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.