Scaramouche

From the back of the book jacket:

Before "Anthony Adverse," before "Gone with the Wind," long before "Forever Amber," Rafael Sabatini put the historical romance, dead for years, back on the literary map. His record breaking "Scaramouche" was followed by "Captain Blood," "The Sea Hawk," and more than a score of other romantic novels stemming from great moments of history, and for over a quarter of a century the name Sabatini has been a hallmark of distinction and quality in this increasingly popular field. To a meticulous documentation, he brings an exciting sense of character, dramatic zest, and a swift, clean prose.

From the front leaf of the book jacket:

The scene of Scaramouche is laid in France of the Revolution. Forced to flee for his revolutionary activities, the hero joins a band of strolling players and takes the part of Scaramouche, one of the stock characters of the French drama, whose rogueries, witticisms, and adventures fit his own nature to perfection. His adventures, to their final happy ending, are many as thrilling and the story of his career is a faithful illuminating picture of France during the Terror.

There is probably no other author living who could reconstruct one of the most complex and vital periods of all history, as Rafael Sabatini (already famous as a historian) has done in "Scaramouche," and weave from it a romance at one tense, colorful and profoundly absorbing - a romance that will carry the reader spellbound through crowded days of glorious adventure and leave him with a sense of having actually lived through the scenes so vividly described.