CR2: Book 19 The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

You can blame Helena Bonham Carter for this one. While watching Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I yearned to see people having their heads cut off. And I *loved* Leslie Howard as the Scarlet Pimpernel as a child. Oddly enough, TWO branches of the library system here had copies of the book already checked out when I looked. Maybe HBC put the idea in others' heads as well.



In 1792, three years into the French Revolution, a crowd of people gathered every morning to watch as carts rolled in filled with nobles scheduled to be beheaded under the sharp blade of the guillotine. The blood-thirsty crowds witnessed as one after another, whole families were executed.

Each evening, toward sunset, the mob would move to the city gates guarded by citizen soilders. In the mornings, carts would be let through, to stock the city with food. But as these carts left in the evenings, there always seemed to be a noble or two that tried to slip out, headed for the safety of England. The mob would watch as the soilders monitored the exiting carts, hoping someone would get caught and as such, sentenced to die.



The Committee of Public Safety was charged with voting whether specific nobles should be put to death. Led by Citizen Tinville, the Committee was angry at a small band of Englishmen who were helping the nobles. Tinville occassionally found notes in his pocket, taunting the Committee as to how many nobles would be rescued in a single afternoon. And these notes were always signed with the emblem of a small red flower...

Tinville offered a reward of five thousand francs to any soilder that could capture the Scarlet Pimpernel, and death to those who let him escape.



Everyone placed bets on which soilder would tangle with the Pimpernel. Some thought Sergeant Bibot at the West Gate would collect the reward. Bibot was cocky, mocking other soilders who had failed, but was himself fooled by the Pimpernel disguised as an old hag who claimed her cart might have a touch of the Plague or Smallpox. The cart actually held the Comtesse de Tournay and her two children...



Several days later, in the English port of Dover, Lord Anthony Dewhurst arrives at an inn and sets up a dinner feast for the Comtesse and her family, soon to arrive from France. Also to be attending are Sir Percy Blakeney and his wife, Marguerite St. Just Blakeney, a retired stage actress.

And it is here that the story of the Scarlet Pimpernel really turns into her story. Many of the French nobles disliked Marguerite, including the Comtesse, who refused to let her daughter speak to Marguerite. Marguerite had betrayed the Marquis de St. Cyr, who in turn had died with his family under the guillotine.



I worry that getting into the particulars of this betrayal, as it winds its way through the entire 2nd and 3rd acts of the book. It should be no surprise that Sir Percy is the Pimpernel, no big spoiler there. But the action starts building when Marguerite herself realizes his secret and sets off to save him from the evil Chauvelin and his army of French soilders, hot on the Pimpernel's trail.



Sweet read. The pacing was a little off-putting at times, but I think that was more my modern-reader's issue than the author's. The ending was only slightly underwhelming, but all plot points were tied up nicely. I would have liked to have seen more action from the Pimpernel and his 19 English helpers, but Marguerite's POV was adequate, if not a little annoying at times.