The Pimpernel and League are in Nantes to rescue Lord Anthony Dewhurst's new bride, Yvonne de Kernogan, after Chauvelin conspires with an angry young man seeking revenge. Chauvelin half-heartedly supplies the schemes to feed the ire of Martin-Roget, whose father was hanged after a peasant uprising gone awry; Lady Dewhurst goes along for the ride, but shows reasonable strength and incredible generosity of spirit; she is the typical Orczy heroine, a dignified aristocrat and devoted wife, but is likeable and believable (Eldorado's Jeanne Lange, take note).

After colluding with the other League members, their wives, and the Prince of Wales at the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Sir Percy takes leave of Marguerite - tearful but resigned - and the reader, only to reappear in disguise in Nantes (I can only assume it was very, very dark in the town, or Chauvelin himself should have been guillotined after this meeting!) His escape is standard Orczy fare - cause a commotion, whip the townsfolk into a frenzy, and run like hell before anybody realises - but it's a fun League adventure for all that. There's an interesting twist where either Sir Percy double-bluffs Chauvelin, or Chauvelin imitates the Pimpernel's methods, and the reader has to wonder which character knows the other better - or too well - but all comes right in the end, of course.

Orczy's research into history and geography are employed well in this story - she manipulates and exaggerates accordingly, but the facts which she fleshes out with her own exciting melodrama are true enough: the setting of Nantes, and the amoral figure of Jean-Baptiste Carrier, inventor of the 'Noyades' (or drownings). I wondered if Carrier's assistant - catamite? - was based on an actual historical figure, too, but couldn't find anything on him; a darker relationship for the Pimpernel series, all the same! I was also impressed by Orczy's characterisation of Yvonne's proud and mercenary father, the Duc de Kernogan, who readily throws his lot in with Martin-Roget, blind to the true identity of the fugitive serf, in exchange for the promise of financial support for the royalist cause; who says that Orczy was prejudiced by class? Kernogan is a thoroughly unpleasant old man, redeemed only by his daughter's forgiveness and unconditional love.

A decent 'League' adventure, with a dignified heroine; minimal Sir Percy, a walk-on part for Marguerite, and some intriguing insight into a bitter, desperate Chauvelin. ( )

This book is quite lacking in Scarlet Pimpernel-ness.

A young French local, mad at the treatment of the people at the hands of the nobility, attacks some. This goes wrong, and when he flees, his father is executed instead of him.

Now in England, he tries to lure a woman back to the guillotine, but Lord Tony likes the same girl, and hopes the Pimpernel will help out.

This one is not that interesting.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602...

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2007/0... ( )

http://regency-cate.livejournal.com/1...

My biggest complaint about this book is that there is little of Sir Percy and even less of Marguerite. Luckily, there is lovely Yvonne to placate me.

The lack-of-Percy is a common complaint of mine in Orczy's various sequels to The Scarlet Pimpernel, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. I did find the passages with Chauvelin and Martin-Roget rather tedious, but so I did in earlier readings of this book. I suppose such passages are necessary to keep the reader up on the game, but I wish they weren't quite to intricately detailed.

I have a little trouble believing that Yvonne could so easily forgive her father, but I suppose that is something that makes me like her all the more -- she has a more open heart than I sometimes do. And, of course, anyone who could successfully charm Lord Antony Dewhurst has to be interesting. To be honest, all of Orczy's characters are a little too good (or bad) to be true. This is not a crime, however; the Pimpernel books are not realism, but romance.

This particular sequel opens in Bath rather than London, so I was amused to be able to identify the exact spot in the Assembly Rooms where Tony proposes to his sweetheart. I even pulled out my souvenir booklet to be certain of it, and yes, just there beneath the gallery of the ballroom, there's a little alcove. (Awh!) ( )