The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel

by C.P. Lesley

Have you ever wanted to rewrite your favorite novel—fix the heroine’s mistakes, win the hero’s heart?

Nina Pennington does. She is overjoyed when she lands the plum role as the heroine of The Scarlet Pimpernel in a class assignment based on a computer game.

Nina knows she can win—until she realizes her one chance for success requires an alliance with her least-favorite fellow grad student, cast as the Scarlet Pimpernel himself.

The game challenges Nina in ways she never anticipated, and that least-favorite fellow grad student starts looking better by the minute. But then, she has always had a soft spot for the swashbuckling Scarlet Pimpernel.

Now Nina has to choose: win the game, or take a chance on love?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance, Retellings, Historical, Fiction, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2012

About the author

As a child, C.P. Lesley thought everyone told stories while falling asleep. It never occurred to her that anyone would pay her for them, and for a long time, she was right—no one would. But after years of producing horrible prose, reading books about novel writing, and pestering hapless fellow-writers and friends to read her drafts, some of the advice stuck, and she finished The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel, followed by Legends of the Five Directions and Songs of Steppe & Forest, two series set during the reign of Ivan the Terrible.

When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people’s manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and takes classes in classical ballet. That love of ballet also finds expression in her Tarkei Chronicles series.

She blogs regularly about history, novels, publishing, technology, and writing at http://blog.cplesley.com, posts that Goodreads picks up and displays after a short delay. And she hosts New Books in Historical Fiction, a channel in the New Books Network.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all live in our books while we are reading. Just in our imaginations, but the story, the characters, the settings become as real there as we and the author are able to make them. But what would you do if you had an opportunity to actually become a character in one of your favorite books?

Nina Pennington has that very chance during a graduate school seminar in which she and four classmates re-enact The Scarlet Pimpernel in an elaborate computer simulation. The prize for the winner is to have the professor giving the seminar as an advisor for their dissertation. He will also play a role in the game, and anyone who gets 'killed' is out not only of the game but of any chance of working with him in real life. They
are allowed to tweak the plot of Baroness Orczy's book a bit here and there, so this is not simply a scripted game they are playing: the stakes are high and it seems to be every person for themselves.

I liked Nina. She had her insecurities like we all do, but she worked with them, like we all try to do. I was impressed with her ability to keep herself sane during the two weeks of the simulation. I would have been a blithering idiot after just a few days, maybe even only hours. How do you manage to keep yourself yourself when a computer program is living inside your head? Whenever you look in a mirror you see the character you are playing, and you hear her thoughts and can even talk with her? That would be too scary for me to cope with!

I must admit I got confused when the simulation began. All of a sudden there were characters from two books to keep straight, and sub-plots galore to fret over. But it helped that Nina was just a little less confused than I was at first, and we both decided pretty quickly to think of everyone as the roles they were playing, not who they were in real life. That helped a lot. I also quit trying to remember details of The Scarlet Pimpernel . I've read it a couple of times years ago, but knowing that story is not a pre-requisite for enjoying this one. However, I do want to spend more time with the amazing Sir Percy so I need to have a re-read of The Scarlet Pimpernel books soon!

I also admit that I never could get over wondering just how the computer program running the simulation could make everything so real. Virtual reality is not something I can really get a grasp on. I remember watching Star Trek The Next Generation and seeing the crew enjoying themselves in the holo-deck. I finally gave up trying to figure out how it worked there, and I did the same here. I had much more fun once I allowed myself to simply dive into the story and not wonder how anyone could actually ride a computer generated horse, get wet from a computer generated fish pond, or smell the aroma of computer generated flowers.

I thought the line 'Will you trust me to love you?' was perfect and I hope she does. (You will know who I mean if you read this entertaining book.)



One last comment: I know Ms. Lesley, we are in two groups together and chat every so often. But I paid full price for The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel plus the other titles of hers that I now have, and this review is my honest opinion of this book.

[C.P. Lesley]

As the author, I’m sure you can guess that I like the book, so instead here is some information about how I came to write it that you won’t find elsewhere.

Baroness Orczy’s classic historical adventure romance The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) is not as well known these days as it deserves to be. Some people still remember the 1934 film with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon, but it’s more than thirty years since the wonderful (if not word-for-word accurate) BBC version starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour and more than twenty years since the much less satisfactory A&E version. Plans for a new film have been derailed by the European Union’s recent change in its copyright laws, which mean that copyright on the 1934 film will not expire for another five years.

Even so, The Scarlet Pimpernel has more than one Goodreads group dedicated to it and even an independent blog, “The Day Dream” (the name of Sir Percy’s yacht). And here you have my tribute to the original, which raises the question: why mess with a classic?

Well, it happened something like this. I had been checking a bunch of ISBNs on Amazon.com for nonfiction books that happened to be about the French Revolution; and the Amazon.com computers, ever eager to persuade visitors to buy more, threw up Baroness Orczy’s novel as a recommendation. I had read it as a teenager and loved it, then put it away and not thought about it for years. But the book cost $5 and I had enough other items on my wish list to wangle free shipping, so I ordered it. When it arrived, I re-read it with interest, then re-read it again.

I found myself fascinated—not so much by the basic story of a wealthy titled Englishman who regularly risks his life and those of colleagues to save French victims from the guillotine, although that’s a wonderful story of its own, as by the conflict that separates the heroine, Marguerite, and her husband. As a teenager I took their relationship at face value, but a long and successful marriage gave me a different perspective on their strife. I began rewriting the story in my head, looking for the crucial moment when an apology or some other change of attitude would send the plot in a different direction. Eventually, I began to write my version down.

Of course, however damaging to a marriage, unresolved conflict is the driver of fiction. Within fifty pages I had run out of story. But I was having far too much fun to quit, so I created a whole new plot of my own. Eventually I had two characters—one modern, one eighteenth-century—in constant conversation about love and life and changing views of women. The result is The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel. Relatively little of the story draws on Baroness Orczy’s public domain text, and you need not have read the original to enjoy my version. Nonetheless, she gets full credit for its inspiration. That’s why I dedicated the book to her.

[Steelwhisper · Rating 2 out of 5]

2* for effort.

However, I hate secondguessing past eras and assigning modern concepts and snark to people obviously looked at with a self-indulgent, jaundiced eye.

Who truly knows what Orczy aimed at? I read The Scarlet Pimpernel several times, from teen to adult age, and for me it always spoke of a hidden, negated D/s relationship or at least shades thereof. As I was kinky already as a teen, I saw the erotic shifting and inequality of power already then. Who's to say Sir Percy didn't derive some pleasure from this? Or that Marguerite wasn't a thwarted natural Femdom? Both sure displayed all the necessary hints.

With what I wish to say, that Ms. Lesley's problem with the behaviour of this literary pair may not only be caused by her unwillingness to consider French mores, and English delights, but also just possibly by that she didn't at all catch on to the hidden erotic and sadomasochistic tendencies within the original, which at the time screamed loudly at me--the female Top.

[Kate Martyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligently written, exciting, suspenseful, pacy, funny, poignant, sigh-inducingly romantic – and clean. What’s not to like?
The Scarlet Pimpernel with a pinch of Georgette Heyer - what could possibly go wrong? Sadly, having endured the frequently execrable purple prose of Baroness Orczy herself more than once for love of Sir Percy Blakeney, and having sampled a few modern offerings that claim to be in the style of Heyer, I can tell you – plenty.
So let me firstly say that I particularly enjoyed that the author picked up Baroness Orczy’s – let’s call it dated to be kind, but it really is awful even for 1905 – florid and cliché-riddled writing style, and the many plot holes, inconsistencies and omissions in The Scarlet Pimpernel, and ran with them. It is these very flaws that provide the opportunities for the competitors in the virtual reality game to recast the story to their advantage. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one bothered by the inconsistencies in the original, and hats off to Lesley for such an ingenious way of getting over the issues!
I certainly recognise a cracking good romance when I read it but I wouldn’t have a clue about the validity of the science behind the virtual reality set-up. It all made sufficient sense for it not to be a problem for me, though. I’ve seen docos on CG animation that seem impossible.
The interaction between the five students and the professor within the role-play as they realise the stakes are scarily high and the danger feels rather real in this virtual world, and the battle for supremacy that ensues between the two personalities inhabiting each single person drives the plot and provides the tension and much of the humour. There are some very amusing little running gags.
The romance that develops as Ninel/Marguerite and Ian/Percy have to confront the traumas from their separate pasts and their current mutual antagonism is just gorgeously realised. The author never loses control of the somewhat complex maze of emotions and concomitant questions that arise as the game progresses and the participants start to get much more than they bargained for emotionally. Real or virtual? Who’s in love with whom? Who can tell?
The writing is polished and the editing high quality. The characters are great - believable, sympathetic, multi-dimensional and with nice touches of humour throughout. There was no problem remembering who was who once the game began, though knowing the original story and the Anthony Andrews film version as well as I do probably helps. If anyone did have difficulty, tactful reminders are embedded seamlessly here and there into the text. It is a nicely finished piece all round.
The great advantage of time-slip stories is that any anachronisms of speech or behaviour can be excused. Very occasionally the original Orczy personalities slip into a modern concept or turn of phrase, but this is explained neatly by Marguerite’s final comment for any reader who wonders.
Continuity, pacing, exposition, motivation all work perfectly with no jarring “what the?” moments to shake one from this delightful and compelling romantic fantasy. All I’s dotted and T’s crossed content-editorially as far as this reader was concerned, which is always makes for reading pleasure.
The trick with romance, as with the virtual reality game, is to convince the reader to suspend disbelief and enter wholeheartedly into the lives of the characters for the duration of the story. Baroness Orczy and C P Lesley, mission accomplished. Recommended without reservation.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can understand why this book would be a writer's dream to write. The author writes a book about a book that a middle author gets to rewrite. Did I say that correctly?

I gave the author a solid three stars which would be rounded up to three and a half stars were that allowed on Goodreads. The author's writing mechanics were excellent. In my e-copy I found no errors.

I would classify this book as historical fantasy which is not my favorite genre. Younger readers who breeze through computer generated realities and other such things might not find any fantasy in the book at all. Besides, a little whimsy never hurt anyone.

Thank you, Ms. Lesley, for a good read.

[Kathryne Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific concoction of historical novel blended with futuristic technology. Very creative premise. Very fun to read with a very sympathetic heroine, especially if you've ever sat in a seminar,feeling less than capable, wondering how you're going to Ace it with all the Brains around you. And it's a love story, too. No need to ever have heard of the original Scarlet Pimpernel before to enjoy this book.

[Kaycee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun take on the Pimpernel

Well written and well researched. Stayed true to the spirit of much of the original. Ending was a bit formal.

[Dot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content:

Sexual: medium (sex scenes fade to black)
violence: mild

[Catherine Nobles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I tell readers what I think of C.P. Lesley's book, I have to make a confession. Somehow in all the years of schooling...and thereafter...I never read "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Of course, I have always known it is a classic. Of course it is required reading for many students throughout the world, in many different languages. Of course, I always said to myself, "Someday I've got to read that book." Well, life happened. Never read it.

So. An author whose works I thoroughly enjoy wrote an "allegedly" historical novel based on "The Scarlet Pimpernel." I bought it, but due to life stuff happening, didn't begin to read it until early this week. Working my way through the book's early pages, I wondered how this was going to relate to the famous protagonist because it seemed to be set in contemporary times.

Well, I kept on reading, figuring that eventually the connection to French Revolution times would become clear. IT DID. Big time! I was totally unprepared, stunned actually, for how Ms. Lesley crafted the story about one of the most turbulent times in European history, using the framework of a classic novel in an absolutely ingenious way. I won't spoil the surprise, but just imagine a Star Trek Holo-Deck experience merged with "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and be prepared for one surprise after another. It was difficult to stop reading because I just had to know what crazy thing was going to happen next!

The thought has crossed my mind that, having read "The Not So Scarlet Pimpernel," reading the original story might be a let-down. I may never read it.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved Sir Percival Blakeney, Baronet, and Marguerite St. Just Blakeney since I was 14 years old and first saw the Anthony Andrews/Jane Seymour version of the Scarlet Pimpernel movie. That caused me to read the book, which I would put on my top 10 books of all time list. So I was a bit apprehensive about how this re-telling of the story would turn out.

To my pleasure, it's not a strict retelling. Instead, the main characters enter a virtual reality-type simulation where they are challenged to beat Chauvelin before he beats them. Each modern character must collaborate with the spirit of the Pimpernel character they are playing to change, or not change, the storyline and win the challenge.

There are considerable differences between the novel and the movie versions, and this book does a delightful job of sticking mostly to the original book, but alluding to the movies, allowing lovers of all incarnations of the Pimpernel to enjoy.

Note: I did receive this book for free as part of the Goodreads First Reads program. However, I would gladly buy copies at full price because I enjoyed it so much.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am surprised that I like this as much as I did. The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of my very favorite books and I'm always hesitant to read anything that borrows from a beloved work. I'm only ever willing when someone pays homage to the the story and doesn't try to write the sequel. Lesley does a great job of paying homage to Orczy without being blind to some of her faults.

Like another one of my favorites . . . Vivian Vande Velde's YA novel Heir Apparent . . . this novel takes place in an immersive virtual reality world. Unlike VVV's gem, this one kind of ignores some of the big questions, like what would this do to someone's brain over a long period of time. My worry over some of these questions only bothered me momentarily and I was able to lose myself in the world that Lesley built.

Read it in a sitting and while I've got some questions, I found this to be a fun, adventurous, quick read.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun premise for the novel. I enjoyed the characters and storyline. Not the type of novel I normally read so it was a good experience from First Reads.