The Scarlet Pimpernel // Book Review

The Scarlet Pimpernel
By Baroness Orczy

The Scarlet Pimpernel takes place during the French Revolution, which lasted from 1789-99, and involved an overthrow of the monarchical regime by the peasant classes. As a result of this uprising, a Reign of Terror took hold, where aristocrats were condemned, imprisoned and sent to the guillotine. In Orczy's novel, a masked hero known as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues those aristocrats trying to flee the gates of Paris and takes them safely to England, where they enjoy diplomatic immunity from the terror of the masses. (Summery taken from here.)


Having watched a movie adaption nearly four years ago I was a little skeptical of this story, but excited to discover for myself whether Sir Percy really was such an idiotic dork that he was portrayed in the movie, whether Marguerite  was sweet and lovable, and whether this story really was exciting. When my dear friend gave me a copy of the book  as a birthday present, I was very, very happy, and super excited to read it. Honestly, I was expecting it to be wordy and a little hard to get through, and goodness gracious was I wrong! The Baroness Orczy has a lovely writing style, in my opinion, and her book was clever, fun, and so darn interesting! I felt that I really got to know the characters I was most interested in, and was able to loathe those who deserved loathing and adore those who were heroic and stole my heart. (I usually manage to fall head-over-heels in love with bad guys, but not with this story. The bad guys were disgusting! :) Percy was a dork, but such a lovable dork that it was quite all right with me. And Marguerite had her faults and made plenty of devastating mistakes, but her sweetness and remorse quite made up for it, and I felt she made a perfectly lovely heroine. She wasn't too perfect or two horrible, and those are two great mistakes that many writers make.  I shall be recommending The Scarlet Pimpernel to everyone I talk books with, and anyone who will listen, and forcing my brothers (when they are a little older,) to read it. :) It was beautifully written and exceptionally wonderful. go read it. seriously!! 

My rating:* * * * * * * * * {nine of ten}  

P.s. It recently came to my realization that I have never rated a book under a six. my reason for this is that I read classic books by the master writers almost exclusively, (aside from the occasional Janette Oke or other modern author,) and thus my high ratings. The books I review are amazing and beautifully written. So I'm not just an enthusiastic reader who thinks every book is wonderful and deserving of a high amount of stars. :) whew. glad to get that off my chest! :)