Book Review: The Scarlet Pimpernel - by Baroness Orczy

Synopsis: The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of books focused around a group of men known as the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. This is the tale of the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel, a mysterious Englishman of mysterious identity who, together with his network of daring comrades, cunningly sneaks French nobles bound for the guillotine out of France during the French Revolution.

... Actually, this is NOT the tale of the Scarlet Pimpernel. This novel really tells the tale of Lady Marguerite Blakeney, a beautiful, witty, stylish French actress who marries the oh-so-very English Sir Percy Blakeney. Their marriage begins passionately enough, but by the time our story begins, the Blakeneys have become estranged and bitter toward one another. Through a misunderstanding, they each believe the other no longer holds any love for them. Percy is a notorious fop with a shallow personality and a reputation for downright stupidity. Marguerite is a beatiful trendsetter and the life of the party. Both display thinly-veiled contempt for one another whenever they are together. Over the course of the novel, Marguerite becomes embroiled in a plot involving high intrigue with the French government and the Scarlet Pimpernel himself.

SPOILER ALERT: An agent of the new French government, the villain Chauvelin, has traveled to England in an effort to ferret out the identity of the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel. He blackmails Marguerite into helping him. Once Chauvelin discovers the man's identity, he hightails it back to France to try to catch the man red-handed in the act of helping more emigrees to escape. About the same time all this goes down, Marguerite and Percy begin to patch things up in their marriage. Before they can fully reconcile, Percy is called away from home on urgent business. Then everything goes to hell in a handbasket when Chauvelin, who (with the unwilling aid of Marguerite) has finally discovered the Pimpernel's true identity, hightails it back to France to try to catch the man red-handed. Marguerite soon realizes that the Scarlet Pimpernel is none other than her very own husband, Percy, and that his witless foppishness has been nothing but an act meant to hide his secret identity! Guilt-stricken at what she has done, she pursues her husband to France to try to save him from Chauvelin's clutches.

It's a relatively short novel, but oh, what a story! There's a little of something for everyone in this book: gut-wrenching drama, exciting action, and touching romance. The story is told primarily from the point of view of Marguerite Blakeney, so the reader discovers the true nature of Chauvelin's plot and the mystery of the Pimpernel just as she does. You are taken through the range of emotions she goes through every time the plot takes another twist.

This novel is a part of a series about the League of men who work for the Scarlet Pimpernel. It's easy to see the widespread influence that this novel had on modern romance novels. Many of these center around a focal "adventure" plot, where the hero of the novel is a part of a group of men who work together in some common cause. Each member of the group usually gets his own story/romance. I'm looking forward to reading more of the books in this series.

BookMooch: for all your book-moochin needs

Love the lovely BookMooch.

I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and really like it. The basic process is: You put up books you own that you're willing to give away to other people. Other people put up books they're willing to give away to other people. When somebody puts up a book you want, you mooch it from them and they mail it to you. When somebody mooches a book from you, you mail it to them. All anybody pays is the cost of postage.

It all works on a point system. You get a point for every 10 books you add to your "Inventory" of books you're willing to give away. You also get a point for every book you mail out to someone. When you mooch a book from someone else, a point is deducted from your account.

The best part is, BookMooch does all the legwork for you. You can create a "Wishlist" of books you really want. As soon as someone adds one of your wishlisted books to their Inventory, BookMooch automatically sends them an email requesting that they send the book to you. You can even import books into your Inventory from other places like LibraryThing. And of course, the entire BookMooch inventory is searchable.

I tend to keep all the books I read, but I did have about a dozen or so lying around that I didn't want to keep for one reason or another. I've already sent out 4 books and had several sent to me and more on the way. I think it's a great way to get those books you're having trouble tracking down anywhere else, or don't want to pay high dollar for.

Early Ink - the inside scoop in upcoming book releases

Early Ink is a brand new site devoted to letting people know about new and upcoming books to be released. From their About page:

It is an "...online gateway for readers to find out about new and upcoming books from multiple publishers in all genres. At the same time, Early Ink is a place for authors and publishers to advertise, promote and offer previews of their upcoming titles."

You can download book excerpts/previews and also leave comments for a book. There's also a section they call "Media Buzz" that keeps you updated on a particular book's coverage by the media. Sounds like it might be handy if you want to know if the author's going to be on NPR talking about the book, etc.

What I like: 1. That it covers multiple publishers and 2. That you can get an RSS feed for updates on books from a particular genre. So if you read, say, a lot of trashy romance (ahem...) then you can get a feed of just the new romance stuff. It'll be interesting to watch this site and see whether it takes off.

Thanks to: kristinm in our LibraryThing romance readers' group!

The Hollywood Librarian movie

The library community is all in a froth over the upcoming release of The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film, a documentary film about librarians and what they really do. According to the site, it is "the first full-length documentary film to focus on the work and lives of librarians." It will chronicle the profession through commentary and clips of American movies that have portrayed librarians, as well as showing interviews with several real-live librarians in the trenches. Exciting stuff.

The trailer has been making the rounds among the various librarian listservs and blogs lately and, as a 30-something librarian, I feel compelled to point out that the clip doesn't seem to show a whole lot of folks in my age-bracket. I personally know a lot of other young librarians in their 20's and 30's, so I truly hope that the film makes an effort to show the broad range of ages and backgrounds of people drawn to this profession.

The Hollywood Librarian is set to premiere this summer at the American Library Association annual conference held in Washington, DC. (wish I was going...)

Book Review: An Arranged Marriage - by Jo Beverley

Synopsis: An Arranged Marriage is the first novel in Jo Beverley's "Company of Rogues" regency romance series. This story takes place in England during the period between Napoleon's abdication and the Hundred Days. The plot has some kind of convoluted beginnings but then becomes pretty straightforward about halfway through. In brief: The heroine, Eleanor, is drugged and raped by the earl of Stainbridge, one Christopher Delaney (who was also drugged at the time) - all as a part of a plot by Eleanor's good for nothing brother to win the favor of this really mean old lord named Deveril, who inexplicably wants Eleanor for himself. Meanwhile, Christopher's roguish twin brother, Nicholas Delaney, has been asked to serve his country by wooing his former mistress, Madame Bellaire, who is under suspicion of plotting to bring Napoleon back to power. A guilty Christopher, who really isn't the rapist sort, pretty much forces his brother into marrying poor Eleanor in order to do right by the girl. Now poor Nicholas, who really is quite a nice guy, has to try to juggle his new, skittish bride and his evil, traitorous mistress - all somehow without looking like a total jerk. (Don't try to work it out; I've tried and it's all way too complicated).

I didn't like this book all that much. I think part of the problem is the confusing style. There were several times when I had to re-read passages over and over to figure out what the heck was going on. It's one of Beverley's earlier works and I think part of it can be chalked up to a new writer testing her wings.

I didn't feel that there was quite enough interaction between the hero and the heroine for my taste. Due to the clandestine nature of his "mission," Nicholas is forced to maintain a cool distance between himself and his wife. This aspect of the story reminded me a LOT of The Scarlet Pimpernel. The details are different, but the basics seem similar: He loves his wife, but has to pretend indifference/stay away from her because of his secret life of espionage. That alone is probably what kept me reading. But whereas in Pimpernel, this served to really make you feel deeply for the plight of the hero and heroine, in An Arranged Marriage it becomes tiresome and frustrating for the reader. I kept wanting to yell at the characters, "Just talk to each other, for pete's sake!"

In spite of it all, I found myself liking the secondary characters in the novel immensely, particularly Francis and Lucien. So much so, in fact, that I still want to read the next book in the series. I'm hoping I'll find that in subsequent books the author will have found her stride. You can tell she's got lots of talent, and I'm not one to give up on an author just based on one less-than-stellar experience.

My LibraryThing rating: 2 stars

Cool Toy: Animal Hospital - from Parents

The Animal Hospital toy, from the folks at Parents magazine, has a little something for every toddler.

It's like a combination doctor playset and vet clinic. It comes with cute little plush pets that they can put inside and then "unlock" the door to let the little guy out using a set of keys that actually work! There's also an assortment of veterinary instruments that they can use to "treat" the animal. The best part: comes with its own storage! All the pieces can be closed up inside for portability (and easy cleanup). A great toy for the budding little veterinarian in your household. My kids would love this!

found via: parent hacks
foto from: amazon

favorite word #5: wrought

not as in wrought iron fence, but as in the destruction wrought upon our fair city