The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
I picked this book because 1. The authors name (awesome). 2. The title (pimpernel is a funny word, I thought it was The Scarlet Pumpernickel the first time I saw the title). 3. It’s free on the Kindle. 4. It fits into some categories for my reading group (score). Prior to reading this book, I had no idea it’s influence (Zorro, the Lone Ranger, etc.) or that it had been turned into a number of films, tv shows, or a musical. Pretty much because I had never heard of it. So the plot was really obvious to me and the secret identity of the mystery hero was blatantly evident. I thought it was quite funny that the heroine of the story is referred to as “the cleverest woman in Europe” (or something along those lines) and believes this of herself as well, when she is not. It’s very Lois and Clark, which I have always found perplexing yet endearing. The dialect was sometimes difficult to grasp and I had to look up a number of words and/or phrases that are no longer in use. That’s ok though because I find that entertaining and educational. I like it when authors write speech in dialect form, because it is always fun to read aloud to yourself. It’s a charming story but predictable, not the fault of the author of course, but of a result of time (there are so many masked crusaders these days). Also, the villan literally rubs his hands together in a devious manner and all I could imagine was General Grievous. On the serious side it is a story of bravery and heroism on the part of the characters that risk their lives to rescue people from The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the book, but I did enjoy it for what it is.
