I'm quite surprised this book appears on so many classic romance lists, because I'm not even sure if it was a romance.

It's a story of beautiful Marguerite, called the most intelligent woman in Europe, who married a very stupid, but extremely rich man, Sir Percy Blakeney. Their marriage is not a happy one, they are disappointed in one another and they hardly even speak. Marguerite is blackmailed into helping a French agent to discover the identity of a mysterious English hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Then, feeling guilty about what she'd done, she goes to France to save the great man.

I had two main problems with this book: first, most of the plot didn't make any sense whatsoever. Why did the Pimpernel's people keep writing notes to one another, why didn't they simply talk? They were oficially friends, why didn't they visit each other? All this plot at the ball was stupid. Next - Marguerite went to France to help her hero and she did absolutely nothing, she didn't even try to help the Pimpernel. The French agent was trying to catch a dangerous, elusive enemy - so he rented the slowest possible carriage, which Margueritecan could easily follow on foot? It is all so silly and pointless, that I kept rolling my eyes. The second problem was that the book was generally quite boring. It felt much longer than it really was.

I'm really sorry that we didn't get Sir Percy's perspective, I'm sure it would make this book much more interesting and deeper.

Generally, I didn't enjoy this book very much, but I'm glad I finally read it.

(I first published this review here: https://dominikasreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-scarlet-pimpernel-by-... ( )

I am a few chapters into the book and noticing that the narrative tone is very pro-aristocrat, which feels odd for my time. I guess the Baroness lived at a time when wealth and education were less morally compromised in our imagination. The story is more adventurous, less philosophical.

Further on the story becomes more engrossing. The action is attention-grabbing, and the machinations of Chauvelin, the compromised position of Lady Marguerite, combine to create a higher level of tension. I also notice that the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel remains hidden, unlike the film. In fact, the point of view stays almost exlusively with Marguerite, which adds to the layer of mystery, but sometimes detracts from the sense of plot.

As I finish the story, it seems that the best part was in the middle: Marguerite's climactic confrontation with Percy, her discovery, and then her rapid adventure to France. I see all the elements that made the Leslie Howard film so powerful and atmospheric. But the final heroic act stretches the imagination a little too far. ( )

*3.7

Book club pick ;)

I am quite fond of the 1982 film starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen (as the villain☺). It is one of my husband’s “things to watch on a rainy day”…

So, naturally, I was curious when my book club decided to give the original novel a try. Just to get it off my chest at once – I like the film much better.

Things I liked:

- Once again, seeing the beginnings of all these superheroes with a double life. (And Marguerite is about as clueless as Lois Lane, he-he.)
- Percy and Marguerite as a couple and their dialogues.
- Marguerite has quite a bit of agency – courage under fire, getting shit done in a crisis etc.
- And the story is fun, of course.

Things I really did not like:

- Every time Marguerite has agency or does something brave, the author seems to say, “oops, that was too much” and pulls her back, and it’s “weak woman”, “childlike” “only a woman” etc. To me it seemed that Baroness Orczy was having a tug of war between what she wanted to write and what she was expected to write. I make allowances for the time and the place, but it was still very visible and annoying.
- I got tired of Marguerite being described as "cleverest woman in Europe" every five pages or so. (Who did the IQ tests, I wonder? ;))
- I wanted better writing! I struggled a bit with the pompous style.
- Lots of class bias. (According to what I read about the French revolution, most of the people executed during the Reign of Terror were peasants and workers.)
- Casual anti-semitism. Ouch.
( )

My daughter has been raving about this book for a couple years. When she created a reading challenge for it this month, I decided I'd better jump in and give it a go. I found it to be highly entertaining, if a bit flowery-romantic in places. (Percy kissing the steps his wife walked on...or "sleep sedulously avoided her eyes") Methinks we have an overly-fanciful authoress on our hands...

I had the identity of The Scarlet Pimpernel figured out very early in but I think it had a lot to do with my daughter dropping some hints over the past couple years. I wonder if I would have figured it out so easily had I not heard quite a bit about the story already.

Super fun story---I'm sure I'll be reading it again in the future! ( )

It's not good. But it's enjoyably not good. ( )