It's A Romp!

I have a very vivid memory from when I was around six years old of watching tv at my grandparents house. The show we were watching (probably Hee-Haw) ended, and a movie started playing.

The actors were all in period costumes and the opening scene was of a public square with a guillotine and people were getting their heads chopped off. My mom quickly realized what we were seeing and sent my sister and me off to bed, but not before the images of headless bodies and bodiless heads were seared onto my sheltered, six-year old brain.

Luckily, I recovered from seeing the shocking images, and somewhere along the way I learned that the movie was an adaptation of the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I’ve always wondered more about the story, so for my November classic, I read The Scarlet Pimpernel, written in 1903 by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.

The story moves quickly and is filled with intrigue, betrayal, romance…just about anything a reader could wish for. The setting is France and England during the French Revolution, hence the beheadings in the opening scene.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is an unknown hero, who works between England and France to bring the condemned French aristocracy to safety, using his wits and disguises to outsmart the French authorities. As the plot thickens, he is betrayed by someone close to him, and a cat an mouse chase ensues between The Scarlet Pimpernel, the lovely Lady Blakeney, and French agent Chauvelin.

The only problem I have with the story is near the end of the book when a Jewish man comes on the scene. He is sorely mistreated by the French officials, just because he is a Jew. In this age of political correctness, I find the author’s characterization and treatment of him to be rather uncomfortable to read.

Otherwise, this book is a really fun. As one of my college literature professors used to say “It’s a romp!”