The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
May. 25th, 2010 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreI became familiar with The Scarlet Pimpernel by osmosis at about age 5 due to my mother’s being in love with the Leslie Howard movie. I quite possibly have it memorized, despite never actually sitting down to watch it. (Rather similar to how I used to have 90% of the original Star Wars trilogy memorized line for line, but never actually sat down to watch it until I was a teen.) I’ll address that sometime soon.
This is, I suspect, something along the lines of the ultimate adventure novel for women. Set during the French Revolution, foppish Percival Blakeney was madly in love with Marguerite St. Just, the wittiest woman in France, only to learn at their wedding that she had caused the St. Cyr family to be executed. Marguerite, of course, had never intended to cause the family harm, despite a previous enmity with them, but was unable to keep words she thought had been spoken in private from causing their deaths. Unfortunately, this causes Percy’s love to turn to contempt, which in turn causes the same feeling in Marguerite. I figure the servants spent a lot of time chipping off icicles.
All of England is in love with the Scarlet Pimpernel, a hero who rescues French aristocrats marked for execution. Naturally, Percy is the Pimpernel, but can’t tell Marguerite because he doesn’t trust her. Which doesn’t help things when a representative of the revolution, Chauvelin, blackmails Marguerite into helping him uncover the Pimpernal’s identity.
Orczy clearly sides with the aristocracy, almost to the point of completely ignoring the actual problems of the revolution. The writing is also melodramatic, almost a bit too much so. (Disclaimer: Not a big melodrama person particularly in print, unless it’s OTT Awesomely Melodramatic, along the lines of “these scars…that only you can touch.”) It is, however, fabulously entertaining, and I like how, despite being and adventure novel with all the trappings to be all about the dashing hero and follow his exploits, the primary perspective is that of Marguerite (who admires the Pimpernel like everyone else, but doesn’t have any particular romantic ideals about him) and her learning what’s going on, and reconciling the different aspects of her husband.
This is, I suspect, something along the lines of the ultimate adventure novel for women. Set during the French Revolution, foppish Percival Blakeney was madly in love with Marguerite St. Just, the wittiest woman in France, only to learn at their wedding that she had caused the St. Cyr family to be executed. Marguerite, of course, had never intended to cause the family harm, despite a previous enmity with them, but was unable to keep words she thought had been spoken in private from causing their deaths. Unfortunately, this causes Percy’s love to turn to contempt, which in turn causes the same feeling in Marguerite. I figure the servants spent a lot of time chipping off icicles.
All of England is in love with the Scarlet Pimpernel, a hero who rescues French aristocrats marked for execution. Naturally, Percy is the Pimpernel, but can’t tell Marguerite because he doesn’t trust her. Which doesn’t help things when a representative of the revolution, Chauvelin, blackmails Marguerite into helping him uncover the Pimpernal’s identity.
Orczy clearly sides with the aristocracy, almost to the point of completely ignoring the actual problems of the revolution. The writing is also melodramatic, almost a bit too much so. (Disclaimer: Not a big melodrama person particularly in print, unless it’s OTT Awesomely Melodramatic, along the lines of “these scars…that only you can touch.”) It is, however, fabulously entertaining, and I like how, despite being and adventure novel with all the trappings to be all about the dashing hero and follow his exploits, the primary perspective is that of Marguerite (who admires the Pimpernel like everyone else, but doesn’t have any particular romantic ideals about him) and her learning what’s going on, and reconciling the different aspects of her husband.
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Date: 2010-05-26 12:44 am (UTC)I really actually kind of resent Orczy's artistocratic bias in some ways; it gets in the way of my enjoying the book. But when I read the book in high school, the melodrama was exactly what I wanted--and I do like Marguerite, and how no one makes any bones about the fact that she's thrown herself away on Percy Blakeney.
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Date: 2010-05-26 12:53 am (UTC)