Blue Eyes and Gray

by Emmuska Orczy

"The romance of a man who slipped and recovered…

As dramatic and moving anything the author of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” has ever written… “And the story—the lovable Amos, the wicked Mr. Horfman, patient Blue Eyes and adorable Grey Eyes—all contrive to bring about the well-known Orczy mixture of love and adventure, laughter nad tears.”
Daily Telegraph"

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1928

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

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a curious story. The action mostly takes place in the Western Rocky Mountains of Canada. At the time it was written, 1929, it was a rather contemporary story. It definitely has the flavor of a "western" and "melodrama" with English culture mixed in with it. As usual, Baroness Orczy can really tell an amusing and entertaining story. Her writing is skillful. There is, as always, a wonderful ending.
Writing example:
"Above and beyond the line of ornamental trees that marked the edge of the garden, the rolling foothills rose tier upon tier to the majestic Rockies beyond, crested with cedars and pines and willows, and gaunt dead firs that reared pathetic, naked arms to the azure of the sky. The noon day air was as clear as crystal; the dome above of a vivid blue; the snow-clad heights far away glistened like the magic walls of translucent castles wherein Titans dwell."
About the dog, a dachshund:
"But it was Mr. Micawber, who was the vanguard. That intuition of danger ahead is keen in a dog also: where a beloved master is concerned, a dog knows when danger threatens him; he calculates--he reasons--who shall say that a dog has not a certain something within him that is equivalent to a soul?"

Here are some of the mentioned locations: [Canada: Quebec City (Château Frontenac, Levis, Île d'Orléans), Toronto University, Montreal, Waterloo, Diprose, Rocky Mountains, Lake Louise, Three Sisters Mountains; St. Lawrence River; England: London (Harrow School, Oxford School), Liverpool, Mersey River, Dartmoor, Yorkshire; France: Paris, Cannes, French Riviera; Scotland]

[Diletta Nicastro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in Italian in the edition published in 1933.
Here is my review.

Emma Orczy, l’autrice della saga della Primula Rossa, non delude mai e ancora una volta regala una storia molto intensa e profonda, tanto che ormai posso sicuramente annoverare la Baronessa tra le mie autrici preferite (non a caso il suo 'Il principe errante' l’ho nominato il libro più bello letto nel 2020).

Come ne 'La Primula Rossa', il protagonista è un uomo e su di lui si concentra l’autrice, facendoci conoscere assolutamente tutto. Non si tratta di un eroe senza macchia e senza paura, ma di un essere umano con le sue luci e le sue ombre, con i suoi sogni e i suoi sbagli.
Il personaggio cresce capitolo dopo capitolo e si riscopre coraggioso, forte, nobile di cuore.
Un libro che fondamentalmente ha come nucleo fondamentale l’errore.
C’è chi, come Amos/Lance riuscirà a comprendere dai propri errori e migliorare e chi, viceversa, si perderà nel vizio.
Due volti, uno contro l’altro, due uomini tra cui sarà divisa Fay (perché ovviamente la dolce ma forte Fay non tarderà a incontrare nuovamente Amos/Lance, e cosa farà? Occhi Grigi riuscirà a perdonarlo?).

Complessivamente si tratta di un libro bellissimo, scritto bene e tradotto meravigliosamente.
Una chicca della Baronessa che, a torto, è conosciuta solo per il suo eroe inafferrabile…

Leggi la recensione completa sul mio blog
https://dilettanicastro.blogspot.com/...

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining but highly clichéd tale of a man who escapes to Canada to redeem himself and save his love from an evil man. The characters were fairly one dimensional but it was overall a quick and fine read.