Wishing to be a member of the League...

[primsong]

I fear I have fallen into it again - not posting anything, just reading other people's postings because their lives seem so much more interesting than mine, or I feel compelled to sum up too much. I will try once more to resurrect this journal, it being a new year - closest thing I have to a resolution!

That said, it is demmed inconvenient to be happily swimming through all of the Scarlet Pimpernel series and wanting to swoon and carry on and write about Sir Percy and not really having anyone to do so with. La! Just finished three more Pimpernel novels and am trying to hunt down the rest - odds fish, they are hard to find, 'tis monstrous intolerable. Also broke down and ordered the cd of the Broadway stage version (I would happily put up with the French Revolution if I could just have Chauvelin singing "Where's the Girl?" to me like that), and a dvd of the 1934 one with Leslie and Merle. Nothing beats Anthony Andrews version of Percy for me yet, though, and Ian McKellen remains the *perfect* Chauvelin.

A shame so many people only know the title novel - it really isn't the best in the series and Marguerite is a complete idiot in it, plus it bogs down too often... though the pepper-mill incident with Chauvelin's snuff-box is worth the entire book, hee!

Comments

[lin4gondor.livejournal.com]

I never knew it was a series!! Guess my librarian sense wasn't tingling there, was it? ;-) I just checked it our local library and they have books 1-3. How many are there in total?

You are trying to snare us all into reading it with references to pepper-mill incidents, aren't you?

[primsong.livejournal.com]

There are *eighteen* Pimpernel/Revolution books by Baroness Orczy - twelve of which follow Sir Percy's tale, the others being set both before (a couple are about Percy's father) and after - one ('The Pimpernel and Rosemary') has Percy's daughter as the protagonist. I've tracked down five of them so far (they are mostly out of print except by special order from the UK...argh...) - I keep checking ebay...I may just give up and order the rest of the 12 new from Stratus House, the UK publisher.

Each one follows a different protagonist as the events of that time overwhelm their lives - the reader is left guessing where Percy will surface in the book...which of the many people they are meeting is really that fine hero in disguise?

[piplover.livejournal.com]

They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven, or is he in hell? That damned, elusive, Pimpernell.
Yeah, that about sums it up for trying to find the books. My librairy has three or four of them, but I gave up searching them out a while ago. Sigh.

[primsong.livejournal.com]

"Sir Percy Leads the Band" and "Sir Percy Strikes Back" are two of my favorites so far, if you can ferret out a copy from ebay - I desperately want a copy of "Eldorado" because I know it is one of the novels they used to create the (most excellent) version used for the movies.

Be of good courage - he *is* elusive, but not impossible to find.

[samarra.livejournal.com]

*runs in real stealth-like and hugs you*

[primsong.livejournal.com]

*is breathless from hugging* :-D

Pimpernel

[tuilelindowen.livejournal.com]

Hubby and I are Pimpernel lovers and did not know there was a book series, although we should have guessed. Do you have or is there a list somewhere? Are they in chronological order? We're going to need something to read after we finish the Sharpe series. Help!

Re: Pimpernel

[primsong.livejournal.com]

They have a chronological order, yet at the same time each one more or less can stand on its own so the order isn't as important as it might be with some series - a good thing, when they are so hard to find. There is a treasure trove at Blakeney Manor (blakeneymanor.com) where you can find a chronological listing as well as the texts as e-books. At this point the only publisher they can be gotten from new is Stratus House, in the UK - I have had mixed luck with finding the older paperbacks, as they have been out of print for several decades.

They each have a different protagonist, and you follow the events of their story wondering where Percy is going to pop up in it - he inevitably will, of course, but in what guise(s)? :-) The Baroness had a tendency to "overdo it" with some of her prose - lots of bewildered innocent golden-haired, blue-eyed girls, amazingly strong, noble men, etc. but once you get used to that it is good fun. And poor Chauvelin gets his come-uppence at Percy's hands more than once. ;-)

Good luck with tracking him down - and good reading!

Re: Pimpernel

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I've seen the Leslie Howard movie (LOVED it) and read the first book as an e-book, but I didn't know there were eighteen of them!

Hmm. Our local library seems to have three of the sequels, bless 'em. (I have a major love/hate relationship with that library - they own lots of old first editions and never get rid of their last copy of a book, but they've made some really annoying policy changes recently. Apparently I was placing too many holds.)

Re: Pimpernel

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Yay, another Pimpernel fan!

You'll love them, I expect, a few are weaker than others and Marguerite only rarely manages to lift herself above the Mary Sue Idiot swamp she seems mired it, but the characters and situations can be quite good. Sir Percy Hits Back even manages to make you feel sorry for poor Chauvelin. Sir Percy Leads the Band has one of my very favorite scenes ever for his turning the tables on his enemy as well, I'm chuckling now just remembering it. :-D

Two must-reads: The Elusive Pimpernel and Eldorado, in that order - they are one of the few that really need to be together as a set for it to make the most sense and I must include a Percy-whumpage warning that makes you want to reach in there and give him a hug.