It’s all our favorite things! And it’s sort of appropriate for Halloween weekend? Because it’s about disguises and stuff.
Scarlett Pimpernel
It was first published in 1905, which means it’s available for free in electronic version and for very cheap in physical copies. Plus there are 118 years worth of used copies floating around.
It was written by Baroness Orczy, from an Astro-Hungarian family of impoverished noble people. She spent her childhood moving between European cities after they lost their estate, then landed in London where she went to art school and met and fell in love with a painter son of a clergyman. They were very happily married, he worked as an illustrator, she worked as a translator and occasional author, and then they hit it big with a play they wrote together “The Scarlett Pimpernel”, which Orczy then turned into this novel.
So her family was aristocratic, but her life was working hard and living sparingly (until middle-age when this book became a hit). It all leads to a very interesting take on the French Revolution. She is sympathetic to the aristocrats and their whole sensitivity naturally superior thing. But also understands what it means to work and struggle and feel like you aren’t getting anywhere.
From the romantic side, Orczy invented the whole “Secret Identity as a foppish dilettante” concept for a super hero. But she also managed to craft it so that we can believe her heroine TRULY fell in love with both the foppish version and the superhero, the relationship weaves in and out in a very believable way.
Oh, and the heroine is good too! She’s an actress who married rich, very beautiful and elegant and so on, but with a past of working for a living and succeeding on her wits.
The MOST important thing I want to discuss is the last few chapters when Orczy goes on and on and ON about our heroine’s feet in a way I always found odd, but maybe you will not? Maybe it’s just me?
Sunday October 28th, I will put up a post for us all to share opinions! Hopefully that gives y’all enough time to get a copy and read it.
