meilufay’s #CBR4 review #90 The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first in a series of historical romantic swashbucklers that Baroness Orczy wrote about the title character, which form the basis for countless film and television adaptations. It features a foppish aristocrat who secretly spirits aristocrats out of France, saving them from the guillotine. It was written over a hundred years ago and is totally dated in its politics and characterizations but for all that it’s a cracking good read and I would recommend it.

Captain Tuttle’s #CBR4 Review #20 – The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

And we’re back to the Scarlet Pimpernel.  There are a couple of books between the ones I reviewed earlier and this one, but I never quite figured out the proper order of the stories, and it probably doesn’t matter.  In this book we start in Paris in 1794, well into the Revolution.  Citizen Tallien is engaged to Theresia Cabarrus, whom he met in Bordeaux, and who is in love with Moncreif, a revolutionaire, who is loved by (and loves?) Regine de Serval. He convinces Regine’s brother and sister to cause a scene at some kind of revolution party or something, which isn’t a good idea. They’re saved by the Scarlet Pimpernel, in one of his disguises, as Rateau, the coal heaver.

The trick with the Pimpernel, and somehow the revolution guys never figured it out, is that if there’s a stranger, and he’s kinda big, he might just be the Scarlet Pimpernel.

The Pimpernel takes the de Servals and Moncreif back to England, but Teresia gets Moncreif to help her get the Pimpernel back to France.  See if you can guess how. Yep, Mrs. Pimpernel is back in France, needing to be rescued by her Sir Percy, who of course obliges.

All of the Pimpernel books are fun lagniappes. There’s not much to them, but that’s all right – like most of the things I read, I use them as a distraction from the daily crap. I love to escape into the world of Percy Blakeney and forget where I am.