The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

"They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? Is he in hell, that demmed illusive pimpernel?" This silly verse sums up the plot of The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy, pretty well. Our hero, Percy Blakeney, well known as a fashionable but feather-headed fop, leads a double life. In public he is more concerned about the cut of his coat than about current events like the French Revolution. In secret, he is the daring Scarlet Pimpernel, the dashing hero who uses guile and disguise to rescue French aristocrats doomed to the guillotine and magic them to safety in England. Parallel to this adventure story is a romance. Percy has fallen in love with a French plebian and weds her. But he does not trust her and persists in playing the fool in her presence.

The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguise.

          Much confusion in identity and motivation occur. Lady Blakeney is blackmailed and bullied by the atrocious representative of the Revolution, Chauvelin. I loved this book's fast pace. One confusion is heaped upon another. Each solution seems to bring its own problems. Will true love win out? Will the Scarlet Pimpernel be exposed? Who will betray whom? My attention was captured and held even though I have seen two or three movie versions of this story and read the book several years ago.
          The Scarlet Pimpernel seems to lay the template for a sub-genre of romance called the Regency novel, which is traditionally set between 1800 and 1820 and plays off the conventions of Jane Austen's books. The romances take place against the backdrop of the lives of the upper class--the bon ton. Balls, banquets, horse-action, spying. Extreme propriety of manners. See the bulleted list in the Wikipedia entry for Regency romance for a more complete list of typical features: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regency_romance. The article does not mention Baroness Orczy as an early Regency writer, and this book is set in 1792--a bit early for the Regency period. I think a good case could be made, however, for including her in the genesis of the genre.

Anthony Andrews as
the Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)

          The Scarlet Pimpernel was originally a play, and I think the wonderful pacing of the book can be attributed to its need to leap over narrative and get right to the action. The chapters are self-contained and all of them are 8-10 pages long. The publishers delightfully started every chapter on a right-hand (recto) page; there was often an empty page on the left. I like these little pauses. They reminded me of scene changes in a play.

Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes) as
the Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

          Maybe its status as a play explains why this book translates so well to the screen--big and small. My favorite Percy Blakeney is played by Anthony Andrews in a 1982 television production of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Andrews was wonderful--he maintained an intensity behind the foppishness. And he looks like the character as he is described in the book--fair haired and just too beautiful. And Andrews plays the fop part to the maximum--he is very funny and annoying. In the book, however, Percy is a big man--tall and muscular; Anthony Andrews, as witnessed in the famous bare-ass scene in the BBC production of Brideshead Revisited, is small-framed (and small butted). Andrews works with his stature, making Blakeney as light and airy as his bubble-brained persona. The other famous Pimpernel is Leslie Howard (1934), who is a bit severe and pointy-chinned for my taste.
          Both movies feature excellent casts. Jane Seymour plays the beautiful but possibly deceitful Marguerite St. Just in the 1982 production--a role that seemed written just for her (and her hair!). The evil (and a bit stupid) Chauvelin is played by Ian McKellan, of all people, and he is marvelous. You wouldn't see Gandalf in his future from this production. In the 1934 production, Marguerite is delectably played by Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey plays Chauvelin.
          My reading of this book was greatly enhanced by the large amount of 19th century literature I have read from my children's literature list. Austen, Dickens, Dumas. Even Twain! Each of them brought me new understanding and historical perspective on the period during and immediately after the French Revolution. My general knowledge of history and literature has continued to grow, which is a nice thing. I brought a lot more to the book this time than when I read it in my early twenties.
          I recommend this book for a bit of fun. Not all reading has to be serious, socially relevant, or challenging. And go ahead, Netflix the 1934 and 1982 movies. You won't regret it.


Sidebar: The Scarlet Pimpernel (flower)

Percy Blakeney uses a common flower, the scarlet pimpernel, as his emblem. This flower (scientific name Anagallis arvensis) grows freely in England and the United States, with many stems falling across the ground bearing brown-red flowers in loose clusters. Whenever the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues an aristocrat from the guillotine, he manages to slip a piece of paper in Chauvelin's pocket that bears an imprint of the flower. In the 1982 movie, the scene during which one character discovers the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel is filled with images of the flower. It's nicely done.


Sidebar: Anthony Andrews

Jeremy Irons (left) and Anthony Andrews (right)
in the BBC production of Brideshead Revisited

Anthony Andrews is most famous for playing yet another featherweight aristocratic character--Lord Sebastian Flyte in the BBC production of Brideshead Revisited (1981). Although on the surface the characters have much in common, they are distinct in that Sebastian is based on a total absence of confidence and Sir Percy is based on a total presence of confidence. One thing is certain, however: Anthony Andrews looks great in his clothing. Sebastian and Percy are both lavishly costumed and housed. Extravagance is theirs to command. The paths they take with it are an interesting comparison. Percy Blakeney, certainly, uses his wealth and position to rescue people from certain (and for the most part undeserved) beheading. In the end, Sebastian, too, turns to service as a source of meaning, taking care of his lover like a house servant instead of a lord. Thanks, Anthony Andrews, for being magnificent in both of these roles.(And, no, I could not find a still of the naked-behinds scene that shocked us so in 1981.)