The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel (chronological order) #6

by Emmuska Orczy

The year is 1793, the darkest days of the French revolution, and little Charles-L¿on is ill. The delicate son of Louise and Bastien de Croissy is recommended country air, but travel permits are needed - and impossible to come by. Louise's friend, Josette, believes she knows a way out. For Josette is convinced that her hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel, will come to their rescue. She refuses to believe that he only exists in her imagination. 'I say that the Scarlet Pimpernel can do anything! And I mean to get in touch with him,' she vows, and sets forth into the Paris streets...

Genres: Classics, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Historical, Romance, France

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Full name: Emma ("Emmuska") Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orczi was a Hungarian-British novelist, best remembered as the author of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1905). Baroness Orczy's sequels to the novel were less successful. She was also an artist, and her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London. Her first venture into fiction was with crime stories. Among her most popular characters was The Old Man in the Corner, who was featured in a series of twelve British movies from 1924, starring Rolf Leslie.

Baroness Emmuska Orczy was born in Tarnaörs, Hungary, as the only daughter of Baron Felix Orczy, a noted composer and conductor, and his wife Emma. Her father was a friend of such composers as Wagner, Liszt, and Gounod. Orczy moved with her parents from Budapest to Brussels and then to London, learning to speak English at the age of fifteen. She was educated in convent schools in Brussels and Paris. In London she studied at the West London School of Art. Orczy married in 1894 Montague Barstow, whom she had met while studying at the Heatherby School of Art. Together they started to produce book and magazine illustrations and published an edition of Hungarian folktales.

Orczy's first detective stories appeared in magazines. As a writer she became famous in 1903 with the stage version of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Reviews

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josette is trapped in Paris during the French Revolution, when her employer tries to blackmail prominent men in the government and is murdered. Desperate to protect his widow and child, Josette seeks for help from the Scarlet Pimpernel. Josette and her boyfriend Maurice fall into the clutches of the merciless Chauvelin, and only the clever Scarlet Pimpernel can save them from the guillotine.

Josette is a wonderful main character, full of compassion and faith. She is not clever or wise, but her good heart and her unwavering loyalty pull her through the story. I loved the scenes where she takes action for herself, never flinching in the face of danger.

The plot is fantastic, of course, with many twists and turns. I loved how all the complexities of each situation finally run together to a swift and glorious end.

I also enjoyed the interesting and compelling supporting characters. The writing really makes each person real and true.

My only complaint about this book is that there wasn't enough of the Scarlet Pimpernel in it. Although I did love Josette as the main character, I wanted to see the Scarlet Pimpernel and his men in more of the scenes.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adorable, traditional Scarlet Pimpernel! Everything looks bleak until that wonderful hero shows up to save the day!

[MeKency · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There had never been but one in this world who had compassion for the whole of humanity, and humanity repaid Him by nailing Him to a cross"

[The Jesus Fandom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely an improvement over past sequels.

Of course, the classism and lack of nuance is still there. The revolutionaries actually say "thank our friend Satan" in this one. Cause they're evul.

The main character, Josette Gravier, is a farmer's daughter. Her family has taken in Louise de Vandeleur, the daughter of a general. They both get the same education, and idk... it kinda feels like the author thinks this is unfair to Louise: For there was to be no difference in the education of Louise de Vandeleur, the motherless daughter of the distinguished general, aide-de-camp to His Majesty, and of Josette Gravier, the farmer's daughter.

Josette was a new fav character. The first woman in these books who actually does the thing she sets out to do with moderate success. Cheers to her. Of course we have to be reminded of her lowliness every now and again:
She was simple and not at all clever
ignorant, unsophisticated girl (the book calls her this about 4 times)
Which is annoying, cause she's actually really courageous!

Emmuska also turns friendly fire on the female sex: Women are like that. Let some vixen give a lead and there is no stopping the flow of evil tongues.

Love some of the fun quotes in this:
"But in Satan's name, Sergeant -" "Never mind about Satan now."

"You must think me a fool..." he began, trying to swagger. - "I do."

He was left severely alone.

The plot with the letters was honestly almost the same as the one we had in the second book (The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel)

The confrontation near the climax was less impressive once you realised the bad guy could've just shot Percy. Ofc, later we learn that that wouldn't work, but he had 20 mins before that in which he didn't know that it wouldn´t have any consequences.

The pepper callback was nice.

[Kimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok I loved this one! Sorry to the people who don't get it!

Normally you'd think I'd be upset by the lack of Percy, Marguerite, and the League in this book. Percy gets 0 POV time in this one and it's told completely from the views of those he is rescuing (Josette, Louise, Maurice) and his enemies (Chabot and Chauvelin.) And you know what? I loved it. I loved seeing his exploits completely through the eyes of people who don't know him and only heard of him by reputation. We get some of this in the other books, but I loved it as a full length novel. It really sets it apart from the others and makes such a fun little adventure.

I liked Josette. She was a good friend and a devoted Scarlet Pimpernel fan which immediately made me support her. I liked that even though she may have initially had a little crush on the idea of him, she came back to reality and realized her love for Maurice. No love triangles and jealousy plot in this one. YAAAY!!

Chauvelin amused me so greatly in this one. Of course he always thinks he's gonna outsmart Percy, but for some reason I found it extra funny in this one. The way Percy was two steps ahead of him the whole time and Chauvelin did all his scheming for nothing. Hilarious. 10/10 I will enjoy this concept every single time.

Percy really only had one key scene (as himself) in this book but oh man was it worth it. He is just so smart, funny, and entertaining. That scene with Chabot is going up in my favorite Percy moments of the whole series. I just love him to pieces.

Anyway yeah this one was fun. At the end of the day, is it more of the same stuff that the whole series is made of? Sure. But that's what I'm here for!

[Lalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

“They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That demned elusive Pimpernel”.

This is what? the 10th Scarlet Pimpernel's book I read? And I still get caught by surprise by the twist, turns, intrigues and final resolution.
In this regard, I feel very much like Chauvelin, I'm so sure to have understood everything just to discover that it wasn't as I first thought.
So top hats off to the baroness Orczy for a book that is still enjoyable today as it was then, and to the Scarlet Pimpernel one most swoon-worthy and gallant heroes of all times!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course, like all of Percy's adventures, this was highly engaging and pleasing to read, but with a twist of an avid fangirl of the Scarlet Pimpernel being the main heroine! I enjoyed how she grew from being obsessed with our historical superhero to seeing and loving the heroism of those around her, particularly her adoring friend Maurice. It would be nice to not always see some unusually tall, large, ugly yet highly amusing man and realize "Oh, that's Percy in disguise" but then, if that were the case, it wouldn't be a Scarlet Pimpernel adventure!

[Katherine B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a VERY slow start (the first 21% of the book), where we heard all the history of our French citizens who needed rescuing, we got to one of the most entertaining of The Scarlet Pimpernel's adventures. Not better than The Elusive Pimpernel, but still really fun!

I just have one question: WHY HAS CHAUVELIN NOT BEEN EXECUTED FOR LETTING THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL ESCAPE SO MANY TIMES?!

[Peyton Elkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten how enjoyable this book is! The beginning is a little slow, although characters like Josette and Maurice are interesting. However, by the end, there's plenty of adventure, and as always, it's all up to the Scarlet Pimpernel to save the day!

[AE · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my light lunchtime read for a while, and I finally finished it. The series definitely feels like it's falling off a bit now that we're getting to the later chapters, although it does retain an element of enjoyment as an adventure story.

My biggest issues with this particular installment were:

- It's very very long, or feels that way. This time there are two "batches" of people to save, and the storyline in between isn't particularly fast-paced. Plus, if you've read other Pimpernel books before, most of it is pretty predictable. Personally, I think she should have cut out more of the backstory of Louise and Bastien, who aren't really major characters and probably didn't need a full on-page rendering of their story which, it turns out, is just the backstory for the rest of the book.

- Almost all of it was from the point of view of either Josette, the villains, or very briefly Maurice and Louise. Basically, we get a lot of narration about the victims who need saving, but almost none of the really fun Pimpernel gang elements. Orczy seems to try to swap styles in some books, but imo her strongest books are the ones that directly follow Percy, Marguerite, and the gang. Similar to Lord Tony's Wife, I just didn't find the main characters enjoyable enough to keep following.

- Related: the characters are all somewhat one-note. You can argue that most Pimpernel characters are somewhat archetypal, but at least Marguerite and Percy felt like real relatable people in book 1. In this one, there's not much development or chemistry with the main romance (we are just told they fall in love but they spend very little time interacting in meaningful ways), I actually disliked Bastien and Louise, and found Maurice to be a bit useless. Josette was a decent character, but I felt like she never really reaches her full potential, and disappears from the story in the later part.

- This may also be on me and my personal views changing, but I was also somewhat uncomfortable with how bitter the writing seemed about the revolution. Whereas in book 1, the narration seemed to be neutral toward the revolution itself (and the concept of self-government), the series has progressively gotten more and more blatantly royalist and pro-nobility, and also directly anti-republic. Technically, it's implied the problem is the government lying and being full of immoral opportunists, but it just feels like such an oversimplification. It gets a little jarring when every single person in the government is written as an evil corrupt caricature of a person, and every noble is actually a good person who was just denounced by jealous haters. I swear there were moments in earlier books that at least acknowledged some aristocrats did abuse their power, but we are now getting to the point where the books no longer even pay lip service to that concept, and invariably portray all aristocrats as innocents. (I understand this is probably inevitable due to Orczy being a noble, but I still feel this was handled more gracefully in earlier books.)


Some things I did enjoy:

- The pepper scene! This was a great callback, although I wish there had been more detailed cat and mouse here.

- The twist (uh...the second one?) did still come across as clever, although I had some idea that would happen.


Overall, not my favorite but it was all right. I am looking forward to the next one, though, which appears to start with the league, so I am hopeful!

[Diletta Nicastro · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Le gesta della Primula Rossa' è il decimo capitolo della saga creata dalla Baronessa Orczy ad essere uscito, anche se a livello temporale si svolge prima de 'La vendetta di Sir Percy' (l’ultimo capitolo) e in contemporanea con 'La Primula inafferrabile' (capitolo 3) e 'La sposa di Lord Antonio' (capitolo 5).
Continua la rappresentazione completamente politically scorrect di tutto quello che riguarda la Rivoluzione Francese, culminante nelle imprecazioni pronunciate dai membri del governo rivoluzionario che nominano in continuazione “il loro amico Satana”.
Come per 'Le avventure della Primula Rossa', risulta, tuttavia, dissonante ritrovare Chauvelin così violentemente in guerra con la Lega, sapendo che, nell’ultimo romanzo della serie, la Primula Rossa salverà sua figlia dalla ghigliottina. Questo fa sì che la lettura risulti, in un certo qual modo, distorta.

Solitamente la penna della Baronessa è estremamente attenta e precisa, miscelando ad arte finzione e realtà. In questo romanzo, tuttavia, non riesce a pungere come al suo solito e prende spunto da fatti realmente accaduti senza il consueto piglio.
Nel romanzo manca quasi completamente la figura di Leopoldo II, fratello di Maria Antonietta, che stava tessendo tutte le trame possibili per rovesciare il governo del Terrore e liberare la sorella, stipulando accordi europei inimmaginabili fino a pochi anni prima. Se si scrive che il barone di Batz era “agente del governo austriaco e fiduciario dell’Imperatore”, è necessario aggiungere che il piano fallisce prima di cominciare perché Leopoldo II muore misteriosamente dopo una brevissima malattia che i medici non seppero mai spiegare.
Così l’Austria sembra un manichino, un fantoccio, uno spauracchio e poco più.

Anche la storia legata a François Chabot è debole.
Chabot è un personaggio realmente esistito, così come tutti gli autori delle lettere compromettenti che vengono usate come ricatto dopo che l’Austria si sfila dalla cospirazione.
L’avvenimento nel quale questi illustri personaggi della Rivoluzione vengono realmente processati e uccisi si riferiscono nella realtà allo scandalo della Compagnia francese delle Indie Orientali. Cosa accadde realmente difficile stabilirlo, perché i processi durante la Rivoluzione francese erano decisamente sommari e si colpiva chi si voleva colpire, indipendentemente dalle reali colpe.

Complessivamente si tratta di un romanzo un po’ stanco, rispetto ai precedenti. Dopo l’apice raggiunto con 'La vendetta di Sir Percy', la Baronessa avrebbe dovuto raccontarci cosa accadeva dopo nei rapporti tra Chauvelin e la Primula Rossa.
Senza contare che anche in questa storia la Lega compare pochissimo, concentrandosi troppo su Josette e Chauvelin, e dimenticandosi di tutta la parte legata ai membri della Lega (era molto più bello quando approfondiva le storie degli amici granitici di Sir Percy).
Consigliato ai cultori del ciclo.

Per la recensione completa visita il mio blog: https://dilettanicastro.blogspot.com/...

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorites of the Pimpernel series yet. Not much in the way of plot twists; if you are familiar with Pimpernel it is all a bit predictable at this point. However, the writing is still very clever and vivid, and so very entertaining. Most of the characters are people that I hate, both the "bad" and "good" guys (they all act like spoiled brats to me). The Scarlet Pimpernel, however, is always endearing.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this novel very much. In addition to much overwrought prose, entirely too much of the story is told from the point of view of the villains. The heroine, Josette, seemed to change in characterization over the course of the novel. There were some brief very good descriptions of scenery, though.

[Catherine (Cather.reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been so long since I last read a Scarlet Pimpernel book. So take my comparison of it to the other books with a grain of salt because it's been about six years since I read the last one.
It was a fun, fast, and easy read and I forgot how much I enjoyed the series in the past. However, this one had a disappointing amount of the Scarlet Pimpernel, as in he is only seen in passing glances through the eyes of our main character. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate our main character. I just wish there was more sir Percy or even lord Tony but none of them show up except for in disguise and we are left to guess who is disguised as whom.
Also now that I understand politics (a little bit) more, I'm realizing just how imperialist this is. Not just with the Scarlet Pimpernel saving aristocrats, but also the way that Baroness Orczy writes about poor people. It doesn't make me feel right. Still love the Scarlet Pimpernel and I definitely want to read more of his adventures, but it's making me want to revisit the French Revolution from a historical perspective, and I also want to read another one of his adventures where he's more of a main character.

[Christina Burt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb, as usual! My favourite English hero strikes again. Even when all hope seems lost he always finds a way to save the unfortunate and broken hearted. Fascinating peek inside the “glories” of the French Revolution as well.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun continuation of the Scarlet Pimpernel story, but it also has major drawbacks. First of all, none of the original characters (Except the Pimpernel, who is not really seen much, and doesn't portray Percy Blakeney at all) appear in this story. The story is entertaining, and I liked the female protagonist more than I liked Marguerite Blakeney, but there are an awful! lot! of! exclamation! points! in the book, and a lot of drama- and not the good kind.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as much fun as the first one, but still really enjoyable. Again, I'm surprised by how these read as if they were written this year. It started off slow, but picked up around the middle. I was struck this time by how horrible life must have been for most people living in France during the Revolution, how uncertain and full of fear their lives must have been. Can't wait to read the next one.

[Alissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a slow start, but ended up being an enjoyable tale of the Scarlet Pimpernel told from the perspective of the person being saved. I still like the original Scarlet Pimpernel better.

[Lynne Stringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't my favourite Pimpernel book, but it was still enjoyable. Some things about the story just didn't work as well for me as the others.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

It 19s a clean adventure story. The historical setting gives the reader a background knowledge allowing the writer to focus more on the story. It 19s a good sequel. I can 19t wait to read others.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Sir Percy and his band confound their foes with fiendishly clever schemes, good humour and exquisite manners.

[Rod Innis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book about the Scarlet Pimpernel