The Gamester by Rafael Sabatini – #1949Club

This is my second book for this week’s 1949 Club (hosted by Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon of Stuck in a Book). I’ve loved some of Rafael Sabatini’s other novels, so I was pleased to find that he had one published in 1949. Sabatini was born in Italy to an English mother and Italian father; he was an accomplished linguist and wrote all of his novels in English even though it was actually his sixth language! The Gamester was Sabatini’s final book, published a year before his death. It’s set in the early 18th century and tells the story of the Scottish financier and economist John Law, the Laird of Lauriston. Many people today probably haven’t heard of Law, but he was hugely important and influential in his time, establishing France’s first central bank, the Banque Générale, which issued the country’s first paper money. He also founded the Mississippi Company to manage France’s colonial trade in America. The word ‘millionaire’ was first used to describe the company…