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The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel
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The Scarlet Pimpernel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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The breathtaking debut of the one man brave enough to stand up to the Reign of Terror

The Revolution has begun, and the streets of Paris run red with blood. Every aristocrat has been declared a traitor; the guillotine awaits them all. At the city’s West Gate, the tyrannical Sergeant Bibot toys with desperate families, allowing them to think for a moment that escape is a possibility. It is not. Every last member of the nobility—man, woman, and child—will pay the ultimate price.
 
Only one man stands in the way of the ruthless mobs. The Scarlet Pimpernel, his name taken from the flower he leaves as a calling card, has infiltrated Paris to bring as many innocent nobles to safety across the English Channel as he can. Savior of the aristocracy, scourge of the executioner, the Pimpernel is a hero like no other. But who is he? Marguerite Blakeney, whose dandy of a British husband has been nothing but a disappointment, would love to find out.
 
This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 26, 2014
ISBN9781497659865
Author

Baroness Orczy

Baroness Emmuska Orczy was born in Hungary in 1865. She lived in Budapest, Brussels, Paris, Monte Carlo, and London, where she died in 1947. The author of many novels, she is best known for The Scarlet Pimpernel.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A classic, and for a good reason.The Scarlet Pimpernel is a daring tale set during the French Revolution. A mysterious Englishman, known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel, is devoted to rescuing those that the revolutionaries have condemned to the guillotine. A ruthless French agent is just as determined to find the Scarlet Pimpernel and send him to his execution. And it all hinges on the actions of one woman...Oh what fun! A smashing good read!Experiments in Reading
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Great history, from both the classic sense of history and also in the sense of history of plotting in a mystery. The historical landscape is carefully described. It is also counterintuitive in terms of underdog/favorite dynamics. And the plotting itself is very clever, particularly so when you place it early on the development of mystery plotting. The chapters are short so it is also easy to pick up and set down.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Justly famous for it's theatrical style, outrageous intrigue and less-than-2-percent-body-fat plot. I enjoyed it despite the florid writing and simplistic, one-sided view of historic events. Still, I must say, if the French secret police were really this dense, I too could have duped them as often and with equal panache.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I have no idea why some people classify this novel as a classic piece of literature. Just because it was written over a hundred years ago doesn't automatically make it a great novel. Orczy is not in the same league as Tolstoy or Dickens or Shakespeare. She did not write a number of brilliant works that hold up to the passage of time and remain relevant. She did, I think, write the first superhero novel. I read that the creators of Batman were influenced by The Scarlet Pimpernel and I totally see that. At times I felt like I was reading the pulpy novelization of an action movie. I'm sure at the time of the release of this book (and the accompanying play) the plot seemed fresh and daring. Now, of course, it's just one long cliche and common trope. The comparisons to a Scooby Doo episode are not far off the mark.The plot is extremely far-fetched and the characters one dimensional. I kept waiting for a supernatural element to be introduced in order to explain the disguises the S.P. used. I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough - there is no way he could turn himself into a petite elderly woman. Just....no. He's supposed to be huge. How does he hide his height and girth? Hmmmm. And Marguerite -the cleverest woman in Europe! - spends hours with him while he is disguised and doesn't notice? Hmmm. The S.P.'s superhuman strength is also over the top. He is beaten so severely he loses consciousness yet he is still able to walk a mile and a half in the pitch dark through the rough countryside carrying Marguerite? Hmmmm. Orczy is a mediocre writer. If I read the word "inane" one more time I was going to scream. Were thesauruses not invented when she wrote the book? She tells the reader, she doesn't show the reader. Don't tell me Marguerite is "the most clever woman in Europe" over & over & over. Show me! Instead, Marguerite is incredibly dense throughout the book. I couldn't get over how she kept forgetting people - forgetting her husband, forgetting her brother, forgetting that guy that helped her get to France. Where was the cleverness? The romance between Marguerite and her husband befuddled me. They got secretly married after a whirlwind courtship because he was sexually attracted to her and she really enjoyed how much he desired her. She didn't love him but loved that he loved/wanted her so much. Then, after the marriage, they almost immediately have a falling out and never talk about it because both are too proud. Marguerite suddenly decides she passionately loves her husband because.....um, that wasn't totally clear to me. Because she found out he was secretly the S.P.? Or something like that.Finally, that crazy antisemitic chapter of the book "The Jew" - what the hell!?!? That came out of no where. It was like talking to someone at a party, thinking they are cool, when suddenly they start talking about n*ggers and f*ggots. Whoa! Didn't realize how horrible you were! Thanks for sharing that tidbit about yourself! It wasn't just that Orczy was showing some of her characters to be bigoted towards Jewish people. She, the third person narrator, was writing these horrid descriptions."His red hair, which he wore after the fashion of the Polish Jews, with the corkscrew curls each side of his face, was plentifully sprinkled with grey- a general coating of grime, about his cheeks and chin, gave him a peculiarly dirty and loathsome appearance. He had the habitual stoop, those of his race affected in mock humility in past centuries, before the dawn of equality and freedom in matters of faith, and he walked behind Desgas with the peculiar shuffling gait which has remained the characteristic of the Jew trader in continental Europe to this day.""She felt as if he held Percy's fate in his long, dirty hands.""The eyes of the Jew shot a quick, keen glance at the gold in his interlocutor's hand.""With a final, most abject and cringing bow, the old Jew shuffled out of the room."Talk about a buzz kill. I was already having issues with the book and that chapter was like the final nail in the coffin. I give the book 2 stars because it does have a historical interest in the sense that Orczy created a Batman/Superman sort of hero and that is intriguing. Also, I am a sucker for books set in that time period. Even mediocre books like this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Defined at its most basic level, a superhero is a vigilante with a secret identity and a gimmick that sets them apart from ordinary vigilantes. Hungarian-born British playwright Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci’s The Scarlet Pimpernel features as its titular main character a British aristocrat who uses disguises to conceal his identity as he aids nobles in their escape from the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, signing his notes to his accomplices and his taunts to the French authorities with a scarlet pimpernel flower (Anagallis arvensis). Baroness Orczy based this 1905 novel on her original 1903 play, with her superhero predating Johnston McCulley’s Zorro by 14 years and Walter B. Gibson’s The Shadow by at least 25 years (depending on if one begins with the play or novel and counts The Shadow’s first radio appearance or the first magazine story), though the first superheroes as most know them wouldn’t appear until 1938 and ’39 with Superman and the Batman, respectively. Baroness Orci published five further novels and one short story collection before the appearance of Zorro in 1919, an additional four novels and short story collection before the appearance of The Shadow, and three more novels before the first appearance of Superman, with her final Scarlet Pimpernel novel, Mam’zelle Guillotine, appearing in 1940. In total, Baroness Orczy’s superhero appears in eleven novels and two short story collections, with the series also including two novels about his ancestor and one about his descendant.The basic plot revolves around Sir Percy Blakeney, a baronet who uses the guise of the Scarlet Pimpernel to rescue French aristocrats. Like the Batman years later, Sir Percy Blakeney acts “the lazy nincompoop, the effete fop, whose life seemed spent in card and supper rooms” so as to throw off those who would discover the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel (pg. 128). Madame Orczy describes Sir Blakeney’s mansion in terms that similarly recall Wayne Manor, all of it a further part of his disguise as a vain aristocrat (pg. 129). Citizen Chauvelin pursues the Pimpernel on behalf of the Committee of Public Safety, seeking to discover his identity and prevent him aiding aristocrats in their escape. Meanwhile, Marguerite Blakeney, the wife of Sir Percy, stumbles across and inadvertently reveals his identity after Chauvelin’s attempts to blackmail her by threatening her brother, Armand St. Just, who still resides in France and is threatened by the republican forces currently orchestrating the Reign of Terror. In many way, the various aristocrats’ discussion of the Scarlet Pimpernel coupled with the misunderstandings between Marguerite and others reflect some of the drawing room farces popular only a decade prior to the novel’s publication in the Victorian era. Like any proper superhero story, the Pimpernel’s adventures continued as Baroness Orczy published a sequel, I Will Repay, one year later in 1906. The third act does have some alarming ethnic stereotypes reflective of the period in which Baroness Orczy wrote, but the rest is entertaining and the work itself is worthy of study for its place in genre fiction. This edition, part of ImPress’s “The Best Mysteries of All Time” series, reprints the original 1905 text in its entirety with a red leather cover. It makes a lovely gift edition for fans of the original work or book collectors looking to add to their shelves.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Action-packed! Old-fashioned spy story...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    That was good fun.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I LOVE this story!! I have read every version and adaptation, even the graphic novel!! I have also seen pretty much every version on film! The espionage, the duplicity, the tension, and drama are fantastic! Not to mention that the Scarlet Pimpernel is just the greatest pre-super hero, hero EVER!!!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was unaware that this book takes place in 1792, in the thick of the French Revolution.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Yes, I realize this is a novel *against* the French Revolution (as my publisher so helpfully pointed out). Orczy's writing is gripping and the plot moves along quickly, reminding me of a reverse-Dickens novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to the audio book, narrated by Mary Sarah. Audio books can be tricky, because loving it often depends on how good the narrator is. I thought that Mary Sarah was a great narrator and she added to the experience of the book.

    The Scarlet Pimpernel started off a little slowly to give readers an idea of setting and main characters. After these are established it's a page turner. I almost stopped the audio so that I could read the story myself, it pulled me in.

    As always, leaves me wanting more of the story, more of Marguerite and Percy and just more of this unassuming hero, using the prejudices of his society to save the innocent.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am a fan of the masked hero type. Zorro and Batman and the like. So you might want to take what I say with a grain of salt because I think I was predisposed to like this novel. And I did like it. There are less of the heroic adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel here than you may expect. You hear about his breathless, selfless rescues more than you actually get to see them. A lot of the book is told from the point of view of Lady Blakeney so the reader stays in England with her instead of getting to go to France with the Scarlet Pimpernel. But you still get to hear how he fools the French and does all sorts of heroic things. I think the events hold more surprises for the characters than they do for the reader but I don't think that hurts the story. Sometimes the 'I just want to be able to die beside my beloved' emotion of Lady Blakeney gets to be a bit much. And I have to admit that I was getting tired of being told that she was ever so clever, even though at times she didn't act like it. Over all I really liked it. It is fun and exciting with some suspense and romance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I first saw this on my list as a book to read in honor of love and Valentine's Day I almost thought there was a mistake. The beginning of the book is mayhem. Taking place during the French Revolution and the Year of Terror people are being sent to the "Madame Guillotine" left and right. To make matters worse, the heroine of the story, Lady Marguerite Blakeney is disgusted by her dull, slow-witted, lazy husband. Death and indifference. What kind of love story is that?My advice? Keep reading. This is a classic love story wrapped up in an adventure mystery full of intrigue. Lady Marguerite harbors a horrible skeleton in her closet. Out of revenge for her brother (because blood is thicker than water) she sent an entire family to the guillotine. The punishment didn't fit the crime and Marguerite is ashamed of her prior actions. However, this event taints her marriage to Sir Percy Blakeney and as time goes on their relationship grows colder and colder, falling further and further out of love. Complicating matters is a crafty hero calling himself the Scarlet Pimpernel. He and his "League" are going around and rescuing citizens from the guillotine. His arch enemy, Chauvelin, is determined to uncover his real identity and he enlists Marguerite's help using her brother as bait. What Marguerite doesn't know is that her dull, slow-witted, lazy husband is none other than the Scarlet Pimpernel himself.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    So, I liked this book. It's definitely a fast and easy read. It's also worth noting that, if you're an adult, it's somewhat predictable. However, that doesn't mean it isn't interesting.

    What I liked most about The Scarlet Pimpernel was the fact that the characters are all, pretty much without exception, blind to any reality that doesn't fit into their preconceived world views. As a result, they cause themselves immense trouble and pain--all because they simply don't PERCEIVE things. The Scarlet Pimpernel, who we as readers expect to be the exception to this rule, is no different, and he too suffers for it. He cannot see Marguerite's pain, just as she cannot see his, and they both suffer in silence. He relies on his evaluation of her as a Republican. She relies on her perception of him as an inane fool. They are both terribly wrong.

    In the end, I think the self-limitations the characters impose on themselves through their quick judgments and closed perspectives speak to the same weaknesses of the human condition that novel tells us inspired the French Revolution. That is, our (heroic) characters tell us that the French Republic is committing atrocities by following their preconceived notions of aristocrats and unjustly murdering an entire social class. At the same time, our characters are unjustly condemning and judging one another on a personal level. As the French disrupt and ruin their society, our characters disrupt and ruin their own lives, all through the same mechanism--abrupt and unconsidered judgment that prevents the observer from seeing anything that he or she has labeled as "impossible." It is, the Republic says, impossible to have a valiant aristocrat. It is, Marguerite says, impossible that Percy is more than what he seems. Again, our author shows us as readers just how dangerous these premature internal decisions are for everyone involved! I found this theme to be very nicely wrought in the novel, and this concept was definitely the most thought-provoking and redeeming part of the work for me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In the years after the French Revolution The Reign of Terror holds sway as ordinary citizens hold the reins of government and seek revenge on the aristocracy until thd streets run red with the relentless work of the guillotine.Enter The Scarlet Pimpernel, whose bold daring and sharp cunning effect the rescue of many French nobles from under the noses of the authorities.I really loved this book! Intrigue, romance, suspense, adventure ... it had it all!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm a huge fan of several movie versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but I had never read the book until now. How would it compare to the movies I love so much? Very well indeed. It's neither better nor worse than the movies – just a few plot differences. It's just the sort of book I look for when I want to escape to a different time and place – historical fiction with equal parts adventure and romance. Maybe the best thing about it is that there are sequels, so I have more reading escapes to look forward to!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Reign of Terror in France is in full swing and members of the Royalty are getting their domes loped off left and right by the handy-dandy guillotine. With the help of the infamous “Scarlet Pimpernel” many are fleeing the country to the safe shores of England. Unfortunately the Pimpernel, whose identity is a mystery, is being hunted by the French. Marguerite, a French woman who made it out of the country, is being blackmailed to help with the search for the Pimpernel. Her estranged husband, Sir Percy Blakeney, disapproves of her past actions and she’s left to find a solution on her own. SPOILERSI really loved the ending. It wasn’t shocking, but I felt like it was a good twist and wrapped everything up nicely. In a funny way, it reminded me of Batman. The story of a dimwitted playboy who is actually a super hero saving lives. He never tells his love interest who he is, but he manages to save her and others multiple times. It felt like a super hero action movie. SPOILERS OVER BOTTOM LINE: It’s fun and entertaining; a great adventure book, but don’t expect too much depth. Read it if you’re in the mood for a bit of swashbuckling.“A woman’s heart is such a complex problem, the owner thereof is often most incompetent to find the solution of this puzzle.” 
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This classic story of an English aristocrat rescuing doomed French aristocrats from the guillotine in the Reign of Terror through ingenious disguises and escapes has been mimicked so many times (including in the third series of Blackadder) that it seems very familiar, though I had not read it before. It is, in fact, enormously good fun, though the characters on all sides are extremely stereotyped and the view of the French Revolution portrayed here as simplistic as one would expect from this traditionally conservative-minded Austro-Hungarian aristocrat. The only somewhat more nuanced characters are Marguerite St Just and her brother Armand, liberal republicans who supported the Revolution in the early days but have become disillusioned with terror and bloodshed. Enjoyed as pure romantic escapism the novel works, and the Baroness can undoubtedly come up with a good turn of phrase. Aside from the simplistic presentation, the chronology isn't quite right - this is set in September 1792 at the time of the appalling prison massacres, but well before the period known as the Reign of Terror when Robespierre was the leading figure, which really began only from summer 1793. 3.5/5
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful book. I wished it covered more of the Reign of Terror but it was a light-hearted read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Oh what a lovely book. Don't let the historical setup fool you- it's basically a good old fashioned melodrama with a few thriller moments thrown in. I saw the old black-and-white movie a while ago, and while entertaining, it does not do justice to the story and the characters. It's truly a "big R" Romantic novel- larger than life heroes and villains, life-and-death choices, tragedy, humor and a few distinct love stories all blended together in a tightly written plot. Do yourself a favor- take a break from modern fast paced, world-weary fiction and spend some time with the characters and the world of Scarlet Pimpernel. You'd be surprised at how enjoyable the experience will be.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved it, as usual. This is a comfort book - well worn, familiar, and great. I don't know how many times I've read it, but it has to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-30 over the years.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well i've started reading some old classics because I can and this one was OK; but just way to simple and oh soooo predictable
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is another one of those books that I'm puzzled why I never came across years ago. Set in the time of the French Revolution, it's an entertaining and fast-paced adventure and love story that (in my mind) was like a cross between Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities and something by Alexandre Dumas.I found it refreshing that this story was told from the perspective of a resourceful (for her time?) young woman...although as a modern reader, I would have preferred that she played an even more active/pivotal role in the final dramatic events.A fun and quick read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Because I originally read this in high school English class, I always had the idea that this book was considered capital-L Literature, but I've since realized that it's actually rather trashy. It goes down smooth--quick and very easy to read.

    This rereading left me with the idea of The Scarlet Pimpernel as the Twilight of its time, only with an adventure/historical fiction theme instead of fantasy. Between the melodrama and angst, the sweeping mysteries and secrets, the excessive physical descriptions, the sometimes lolarious writing...I'm sorry to say that I caught a resemblance.

    That said, I really like The Scarlet Pimpernel. The late-night scene between Percy and Marguerite after the Lord Grenville's ball is a favorite. I have a hard time picturing Marguerite as a blue-eyed strawberry blonde, despite what Orczy has to say about it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was one of "the classics" that I chose to read in 2014. And I am glad that I did."The Scarlet Pimpernel" has history, action, romance, devotion, evil, and suspense all stirred together in a light-hearted romp through England and France during the time of the French Revolution.Can the famous Pimpernel be warned in time of his betrayal by one close to him? Or will the dastardly representative of the bloodthirsty French Republican government, Chauvelin, triumph, and bring his quarry to meet Madame Guillotine? Keep reading to find out...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was one of my most impulsive reads. This one wasn't in my TBR, in any of the lists I sometime follow (that I know of), was not part of any Book Club reads, real life ones or otherwise, nor was it a recommendation. Long story short, I got around to reading it and well, it was quite interesting for a grim subject - the French Revolution.This was my second book (after A Tale of Two Cities, but while The Tale of Two Cities went right into the heart of the matter, this one flirted and skirted around the issue, which is probably also the reason for it be the more cheerful of the two.There is mystique (even if quite predictable), drama, and a sense of anticipation in the entire book. The length was just right, any longer and it would have been a drag. So was the general tone, tenor and characters - the good guys were really good, the bad really evil and the good guys with bad deeds, repentant, which made for some easy, uncomplicated reading.While I am not really tempted as of now to read the sequels, for a standalone book, it worked out quite well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the better romance/adventures. The book is more Marguerite's story than the Scarlet Pimpernel's, unlike every stage and screen adaptation (so far as I'm aware). It leans towards melodrama at moments- to be expected of a book that follows the Tale of Two Cities version of the French Revolution, with numbers of executions happening daily in 1792 which weren't reached except for the worst parts of 1794- but the original duel identity hero who has influenced everything from Zorro to Batman holds his own in the test of time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sir Percy and Lady Blakeney are highly lauded in British society. He is the most foppish dandy about Town and she admired for her rapier sharp wit. Though in public he plays the fop, Sir Percy is actually a master of disguise who rescues French nobles from the forces of the French Revolution. When his identity is compromised, Lady Blakeney must find a way to warn him without compromising his mission. As one of the first novels written about a masked hero, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. Yes it is a classic (it was originally published in 1905) but it is entertaining and very readable. I would suggest it to readers who enjoy political intrigue and adventure.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The best book I've ever read!An interesting note: The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first Hero with an alter-ego, Sir Percy Blakeney, setting the standard of heroism up to which Zorro/Don Diego, Superman/mild-mannered Clark Kent, and Batman/Bruce Wayne must measure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fun book. I read because I was in the play and I was doing some background work, but ended up thoroughly enjoying the book anyway. A melodrama with sword fights, disguises and a female as the leading character. Though I do believe that Chauvelin is the only pure character in the book, he has a cause and is letting that guide him.

Book preview

The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

Introduction

Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865–1947) created several historically significant characters. Although her name is not well known to aficionados of detective, espionage, or adventure fiction, most devotees of mystery stories know the unnamed character referred to as the Old Man in the Corner, the ultimate armchair detective. He sits quietly in a London tea shop where Polly Burton, a young reporter, brings him the details of complex mysteries that he solves by using his giant intellect and deductive powers.

There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, he says, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation. He solves the most baffling crimes with ease as he nervously ties and unties complicated knots in a piece of string as he talks.

Born in Tarnaörs, Hungary, the future author was the only child of Baron Felix Orczy, a well-known composer and conductor, and his wife, Emma. She spoke no English until she was fifteen, although all her manuscripts are in that language. While enrolled at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London, she met her future husband, Montague Barstow. She went on to become a highly regarded artist, and several of her paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy.

After attempting unsuccessfully to get her novel about the Scarlet Pimpernel published, she and her husband transformed it into a play that became a popular success—even though the critics were not enthusiastic. Later works about the famous effete English patriot and spy, and other historical novels of love and swashbuckling adventure, enjoyed wide readership without critical acclaim.

In addition to the works about her two best-known characters, she produced several volumes recording the exploits of other interesting detectives. Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk heads the Female Department of Scotland Yard. After five years on the job, she finally proves the innocence of her husband, a convicted murderer in Dartmoor Prison. Her cases are collected in Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910). Monsieur Fernand, a secret agent during the days of Napoleon, is the hero of the title in The Man in Grey (1918), which consists of semihistorical narratives of intrigue and detection. Patrick Mulligan, whose unsavory nickname is used as the title of another collection, Skin o’ My Tooth (1928), is one of the first in a long line of unscrupulous lawyers who go to extreme lengths to solve mysteries and exonerate clients.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Sir Percy Blakeney, a foppish Englishman whose dual identity is known only to his devoted wife and to his archenemy, Chauvelin, serves as an espionage agent during the days of the French Revolution. He made his initial appearance in the romantic play The Scarlet Pimpernel on the London stage in January of 1905. The work was a collaborative effort by Baroness Orczy and Montague Barstow, her husband. Orczy published a novel with the same title in 1905. Many works of fiction featuring Sir Percy were published during the next several decades, including The Elusive Pimpernel (1908), Sir Percy Hits Back (1927), and The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1933). His success inspired this doggerel:

We seek him here; we seek him there!

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.

Is he in heaven? Is he in h-ll?

That demmed elusive Pimpernel?

The Scarlet Pimpernel takes his name from a wildflower that blossoms and dies in a single night.

Films

The first version of The Scarlet Pimpernel was released by Fox Films in 1917, but the most memorable Pimpernel appeared almost two decades later.

The Scarlet Pimpernel. United Artists (British), 1935. Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey. Directed by Harold Young. A courageous English baronet, seemingly a fop, masquerades as the Scarlet Pimpernel to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine during the revolution.

There have been countless unacknowledged uses of the basic Pimpernel character under other names. Of the official sequels, one is updated to contemporary settings.

The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel. United Artists (British), 1938. Barry K. Barnes, Sophie Stewart, James Mason. Directed by Hans Schwartz. Robespierre, annoyed that the Pimpernel has liberated so many aristocrats, lures him once more across the English Channel by kidnapping his wife.

Pimpernel Smith (US release title: Mister V). British National Films (British), 1941. Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Morris. Directed by Howard. Just before World War II, Professor Horatio Smith, a gentle British archaeologist touring with his students in Germany, secretly rescues intellectuals from concentration camps … until a Gestapo general uncovers his identity.

The Elusive Pimpernel. London Film Productions (British), 1950. David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film centers on the familiar Pimpernel exploits at the tumbrils. The same title and story were used for a British silent film in 1919, with Cecil Humphreys as Sir Percy.

Otto Penzler

CHAPTER I

PARIS: SEPTEMBER, 1792

A SURGING, SEETHING, MURMURING crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate. The hour, some little time before sunset, and the place, the West Barricade, at the very spot where, a decade later, a proud tyrant raised an undying monument to the nation’s glory and his own vanity.

During the greater part of the day the guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that France had boasted of in the past centuries, of ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity. The carnage had only ceased at this late hour of the day because there were other more interesting sights for the people to witness, a little while before the final closing of the barricades for the night.

And so the crowd rushed away from the Place de la Greve and made for the various barricades in order to watch this interesting and amusing sight.

It was to be seen every day, for those aristos were such fools! They were traitors to the people of course, all of them, men, women, and children, who happened to be descendants of the great men who since the Crusades had made the glory of France: her old noblesse. Their ancestors had oppressed the people, had crushed them under the scarlet heels of their dainty buckled shoes, and now the people had become the rulers of France and crushed their former masters—not beneath their heel, for they went shoeless mostly in these days—but a more effectual weight, the knife of the guillotine.

And daily, hourly, the hideous instrument of torture claimed its many victims—old men, young women, tiny children until the day when it would finally demand the head of a King and of a beautiful young Queen.

But this was as it should be: were not the people now the rulers of France? Every aristocrat was a traitor, as his ancestors had been before him: for two hundred years now the people had sweated, and toiled, and starved, to keep a lustful court in lavish extravagance; now the descendants of those who had helped to make those courts brilliant had to hide for their lives—to fly, if they wished to avoid the tardy vengeance of the people.

And they did try to hide, and tried to fly: that was just the fun of the whole thing. Every afternoon before the gates closed and the market carts went out in procession by the various barricades, some fool of an aristo endeavoured to evade the clutches of the Committee of Public Safety. In various disguises, under various pretexts, they tried to slip through the barriers, which were so well guarded by citizen soldiers of the Republic. Men in women’s clothes, women in male attire, children disguised in beggars’ rags: there were some of all sorts: ci-devant counts, marquises, even dukes, who wanted to fly from France, reach England or some other equally accursed country, and there try to rouse foreign feelings against the glorious Revolution, or to raise an army in order to liberate the wretched prisoners in the Temple, who had once called themselves sovereigns of France.

But they were nearly always caught at the barricades, Sergeant Bibot especially at the West Gate had a wonderful nose for scenting an aristo in the most perfect disguise. Then, of course, the fun began. Bibot would look at his prey as a cat looks upon the mouse, play with him, sometimes for quite a quarter of an hour, pretend to be hoodwinked by the disguise, by the wigs and other bits of theatrical make-up which hid the identity of a ci-devant noble marquise or count.

Oh! Bibot had a keen sense of humour, and it was well worth hanging round that West Barricade, in order to see him catch an aristo in the very act of trying to flee from the vengeance of the people.

Sometimes Bibot would let his prey actually out by the gates, allowing him to think for the space of two minutes at least that he really had escaped out of Paris, and might even manage to reach the coast of England in safety, but Bibot would let the unfortunate wretch walk about ten metres towards the open country, then he would send two men after him and bring him back, stripped of his disguise.

Oh! that was extremely funny, for as often as not the fugitive would prove to be a woman, some proud marchioness, who looked terribly comical when she found herself in Bibot’s clutches after all, and knew that a summary trial would await her the next day and after that, the fond embrace of Madame la Guillotine.

No wonder that on this fine afternoon in September the crowd round Bibot’s gate was eager and excited. The lust of blood grows with its satisfaction, there is no satiety: the crowd had seen a hundred noble heads fall beneath the guillotine to-day, it wanted to make sure that it would see another hundred fall on the morrow.

Bibot was sitting on an overturned and empty cask close by the gate of the barricade; a small detachment of citoyen soldiers was under his command. The work had been very hot lately. Those cursed aristos were becoming terrified and tried their hardest to slip out of Paris: men, women and children, whose ancestors, even in remote ages, had served those traitorous Bourbons, were all traitors themselves and right food for the guillotine. Every day Bibot had had the satisfaction of unmasking some fugitive royalists and sending them back to be tried by the Committee of Public Safety, presided over by that good patriot, Citoyen Foucquier-Tinville.

Robespierre and Danton both had commended Bibot for his zeal and Bibot was proud of the fact that he on his own initiative had sent at least fifty aristos to the guillotine.

But to-day all the sergeants in command at the various barricades had had special orders. Recently a very great number of aristos had succeeded in escaping out of France and in reaching England safely. There were curious rumours about these escapes; they had become very frequent and singularly daring; the people’s minds were becoming strangely excited about it all. Sergeant Grospierre had been sent to the guillotine for allowing a whole family of aristos to slip out of the North Gate under his very nose.

It was asserted that these escapes were organised by a band of Englishmen, whose daring seemed to be unparalleled, and who, from sheer desire to meddle in what did not concern them, spent their spare time in snatching away lawful victims destined for Madame la Guillotine. These rumours soon grew in extravagance; there was no doubt that this band of meddlesome Englishmen did exist; moreover, they seemed to be under the leadership of a man whose pluck and audacity were almost fabulous. Strange stories were afloat of how he and those aristos whom he rescued became suddenly invisible as they reached the barricades and escaped out of the gates by sheer supernatural agency.

No one had seen these mysterious Englishmen; as for their leader, he was never spoken of, save with a superstitious shudder. Citoyen Foucquier-Tinville would in the course of the day receive a scrap of paper from some mysterious source; sometimes he would find it in the pocket of his coat, at others it would be handed to him by someone in the crowd, whilst he was on his way to the sitting of the Committee of Public Safety. The paper always contained a brief notice that the band of meddlesome Englishmen were at work, and it was always signed with a device drawn in red—a little star-shaped flower, which we in England call the Scarlet Pimpernel. Within a few hours of the receipt of this impudent notice, the citoyens of the Committee of Public Safety would hear that so many royalists and aristocrats had succeeded in reaching the coast, and were on their way to England and safety.

The guards at the gates had been doubled, the sergeants in command had been threatened with death, whilst liberal rewards were offered for the capture of these daring and impudent Englishmen. There was a sum of five thousand francs promised to the man who laid hands on the mysterious and elusive Scarlet Pimpernel.

Everyone felt that Bibot would be that man, and Bibot allowed that belief to take firm root in everybody’s mind; and so, day after day, people came to watch him at the West Gate, so as to be present when he laid hands on any fugitive aristo who perhaps might be accompanied by that mysterious Englishman.

Bah! he said to his trusted corporal, Citoyen Grospierre was a fool! Had it been me now, at that North Gate last week…

Citoyen Bibot spat on the ground to express his contempt for his comrade’s stupidity.

How did it happen, citoyen? asked the corporal.

Grospierre was at the gate, keeping good watch, began Bibot, pompously, as the crowd closed in round him, listening eagerly to his narrative. "We’ve all heard of this meddlesome Englishman, this accursed Scarlet Pimpernel. He won’t get through my gate, morbleu! unless he be the devil himself. But Grospierre was a fool. The market carts were going through the gates; there was one laden with casks, and driven by an old man, with a boy beside him. Grospierre was a bit drunk, but he thought himself very clever; he looked into the casks—most of them, at least—and saw they were empty, and let the cart go through."

A murmur of wrath and contempt went round the group of ill-clad wretches, who crowded round Citoyen Bibot.

Half an hour later, continued the sergeant, "up comes a captain of the guard with a squad of some dozen soldiers with him. ‘Has a cart gone through?’ he asks of Grospierre, breathlessly. ‘Yes,’ says Grospierre, ‘not half an hour ago.’ ‘And you have let them escape,’ shouts the captain furiously. ‘You’ll go to the guillotine for this, citoyen sergeant! that cart held concealed the ci-devant Duc de Chalis and all his family!’ ‘What!’ thunders Grospierre, aghast. ‘Aye! and the driver was none other than that cursed Englishman, the Scarlet Pimpernel.’"

A howl of execration greeted this tale. Citoyen Grospierre had paid for his blunder on the guillotine, but what a fool! oh! what a fool!

Bibot was laughing so much at his own tale that it was some time before he could continue.

‘After them, my men,’ shouts the captain, he said after a while, ‘remember the reward; after them, they cannot have gone far!’ And with that he rushes through the gate followed by his dozen soldiers.

But it was too late! shouted the crowd, excitedly.

They never got them!

Curse that Grospierre for his folly!

He deserved his fate!

Fancy not examining those casks properly!

But these sallies seemed to amuse Citoyen Bibot exceedingly; he laughed until his sides ached, and the tears streamed down his cheeks.

Nay, nay! he said at last, those aristos weren’t in the cart; the driver was not the Scarlet Pimpernel!

What?

No! The captain of the guard was that damned Englishman in disguise, and everyone of his soldiers aristos!

The crowd this time said nothing: the story certainly savoured of the supernatural, and though the Republic had abolished God, it had not quite succeeded in killing the fear of the supernatural in the hearts of the people. Truly that Englishman must be the devil himself.

The sun was sinking low down in the west. Bibot prepared himself to close the gates.

"En avant the carts," he said.

Some dozen covered carts were drawn up in a row, ready to leave town, in order to fetch the produce from the country close by, for market the next morning. They were mostly well known to Bibot, as they went through his gate twice every day on their way to and from the town. He spoke to one or two of their drivers—mostly women—and was at great pains to examine the inside of the carts.

You never know, he would say, and I’m not going to be caught like that fool Grospierre.

The women who drove the carts usually spent their day on the Place de la Greve, beneath the platform of the guillotine, knitting and gossiping, whilst they watched the rows of tumbrils arriving with the victims the Reign of Terror claimed every day. It was great fun to see the aristos arriving for the reception of Madame la Guillotine, and the places close by the platform were very much sought after. Bibot, during the day, had been on duty on the Place. He recognized most of the old hats, tricotteuses, as they were called, who sat there and knitted, whilst head after head fell beneath the knife, and they themselves got quite bespattered with the blood of those cursed aristos.

He! la mere! said Bibot to one of these horrible hags, what have you got there?

He had seen her earlier in the day, with her knitting and the whip of her cart close beside her. Now she had fastened a row of curly locks to the whip handle, all colours, from gold to silver, fair to dark, and she stroked them with her huge, bony fingers as she laughed at Bibot.

I made friends with Madame Guillotine’s lover, she said with a coarse laugh, he cut these off for me from the heads as they rolled down. He has promised me some more to-morrow, but I don’t know if I shall be at my usual place.

Ah! how is that, la mere? asked Bibot, who, hardened soldier that he was, could not help shuddering at the awful loathsomeness of this semblance of a woman, with her ghastly trophy on the handle of her whip.

My grandson has got the small-pox, she said with a jerk of her thumb towards the inside of her cart, some say it’s the plague! If it is, I sha’n’t be allowed to come into Paris to-morrow. At the first mention of the word small-pox, Bibot had stepped hastily backwards, and when the old hag spoke of the plague, he retreated from her as fast as he could.

Curse you! he muttered, whilst the whole crowd hastily avoided the cart, leaving it standing all alone in the midst of the place.

The old hag laughed.

Curse you, citoyen, for being a coward, she said. Bah! what a man to be afraid of sickness.

"Morbleu! the plague!"

Everyone was awe-struck and silent, filled with horror for the loathsome malady, the one thing which still had the power to arouse terror and disgust in these savage, brutalised creatures.

Get out with you and with your plague-stricken brood! shouted Bibot, hoarsely.

And with another rough laugh and coarse jest, the old hag whipped up her lean nag and drove her cart out of the gate.

This incident had spoilt the afternoon. The people were terrified of these two horrible curses, the two maladies which nothing could cure, and which were the precursors of an awful and lonely death. They hung about the barricades, silent and sullen for a while, eyeing one another suspiciously, avoiding each other as if by instinct, lest the plague lurked already in their midst. Presently, as in the case of Grospierre, a captain of the guard appeared suddenly. But he was known to Bibot, and there was no fear of his turning out to be a sly Englishman in disguise.

A cart!… he shouted breathlessly, even before he had reached the gates.

What cart? asked Bibot, roughly.

Driven by an old hag.… A covered cart…

There were a dozen…

An old hag who said her son had the plague?

Yes…

You have not let them go?

"Morbleu!" said Bibot, whose purple cheeks had suddenly become white with fear.

"The cart contained the ci-devant Comtesse de Tourney and her two children, all of them traitors and condemned to death."

And their driver? muttered Bibot, as a superstitious shudder ran down his spine.

"Sacre tonnerre, said the captain, but it is feared that it was that accursed Englishman himself—the Scarlet Pimpernel."

CHAPTER II

DOVER: THE FISHERMAN’S REST

IN THE KITCHEN SALLY was extremely busy—saucepans and frying-pans were standing in rows on the gigantic hearth, the huge stock-pot stood in a corner, and the jack turned with slow deliberation, and presented alternately to the glow every side of a noble sirloin of beef. The two little kitchen-maids bustled around, eager to help, hot and panting, with cotton sleeves well tucked up above the dimpled elbows, and giggling over some private jokes of their own, whenever Miss Sally’s back was turned for a moment. And old Jemima, stolid in temper and solid in bulk, kept up a long and subdued grumble, while she stirred the stock-pot methodically over the fire.

What ho! Sally! came in cheerful if none too melodious accents from the coffee-room close by.

Lud bless my soul! exclaimed Sally, with a good-humoured laugh, what be they all wanting now, I wonder!

Beer, of course, grumbled Jemima, you don’t ’xpect Jimmy Pitkin to ’ave done with one tankard, do ye?

Mr. ’Arry, ’e looked uncommon thirsty too, simpered Martha, one of the little kitchen-maids; and her beady black eyes twinkled as they met those of her companion, whereupon both started on a round of short and suppressed giggles.

Sally looked cross for a moment, and thoughtfully rubbed her hands against her shapely hips; her palms were itching, evidently, to come in contact with Martha’s rosy cheeks—but inherent good-humour prevailed, and with a pout and a shrug of the shoulders, she turned her attention to the fried potatoes.

What ho, Sally! hey, Sally!

And a chorus of pewter mugs, tapped with impatient hands against the oak tables of the coffee-room, accompanied the shouts for mine host’s buxom daughter.

Sally! shouted a more persistent voice, are ye goin’ to be all night with that there beer?

I do think father might get the beer for them, muttered Sally, as Jemima, stolidly and without further comment, took a couple of foam-crowned jugs from the shelf, and began filling a number of pewter tankards with some of that home-brewed ale for which The Fisherman’s Rest had been famous since that days of King Charles. ’E knows ’ow busy we are in ’ere.

Your father is too busy discussing politics with Mr. ’Empseed to worry ’isself about you and the kitchen, grumbled Jemima under her breath.

Sally had gone to the small mirror which hung in a corner of the kitchen, and was hastily smoothing her hair and setting her frilled cap at its most becoming angle over her dark curls; then she took up the tankards by their handles, three in each strong, brown hand, and laughing, grumbling, blushing, carried them through into the coffee room.

There, there was certainly no sign of that bustle and activity which kept four women busy and hot in the glowing kitchen beyond.

The coffee-room of The Fisherman’s Rest is a show place now at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the end of the eighteenth, in the year of grace 1792, it had not yet gained the notoriety and importance which a hundred additional years and the craze of the age have since bestowed upon it. Yet it was an old place, even then, for the oak rafters and beams were already black with age—as were the panelled seats, with their tall backs, and the long polished tables between, on which innumerable pewter tankards had left fantastic patterns of many-sized rings. In the leaded window, high up, a row of pots of scarlet geraniums and blue larkspur gave the bright note of colour against the dull background of the oak.

That Mr. Jellyband, landlord of The Fisherman’s Rest at Dover, was a prosperous man, was of course clear to the most casual observer. The pewter on the fine old dressers, the brass above the gigantic hearth, shone like silver and gold—the red-tiled floor was as brilliant as the scarlet geranium on the window sill—this meant that his servants were good and plentiful, that the custom was constant, and of that order which necessitated the keeping up of the coffee-room to a high standard of elegance and order.

As Sally came in, laughing through her frowns, and displaying a row of dazzling white teeth, she was greeted with shouts and chorus of applause.

"Why, here’s Sally! What ho, Sally!

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