inicial - ele se apaixona e a paixão é correspondida. |...| The teeming world of the 13th century witnessed bright colors, banners fluttering against the sky above the lists at a tourney. Fair damsels with their long hair caught in cunning nets of gold thread, clad in silk and samite, velvet and ermine waved at bejeweled noblemen flaunting the arrogant insignias of their proud houses. A corps of sober monks clad in brown and black habits served the lordly bishops. And above all, the clean, bright gleam of a crusader's chain mail worn by nobles and knaves alike proclaimed that this society valued war above everything. This is a story of how crusaders turned their savagery on Christian and heathen alike. A war of the rich and powerful against the poor and lowly. How miserable serfs, wearing coarse jerkins smelling of dumb sweat, bound to their lord's service forever forced to labor on lands, which can never belong tothem. This was a time when nobles, secure in their castles and armor committed every barbarity imaginable. It was from the oppressed masses that Pietro di Donati, the son of a murdered blacksmith sprang, to become a wealthy knight and to marry into one of the powerful families of Europe. This book was made into a famous movie with Ricardo Montalban: 'The Saracen Blade' (1954).