So glad we did this book for book club! And thank you to the anonymous commentator who reminded me of it. I read this book as a kid and loooooooooooved it, and by golly it holds up! Not deep or anything, but super super fun!
Quick Plot Summary:
It’s all about the heroine Marguerite. She was raised middle-class in France by her beloved brother, is brilliant, became a famous actress and leading intellectual, and then surprised herself by falling in love with a dull but sincere wealthy British Lord Blakeney. On their wedding night, he confronted her with rumors that she had denounced and caused the death of an entire aristocratic family. She was too proud to offer excuses, he was too hurt to ever ask questions, so they moved to England publicly happily married but privately strangers. And then Marguerite is approached by an old acquaintance who now works for the French secret service and blackmails her with evidence against her brother to help him find out who is the secret hero Scarlet Pimpernel that is helping aristocrats escape France. Marguerite succeeds, only to realize too late that the Scarlet Pimpernel is HER OWN HUSBAND. She rushes from England to France to warn him, risking her own life. By proving her total loyalty and love, she wins back the trust of her husband and, after he successfully escapes capture again, they are reunited and more in love than ever.
If we set aside the “of it’s time” attitude towards class and ethnicity, that time being early 1900s England when the novel was written, then the biggest flaw I find is it isn’t actually that clever? We are told Scarlet Pimpernel is a genius of planning and blah blah blah, and also constantly told that Marguerite is the “Most intelligent woman in Europe”. And yet, the author isn’t quite able to come up with super SUPER brilliant twists.
I’ll let it go though because the story, although ultimately, simple is so original! The idea of a superhero hiding in plain sight behind the disguise of a wealthy simpleton, and a wife accidentally betraying her own husband, that is so good that it has been used again and again and again in fiction! And then as the topping to this whole delightful cake, you have the complexity of the Blakeney marriage/romance.
That is the part that has stuck with me since I first read this book as a child. The idea that Marguerite was in love with her husband because he was kind, honorable, trustworthy, and loved her deeply and passionately. And that was a side he ALSO kept hidden. So our hero is three people, the private lover who reveals his deepest feelings of honor and love and pride only to his wife, the fearless brilliant leader who is only known by his faithful group of followers, and the pleasant gentle fop only known by larger society. Orczy, the author, manages to show how none of these faces are “disguises”, really, they are just separate parts of the same person. Marguerite knows that her passionate lover and honorable husband truly doesn’t like to talk a lot at parties, would rather sit in the corner and be lazy and smile, and keeps his deepest feelings to himself. She loves both sides, the kind silly public person who makes life pleasant for all around him, and the very private person only she knows. His group of followers enjoy his kind and silly habits, while appreciating his enormous bravery and intelligence. And the rest of the world likes him because he is so harmless and sweet and inoffensive, which is truly his character as well.
That’s the thing that the best “two identity” stories manage to capture! It’s not “in disguise as….” one or the other, it’s just two sides to the same coin.
What I wish is that I was able to read this book when it first released, when Orczy first invented the whole plot design. I believe her intention was to make the reader think it was a story of the Blakeney’s marriage, them finding their way back to each other, and the Scarlet Pimpernel himself would just be a cameo at the end to bless their reunion. The reveal that Blakeney WAS the Scarlet Pimpernel would have been just as much a shock to the reader as it was to his wife. That’s kind of how the follow-up books are structured, they focus on small stories in the Scarlet Pimpernel universe with the Blakeney’s just sweeping in and out to start things happening.
Okay, discussion questions!
- What is up with the feet stuff? Her feet are all torn up at the end, he kisses her feet, and earlier he kisses her footsteps? Is it just a symbol of how much he honors her that even her feet are precious? Is it that she is so magical that her feet (which on other humans would be the dirtiest roughest part) are beautiful and delicate? Or is it a slightly weird thing that says more about the author than the characters?
- Did you buy the story of the romance? That Marguerite thought him dull and slow, but also understood his deep sense of honor and love for her and that is why she married him, without knowing he was secretly a genius?
- Did you want more backstory on why Lord Blakeney turned out like he did? I thought what we got was really interesting, this solitary childhood with a mad mother, and sort of explained why he was so deeply private and silent. But I wanted more!!! Was his mother actually crazy? If so, in what manner? How did his parents die? How old was he? Who actually raised him, servants or what? Where did he grow up?
- What later stories did this book MOST remind you of?
- Did you ultimately like Marguerite or find her irritating?
- Did you ultimately like Percy or just want to shake him and yell at him to TALK TO HIS WIFE?
