The Scarlet Pimpernel [Paperback]

The first and most successful in the Baroness’s series of books that feature Percy Blakeney, who leads a double life as an English fop and a swashbuckling rescuer of aristocrats,The Scarlet Pimpernelwas the blueprint for what became known as the masked-avenger genre. As Anne Perry writes in her Introduction, the novel “has almost reached its first centenary, and it is as vivid and appealing as ever because the plotting is perfect. It is a classic example of how to construct, pace, and conclude a plot. . . . To rise on the crest of laughter without capsizing, to survive being written, rewritten, and reinterpreted by each generation, is the mark of a plot that is timeless and universal, even though it happens to be set in England and France of 1792.”“Arguably the best adventure story ever published and certainly the most influential that appeared during the early decades of the twentieth century.”—Gary HoppenstandAnne Perry, the Edgar Award–winning author of more than thirty novels, is best known for her two Victorian mystery series. Her recent books includeDeath of a Stranger,The Whitechapel Conspiracy, andFuneral in Blue. She lives in Scotland.

1. 1. Does Percy treat Marguerite unfairly?

2. 2. How do the theater and theatricality function in the novel?

3. 3. Are there other heroes in the story besides Percy, and if so, who are they and why are they heroes?

4. 4. What is the significance of the flower that gives Percy his secret name?

5. 5. Discuss the use of animal imagery in the novel.

6. 6. Compare and contrast the Fisherman’s Rest with the Chat Gris.

7. 7. What do you make of Marguerite’s assumption throughout the last part of the story that Percy is unaware of the fact that Chauvelin is on his trail?

8. 8. Discuss point of view in the novel–it is told mostly from Marguerite’s point of view, but occasionally it slló&