Emmuska Orczy Books

Suspenseful and realistic, The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel leaves the reader wanting more. It all seems so real. Could there really have been an Englishman who helped aristocrats escape out of Paris during the French Revolution? Each of the Scarlet Pimpernel's plans actually could have worked. Finding out the ingenious schemes the Scarlet Pimpernel used was my favorite part of the book. The plans the Scarlet Pimpernel used to get the aristocrats safely out of Paris included several disguises and even fake passports. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy short adventure stories. These stories include tricky English spies, determined French patriots, scared French aristocrats, and severe consequences.

In this book, Percy isn't opposed by Chauvelin, really, but instead, has to deal with a femme fatale, instead.

A young woman ends up in the bastille because of a complicated story involving the execution of her father. When the mob releases her after the storming, she goes the other way, and becomes a feared agent of the blade, and is in fact nicknamed after it.

She works to take revenge on those who wronged her, and their families. This is where the Pimpernel and company work to try and stop her and save the innocent.

Set in France, the Scarlet Pimpernel is a pro royal, or at least anti-guillotine proto superhero, who leads the followers of Robespierre a merry dance as her rescues plenty of people from their fate.

He has his friends and helpers, this dashing Englishman, and it is through them that the French try and discover his identity.

This book had thrills all the way through it. It was a very enjoyable read. It is full of irony and suspence. A very enjoyable book. I would recomend this to anyone who likes adventure romances.

Chauvelin seeks him here, he seeks him there, many, many times. The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel has a different structure as the book is a collection of short stories or escapades about people that the elusive Pimpernel himself has helped to rescue, along with his intrepid band of adventurers.

So, if you want a small dose of Pimpernel action now and again, this one is for you.

These books is excellent! Other reviewers have critisized the fact these are books of short storys. But I think that is the best part about them! You can read adventure after adventure without having to endure hours of suspence. You can completely imerse yourself in Pimpernel Adventures without having to endure some of the excrutiatingly long desciptive paragraphs which delay many of her books(personally I find myself skipping whole paragraphs from some of Orczy's novels just to get back to the dialog and adventure.)
One thing I have noticed though is that the more pimpernel books I read, the easier it is to sense what is happening. When I first read The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Elusive Pimpernel I found that I was asking myself HOW IS HE POSSIBLY GOING TO ESCAPE!!!! After reading more of her novels I found myself asking istead "I wonder what he is going to devise to escape this time!" Which is fine with me. Now I am in no means saying that these storys are predictable. They provide plenty of twists and turns to suite any Pimpernel addict. I could go on but your probly bored already. I will then briefly give a list of my favorite stories in each. (I love Percy vs. Chauvelin confrontations so you can guess that these storys are full of them)

The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel:
Fie Sr. Percy
The Stranger from Paris
Fly-By-Night
In the Tiger's Den(My Favorite)

The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel:
Sir Percy Explains
Needs Must--
A Battle of Wits

They are all good but those are some of my favorites.
-E

I was expecting a regular Scarlet Pimpernel novel, rather than a collection of Scarlet Pimpernel stories. I was disappointed with my selection. I had hoped to get more insight into the actual League, but the stories did not reveal any new information.

League of the Scarlet Pimpernel is an entertaining collection of short stories about Sir Percy Blakeney's adverntures outwitting the French Revolutionary Government. And, among the stories "The Traitor" was probably the most interesting--- What would happen if the Scarlet Pimpernel had a traitor among his league? Would he escape with his life?

Most of Orczy's other books in the Scarlet Pimpernel genre have struck me as being comparatively weak in character development and in being totally dependent upon their adventuresome plots to generate reader interest. LORD TONY'S WIFE is something of an exception in that its plot is more developed, its characters more rounded, and their motivations more complex than one sees in the earlier novels. Reading it, I thought that Orczy was finally developing into a rather decent novelist and was evolving beyond the pulp fiction style of her earlier works. Then I read THE LEAGUE OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

THE LEAGUE is not a novel. It is not even a collection of short stories. At best, it is a jumble of climatic episodes, most of which have no relation to any of the others, in which the Scarlet Pimpernel exercises his almost supernatural skill at disguise and impersonation to go unrecognized in the midst of his enemies and to spirit away the "aristos" before the Revolutionary government of late 18th century France can send them to the guillotine.

Why are these not short stories? An effective short story makes a point, delivers an observation, or offers a concept or an idea about human nature or society that transcends the literal action in the story. There is, in other words, a theme of broader application, something that enhances the reader's understanding of mankind and the universe in which we struggle. The story is merely the vehicle by which the author presents that theme to the reader. Orczy's episodes depicting various stratagems resulting in successful rescues have none of that; they are nothing more than brief adventures where the literal, superficial story is all there is. I even hesitate to ascribe the word "plot" to any of them, for they are too concentrated on one point in a larger scenario for any plot to be developed.

An effective piece of fiction will normally provide the reader enough background to identify with the place, the time, and the characters. Those characters will then encounter a conflict of some nature, either physical or mental or emotional. There will be rising action as the characters attempt to deal with that conflict until the situation reaches a climax. Some sort of resolution, which may be either positive and creative or negative and destructive, of that climax will follow. Finally, any loose ends will be wrapped up and the story effectively brought to a close in the denouement. LORD TONY'S WIFE comes very near to meeting all of these criteria, and the other Pimpernel novels at least flirt with several of these elements. Each episode in THE LEAGUE, however, begins and ends with the climax and resolution. It is as though Orczy picked the climaxes out of longer (and non-existent) novels and set them all down, one after another, in a book of their own.

As in several of her other Pimpernel novels, Orczy uses the darkness of night and often the obscuring nature of fog and heavy rain, as well as the art of disguise, to explain the Pimpernel's success in mingling with his enemies unrecognized. I fear that she carries this stratagem to extremes, so that the absolute blackness of French nights begins to tax the reader's credulity. At any rate, it is a stratagem that is used so often that it becomes both predictable and trite.

For a bit of light reading and fun adventure, start with the first novel, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, and enjoy the sequels through LORD TONY'S WIFE. Then read THE LEAGUE OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL to complete the series but for absolutely no better reason. After even the poorer novels, this collection of instant conflicts and climaxes is not particularly satisfying. One can conclude only that Orczy had "run out of steam" in her Pimpernel adventure genre and was trying to eke out one final book before leaving her hero behind forever.

Pimpernel and Rosemary may be a disappointment to Baroness Orczy's fans. The plot does not revolve around Sir Percy. Rather, it is about his great-great grandson. Sadly, Peter Blakeney lacks the style and mannerisms of his famous ancestor. The work also lacks luster in terms of plot development. On the positive side, the piece does have a few interesting romantic moments between Peter and Rosemary.

This is a definite must-read for fans of Orczy and her 'Pimpernel' series. While it's true that it takes place three generations after the famous stories of Sir Percy, this book definitely contains the same level of intriguing plot-twists and romance. The story, in ways, is similar to the original 'Scarlet Pimpernel,' but different enough to keep a reader interested and on his/her toes.

This is the second of the prequels I suppose you could say, to the main Scarlet Pimpernel chronology, and is the story of the older generation.

The woman the first Sir Percy is to marry has a brother that is definitely a nogoodnik, and this gets in the way of their life.

This has to be resolved, but it is not the same superheroic type style of the Pimpernel escapades, although the writing is similar.

This prequel to Baroness Orzcy's Scarlet Pimpernel series interested me for I love that series. I would seriously suggest to read at least the Scarlet Pimpernel and Eldorado first. The story follows Sir Percy's father or great grandfather in an adventure that starts his wedding day and takes him far away from his bride and her traitorous brother. The novel mainly follows the acts of the brother, Nicholaus, as he becomes more and more corrupt. His feelings are very detailed and his character is thoroughly analyzed. Gilda is obviously just a clone of Marguerrite, and Sir Percy is never much like the man that will be named after him. All in all a good read but I would not suggest this be the first book you buy or read in the series.

The Emperor's Candlesticks was the first book by Baroness Orczy. Written after the birth of her son, it was not a commercial success. It would not receive any attention until after the success of her most famous book, The Scarlet Pimpernel.

In The Emperor's Candlesticks you can see many of the hallmarks of the historical melodrama that she would cultivate in her later books.

When a group of Russian anarchists kidnap a Russian prince in Vienna, a web of mystery is set into motion. When the Cardinal d'Orsay agrees to convey some hollow candlesticks from the Emperor to the Princess Marionoff in Petersburg, two spies both see the possibility of using them to convey messages safely into Russia. One is an eager young idealist involved in the plot against the prince, the other is Madame Demidoff-- a beautiful agent of the Tsar. When the candlesticks go missing at the border, the two engage in a race to get them back, both realizing that their very lives could depend on the retrieval.

Unfortunately, the book is quite uneven in places. Orczy was obviously still learning the trade. It tends to try to fit too much action into some sections and drag in others. Still, it is an interesting little work of historical fiction, and worth reading-- particularly if you are either a fan of Orczy or of the genre. Three and a half stars.

This book is about the next generation of Blakeneys and their circle. Peter, for one, and a young woman named Rosemary, who is of journalistic and writing intention.

Another amusing tongue in cheek opening, too :-

"To Peter Blakeney, Rosemary Fowkes' engagement to his friend
Tarkington seemed not only incredible but impossible. The end of the
world! Death! Annihilation! Hell! Anything!

But it could not be true.

He was playing at Lord's that day; Tarkington told him the news at the
luncheon interval, and Peter had thought for the moment that for once
in his life Tarkington must be drunk. But Tarkington looked just as he
always did-grave, impassive, and wonderfully kind. Indeed, he seemed
specially kind just then. Perhaps he knew. Perhaps Rosemary had told
him. Women were so queer. Perhaps she did tell Tarkington that he,
Peter, had once been fool enough to--

Anyway, Tarkington was sober, and very grave and kind, and he told
Peter in his quiet, unemotional way that he considered himself the
happiest man on God's earth. Of course he was, if Rosemary---But it
was impossible. Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE!!

That afternoon Peter hit many boundaries, and at the end of play was
148 not out."

The pair get themselves involved in some intrigues.

In March, 2008 I acquired the Echo Library edition of this book. It has the most quirky typos and mis-spellings. Lots of them. Clearly the text was scanned with an optical character reader with the usual consequent wrong letters substituted: "tinder" for "under", "iii" for "in", etc. Careless proof reading I thought, to have not gone through it and corrected. It turns out, no proof reading by Echo. They have lifted the text unchanged from Project Gutenberg, the on-line site where you can find tens of thousands of public domain books in their entirety to read there. All the same quirky typos right down to the straight apostrophes as opposed to smart apostrophes.

I have never been quite so conscious of (poor) book design either, as I was with this Echo edition. The margins are cramped to the edges of the page too far and the book is the most awkward proportion. It is just ever so slightly too wide with too small font to scan down the page in reading quicker if you wish. A line requires at least two side by side scans to take it in (and I have wider peripheral vision than many).

As to literary comment, I don't find this book as well-written or flowing as "The Scarlet Pimpernel", the first in this many-episode series. Orczy's diction is at times more awkward than its predecessor (although that may be the Echo/Gutenberg edition and it poor proofing). In this story her descriptions of situations, emotions of various people are frequently very repetitive as well, making the flow of the action more stilted.

I will go on to read "The Elusive Pimpernel" next, the action of which actually takes place before El Dorado and to which, in El Dorado, there are references to the events of "The Elusive Pimpernel". I will not however, be buying any more editions of anything from Echo Library. I prefer books from those who take more care in their publications. Perhaps, also, I'll volunteer to do some proof-reading for Project Gutenberg.