The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

I had obviously heard of this book but never felt any impetus to read it. The reason I picked up the book is that Jack Caldwell has written  a book where the worlds of Baroness Orczy and Jane Austen come together, with characters from ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ and ‘Northanger Abbey’ featuring in his new book, ‘The Last Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel’. I plan to read Jack’s book later this month so I wanted to have a fuller idea of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’, and I am so glad I did, as it was a really compelling read! I read the book partly as an audio book, and partly as a kindle read, and followed it up with watching the DVD of the 1982 adaptation of the book, so here are my thoughts on all three of those!

“We seek him here, we seek him there,

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.

Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?

That demmed, elusive Pimpernel”

The story is set in the 1790s, during the time of the French Revolution. Thousands of people who were part of the French nobility; men, women and children were killed at the guillotine. Some of these people were undoubtedly guilty of selfish and uncaring behaviour towards the welfare of their fellow countrymen but others were guilty only by virtue of their birth.

English views on the Revolution differ to the French; although the British parliament are refusing to intervene the general feeling is sympathetic towards the French aristocrats. There is even a group of English gentlemen who have banded together to try and save some of the aristocratic French families from being beheaded. After people are saved, a note is delivered to the French authorities, claiming responsibility of the escape. The notes are always marked with a small, red flower – a scarlet pimpernel. The French authorities are desperate to catch this cunning man. The story open with an example of one of his daring rescues.

Across the channel, in England, we meet a group of friends which includes Sir Percy Blakeney and his French wife, Marguerite. From the earliest part of their marriage these two have been somewhat estranged due to Marguerite’s betrayal of a family of aristocrats which led to their deaths. Though they spend time together, their interactions are only surface level with both of them playing a part so that the other doesn’t see their hurt.

‘The face in the moonlight looked singularly earnest, and recalled to Marguerite’s aching heart those happy days of courtship, before he had become the lazy nincompoop, the effete fop, whose life seemed spent in card and supper rooms.’

To save the life of her brother in France, Lady Blakeney is forced to take some steps that help uncover the Scarlet Pimpernel’s identity to the French authorities – but will this lead to the daring adventurer’s demise? And will the Blakeney’s marriage survive the betrayal of another person to end up on the guillotine?

This book was such a compelling read, it’s really exciting. The Scarlet Pimpernel’s plans are so ingenious and the tenuous relationship between Percy and Marguerite really plucked at the heartstrings. This was partly due to her unhappiness at the state of her marriage, particularly the distance between herself and her husband as her betrayal of the French family was accidental.

I would have rated this as a 4½, maybe even a 5 star read, but I’m putting it as a 4 star read, because although it’s a really exciting read and I scarcely wanted to put it down I found the writing style repetitive at times. Something would happen from which the reader could infer a character’s feelings – we are then told about how they feel multiple times, which got a little annoying.

I read a mix of the audio book, narrated by B J Harrison, and the kindle version. I thought this version of the audio was alright. The narrator has quite a drawl, and he has an American accent when doing the voices of English characters, particularly the gentlemen. However, the narrator did a variety of voices which I enjoyed, partly because it set the scene, and partly because it made it easy to tell who was talking at any one time. Chapter 10 had some continuity issues. As I said, I switched from the audio to kindle (not due to any dislike of the audio, but the story was very exciting, so I didn’t just want to wait until my next commute, I needed to know what was going to happen next!), so I can’t comment on the latter half of the audio as I didn’t listen to it.

If you want to buy the audio but don’t have an Audible subscription you can get the audio version cheaper if you buy the kindle book. Do this by buying the kindle version and ticking the box to add audible narration. The audio version is cheaper for lots of books if you already have the kindle version – this is even true for free kindle purchases!

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Having heard that the film adaptations of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ were good and knowing that it was initially a visual story (it was a play before it became a book) I decided to treat myself to the DVD. The version I got was the 1982 version starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, and with Ian McKellan as Chauvelin (the baddie). There are some changes made in the story, notably that the story in the DVD starts before the marriage of the Blakeneys and that Chauvelin and Marguerite have a prior romantic attachment, which doesn’t happen in the book. Also, the identities of some of the people saved by the Scarlet Pimpernel were changed and there were some changes made in the final part of the story, however, the spirit of the story was very much the same and the relationship arc between Sir Percy and Marguerite was also similar. It’s still rip-roaring fun and although some of the methods of the Scarlet Pimpernel’s rescues were different, they were just as ingenious as in the book. The identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel is not revealed at the beginning of the book, but in the DVD the viewer knows from the first. Anthony Andrew was excellent in his role, absolutely the star of the piece. I loved how his behaviour differed depending on his audience and the part he was playing. He had some wonderful lines too:

“My dear chap, I never would have dreamt of depriving you of your moment of triumph. Alas, a moment was all I could spare.”

Jane Seymour was wonderfully cast as Marguerite, although I was disappointed that the actors playing the French characters didn’t do accents as it meant you had to remember who was French and who was English. As for Sir Ian McKellan, I took to cursing him every time he appeared on screen so he must have been an effective villain!

I would certainly recommend this adaptation of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ to anybody who was interested in finding out the story. Obviously if you want the fullest picture the book is your best bet but this is excellent. I’d rate this as a 5 star watch.