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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Lovely light adventure from cruesome times of French revolution.
Historical facts are correct, and its pleasure to read this !
Historical facts are correct, and its pleasure to read this !
Okay, so I feel like I Will Repay and Sir Percy Leads the Band are not the best examples of how this series is. I was not a fan of those two books, and so I gave up on the series for a while. But this book. I loved it!
We finally got back to Marguerite and Percy! I've missed their dynamic so much! And Chauvelin. Well played, monsieur, but not quite perfect! You should've known you couldn't win!
We finally got back to Marguerite and Percy! I've missed their dynamic so much! And Chauvelin. Well played, monsieur, but not quite perfect! You should've known you couldn't win!
The first half of this book can be summed up into two names: The Lover and the Adventuer. Those are the two sides of Sir Percy Blackney, and the book goes on about it! and on and on...
Like most Pimpernel books, the actual keep-reading adventure doesn't pick up till 70% of the way through, and there are many long, prosaic parts, but still! It is the Scarlet Pimpernel. For that I love it.
Sir Percy is the best of heroes, his wife (I was so happy Marguarite was back!) a jewel among wives.
I found the climax a trifle easy (boom, boom, that's it?) and waited for a few things to pan out that never did. Still, didn't matter to much. Lovely stuff xD
Like most Pimpernel books, the actual keep-reading adventure doesn't pick up till 70% of the way through, and there are many long, prosaic parts, but still! It is the Scarlet Pimpernel. For that I love it.
Sir Percy is the best of heroes, his wife (I was so happy Marguarite was back!) a jewel among wives.
I found the climax a trifle easy (boom, boom, that's it?) and waited for a few things to pan out that never did. Still, didn't matter to much. Lovely stuff xD
Forgive my fickle heart Mr. Darcy, but I find that it wishes for the adoration of a Sir Percy instead of thee (Zounds! But he is so much more fun!)
So melodramatic, some scenes belong tucked away in an online fanfiction and certainly not in a book considered a borderline classic. Orczy also feels the need to constantly remind us how unequivocally intelligent Marguerite is, even calling her "the most clever woman in France." But much to the proof of the contrary, she constantly make idiotic decisions that place her intelligence just about around that of a fifteen year old. She's also one of the most obnoxious Mary Sues whose self-sacrificing, full-of-pity, sympathizing-for-her-enemies thoughts I've had the misfortune of perusing in a very long time. The exposition, too, is do slow it's page 80 before we get into ANY kind of action. This is in a 260 page book. Description is good but she WAAAYY overdoes it to the point that you want to tear your hair out if you don't skim. I literally got to the point where I was reading hardly anything but dialogue. I'm more than mildly concerned that this is considered classical material.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
I really enjoyed this book! For once we have a hero of a tale that uses his head instead of any other special talents. I love how smart the Scarlet Pimpernel is, and I love the banter between him and his enemies. I would say I liked it just as well as the first which for me is kind of rare. With the first in a series you get to discover it for the first time once and I feel sometimes something just isn't as magical in a follow up. Emmuska Orczy did a great job! I am somewhat surprised I like these books as well as I do considering they are older and generally speaking a lot of times it's hard for me to get through older books such as this. The endings of the two books I've read have both been hard to predict which is a good quality.
I say read it!
I say read it!
Well, I'm officially done with the Scarlet Pimpernel series, at least for now. I need a break. After reading the first 7 books in my collected volume, I am getting tired and bored with them, and the flaws are starting to get too jarring for me to enjoy them at all.
The characterisation is just so shallow: Percy with his two facets (the inoffensive, lazy high society dandy with an "inane laugh" and "lazy blue eyes"/the adventure mad, giant of a hero, who borders on the supernatural), Chauvelin the evil weasel, and all the power-mad revolutionaries, who are rarely more than brutes and self-serving idiots. Not to mention Marguerite, who is supposed to be the smartest woman in Europe and who instead walks into every trap, and is in despair for most of the books in which she features, waiting for Percy to sort out the mess she's caused but not doing anything useful to fix it.
It is clear that Orczy attempted to make the plot a little different from the rescue missions in the previous books in the series (the duel set-up gave me hope, and the hostage situation was new, if extremely obvious and irritating). In spite of that, she fell back into her comfort zone (a trap laid for the Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite being a gullible idiot, Chauvelin being too cocky and making preventable mistakes, the league using disguises and a crowd to get away...).
Usually the pacing and action make up for some of these flaws, but here the middle section really dragged and I just couldn't wait for it to be over.
The characterisation is just so shallow: Percy with his two facets (the inoffensive, lazy high society dandy with an "inane laugh" and "lazy blue eyes"/the adventure mad, giant of a hero, who borders on the supernatural), Chauvelin the evil weasel, and all the power-mad revolutionaries, who are rarely more than brutes and self-serving idiots. Not to mention Marguerite, who is supposed to be the smartest woman in Europe and who instead walks into every trap, and is in despair for most of the books in which she features, waiting for Percy to sort out the mess she's caused but not doing anything useful to fix it.
It is clear that Orczy attempted to make the plot a little different from the rescue missions in the previous books in the series (the duel set-up gave me hope, and the hostage situation was new, if extremely obvious and irritating). In spite of that, she fell back into her comfort zone (a trap laid for the Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite being a gullible idiot, Chauvelin being too cocky and making preventable mistakes, the league using disguises and a crowd to get away...).
Usually the pacing and action make up for some of these flaws, but here the middle section really dragged and I just couldn't wait for it to be over.
So far, next best to The Scarlet Pimpernel. A leetle mushy in parts, but there are some great and hilarious Sir Percy vs. Chauvelin scenes.
The more of these novels I read, the more I am able to look past, and generally skim through, the heavier bits of prose which plod along and don't much further the plot. However, the more I read, the more I also become inescapably enraptured with the characters. I fume whenever Chauvelin plots the destruction of the League, or does not see his malice as such. I facepalm when Marguerite acts in haste, not placing faith in her husband's keen mind, or rushing in to a situation out of blind love. I swoon when Percy appears seemingly out of nowhere with his apparent flippancy and indolence, only to cast aside that mask and show the true man underneath in brief flashes of epic heroism and passion.
Also, when Percy completely loses his temper at the threat of Marguerite being carted off to torture, it pretty much sealed for me that he is the most perfect fictional man to ever exist.
Also, when Percy completely loses his temper at the threat of Marguerite being carted off to torture, it pretty much sealed for me that he is the most perfect fictional man to ever exist.