Scaramouche. by Rafael Sabatini

Scaramouche tells the tale of André-Louis Moreau, a young lawyer in Brittany. When his friend is killed by an unremorseful landowner, Moreau swears revenge and begins a life of adventure on the run. His travels lead him to joining a traveling theater troupe, becoming a master swordsman, and even to revolution. While the story of Scaramouche is fiction, Sabatini was always very careful to portray history as accurately as he could in his novels.
Thus, the backdrop of the French Revolution is vibrant, immediate, and carefully described. In general Sabatini's prose is sharp and entertaining. Scaramouche was incredibly popular in its day, and was Sabatini's most famous novel. The first line is written on Sabatini's grave.