It's hard for me to describe how much I love this book. It's one of the few 300+ page books I've read in one sitting. The characters and the plot are so enthralling I just can't put it down...even after having read it so many times I've lost count!
I told my sister I wanted to do a blog post on The Scarlet Pimpernel, and she said, "Wait...the book or the movie?" Apparently there are a lot of blog posts out there talking about how great the movie with Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, and Ian McKellen is, but very few talking about how great the book is. So I decided to do a post about the book. I do like the movie, and maybe sometime I'll do a blog post on that, but the book comes prior.
Where do I start? I guess I'll start with the characters.
Warning: This post does contain spoilers. If you haven't read the book, go read it. Then you can come back and read this. ;)
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a hero shrouded in mystery. He has one goal: helping French royalists in danger of death to escape to England during the French Revolution. He carries out his daring rescues in disguise; no one knows who he really is except his nineteen followers. He's kind of the antithesis of the Phantom of the Opera. (I can't stand the Phantom, but I'm not going to discuss that at length here.) The Phantom is a mysterious figure who does awful things; the Scarlet Pimpernel is a mysterious figure who does great things. The English and the French royalists love him; the French revolutionaries hate him.
As the story goes on, the reader begins to get hints about the Scarlet Pimpernel's identity. Finally, Lady Marguerite Blakeney discovers the truth. The mysterious man is the most unlikely man possible--Marguerite's husband, Sir Percy Blakeney, a man known in English society as a brainless dandy, or to put it bluntly, a fool. Sir Percy's identity as the Scarlet Pimpernel is so important that he puts on the mask of a fool in his everyday life. And I think that's one of the coolest things about him.
I don't know if Baroness Orczy was thinking of Shakespeare plays when she wrote the character of the Scarlet Pimpernel, but Sir Percy always makes me think of the Shakespearean fool. Shakespeare's Fool is often the only character in the play who understands what's really going on. The other characters think he's stupid, but he's actually wiser than they are. Similarly, Sir Percy poses as someone who only cares about clothes and lame jokes. This is the safest disguise of all, because who would suspect someone who seems so foolish to be the mastermind behind the escape of hundreds of French royalists?
Sir Percy is also a man deeply in love. He practically worships the ground Marguerite walks on. But because at the beginning of the story he can't trust her with his secret, he has to appear to her the way he appears to everyone else. She thinks he's stupid and doesn't love her. Wearing the mask of the fool even around Marguerite is breaking Sir Percy's heart. It's so satisfying when Marguerite learns who Sir Percy really is, and still more satisfying when he learns he no longer has to conceal his identity or his love from her.
Sir Percy is awesome. He has enough bravery to walk right up to his worst enemy, clap him on the back, and tell him dumb jokes, all the while coming up with a new plan for outwitting him. He risks his life again and again for the sake of the people depending on him. And his schemes are at the same time incredibly clever and outrageously audacious. He's basically the superhero of the resistance to the French Revolution. I only wish he was real!
Marguerite Blakeney
I didn't like Marguerite Blakeney at the beginning of the book. I think that was the writer's intent. Marguerite is portrayed as a woman who is blasé, sarcastic, and disappointed in life. She has married Sir Percy Blakeney, a man violently in love with her, only to find his affection grow cold when he learned she was the cause of a French royalist family being sent to the guillotine. She's too proud to tell Sir Percy that she made a horrible mistake and tried to save the family from death. Although she's married to the richest man in England and has everything money can buy, Marguerite is miserable. There's only one thing in her life that she really cares about: her brother Armand.
So when she learns that Armand is in deadly danger and the only way she can save him is by betraying the Scarlet Pimpernel to the French revolutionaries, she is torn. Although she has no idea who the Scarlet Pimpernel is, she has always admired him with something akin to hero-worship. How can she send him to the guillotine? On the other hand, how can she let Armand die without trying to save him? Her love for her brother overcomes her sense of right and wrong. She finds a clue that puts Chauvelin, the Scarlet Pimpernel's arch-nemesis, on his track.
But then she finds a gold ring with the insignia of the Scarlet Pimpernel in her husband's study. All kinds of clues come together in her mind and she realizes that her husband, the "brainless" Sir Percy, is actually the Scarlet Pimpernel! Never before has Marguerite regretted anything so much as she regrets having put Chauvelin on the Scarlet Pimpernel's track. So she races across country with a friend of her husband's, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, to try to get to Sir Percy and warn him before Chauvelin finds him. She must save her husband, even if it means losing her own life.
Although Sir Percy is the hero of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite is its protagonist. Sir Percy doesn't change throughout the story. Marguerite does. She has to learn truths about love and sacrifice. She has to completely change her perception of the husband she thought she knew.
Marguerite learns that love does not excuse betrayal. The love for her brother Armand that led her to denounce a family of French royalists and betray the Scarlet Pimpernel was warped and selfish. It has caused terrible harm to others. Marguerite doesn't see this, though, until she learns that her own husband is in danger because of her love for her brother. Then she sees that love doesn't make the end justify the means. Betraying the Scarlet Pimpernel to save her brother was a crime that Marguerite spends the rest of the book trying to mend. And she does this through offering her very life for Sir Percy's safety. Marguerite may be a character that starts out with a lot of selfishness, but she ends up as a woman of love and courage.
Chauvelin
Chauvelin is the perfect arch-nemesis for this story. Clever, daring, and apparently heartless, he's the man the French revolutionaries have picked to hunt down the Scarlet Pimpernel. All Chauvelin cares about is the success of the Revolution. And he has an undying hatred for the man who has so boldly outwitted the Committee of Public Safety again and again. He comes to England determined to find out who the Scarlet Pimpernel really is so he can follow him to France and capture him.
Chauvelin decides to recruit one woman to help him in his task: Marguerite Blakeney. He knew her in France when she and her brothers were both supporters of the French Revolution. He thinks he can get her to help him, with the proper persuasion. Quickly Chauvelin finds a way to persuade Marguerite: he gets possession of a letter that proves Marguerite's brother Armand is really in league with the Scarlet Pimpernel. He tells Marguerite that unless she helps him find out who the Scarlet Pimpernel is, her brother is going to die. Heartless, clever man! He treats life like a chess game. He'll give Marguerite a pawn, her brother, if it means he'll be able to take the king, the Scarlet Pimpernel.
I think Chauvelin is a well-done villain because he keeps the stakes of the story high. Nothing will deter him from following his goal of capturing, torturing, and killing the man who has evaded him for so long. He's also a well-done villain because he has a good understanding of human nature. He uses Marguerite's emotions as tools in his despicable scheme. But the Scarlet Pimpernel understands human nature better yet, as he eventually tricks Chauvelin through his understanding of Chauvelin's anti-Semitism. Chauvelin never saw that one coming!
There are many other terrific characters in The Scarlet Pimpernel. There are characters that almost feel like Dickens characters: Mr. Jellyband, Mr. Hempseed, and Mr. Jellyband's daughter Sally. There's sweet little Suzanne, friend of Marguerite. There's Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, the member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel who takes Marguerite to France to try to save her husband. Baroness Orczy did a great job developing the other characters in a way that doesn't distract the reader from the main story.
Apart from the characters of The Scarlet Pimpernel, the plot is just so good! I love the way the reader doesn't learn who the Scarlet Pimpernel is until Marguerite figures it out. The reader also doesn't learn how the Scarlet Pimpernel is going to defeat Chauvelin until after he's defeated him. This makes the book wonderfully suspenseful. The ending, with Sir Percy and Marguerite finally together again, is wonderful too. I just love this book!
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