Baroness Emmuska Orczy - "The Scarlet Pimpernel"

     If you're in the market for a good historical fiction, filled with lords and ladies, crafty disguises, sneaky spies, dire situations, and ingenious escapes, then I recommend you check out this much beloved classic!  This tale has been retold in various movies, and stage productions, but in my humble opinion, the book is always better ;) 

     Our tale opens in 1792, "the year of grace" with a captain in the army of the republic bragging about how none of the sneaky members of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel have gotten any royal refugees past his barricade because of his keen eyes!  Shortly after, a loathsome, haggard old woman takes her vegetable cart through that very same barricade to visit her grandson with smallpox.  Lo and behold, that very same "woman" was in actuality the man, the myth, the legendary Scarlet Pimpernel himself! 

     According to Baroness Orczy, during the French Revolution, there was a band of English spies who risked life and limb to smuggle those who were headed to Mme. Guillotine out of the country to their neighboring refuge, England.  This group consisted of about 20 young, gallant, and even wealthy English gentlemen who were lead by one resourceful and daring genius who called himself The Scarlet Pimpernel (named after a small red English flower).   

The Scarlet Pimpernel

     Some of the main characters are Sir Percy Blankney, Marguerite (his wife), Armand St. Just (her brother), Chauvelin (a malicious French spy), Andrew Ffoulkes, and a hoard of other minor characters.   Marguerite is a young French woman who is hailed as the wittiest woman in Europe, and everyone is surprised when she marries Sir Percy as he is said to be somewhat dimwitted and foppish (a lovely English term used to describe vain man who is mostly concerned about their appearance and dress).  With Sir Percy's vast fortune and lovely wife, he is touted as one of the luckiest men around, as well as one of the most popular and fashionable as he is always impeccably dressed for every occasion.  Marguerite and Percy have been married about a year at this point in the story and their love has grown cold, she feels trapped in a marriage that began wonderfully, but due to an earlier indiscretion on her part, they grew apart.  She tries throughout the story to re-ignite that love.

     One of the biggest plot lines that comprises this story is that of the rescue of The Comte de Tournay.  At the beginning of the story, Sir Andrew delivers The Comtesse de Tournay and her two children to the Fisherman's Rest, a little inn near the coast of Dover, England.  As this plot is unfolding, Chauvelin makes his way to England in an attempt to solicit information regarding The Scarlet Pimpernel so that the next time our hero sets foot upon French soil, he can be arrested and escorted to the Guillotine.  As fate would have it, Chauvelin discovers information about Armand St. Just and uses it as leverage against Marguerite.  He offers her a deal: She finds out what she can about The Scarlet Pimpernel and his identity, and Chauvelin will personally see to it that Armand gets out of France safely.

     What happens????? You'll just have to read it to find out!  This is certainly an action packed story that boasts some pretty tense moments throughout.  There is a fair amount of mystery and suspense within these pages as well.  I do have to say, that it took a chapter or two to really grab my attention, but from that point on, it was a page-turner, through and through!!!!