The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel, a classic by Baroness Orczy, is part romance, part adventure, part spy thriller, and part superhero fiction. With all of these elements added into the "pot," the resulting stew is extremely entertaining. The book follows the adventures of Sir Percy Blakeney as he seeks to help French aristocrats escape the guillotine during the French Revolution. Since official English policy forbids this, Blakeney adopts a masked identity as the Scarlet Pimpernel to remain anonymous. The French detest this interference in their affairs and set out to trap and kill the Pimpernel at all costs. As part of his effort to deflect suspicion from himself, he plays the fool in every day life and he does it well. His own wife considers him a useless fop... which is where the story really gets interesting. In the end true love prevails, as she ends up following him into danger in an attempt to save him. This allows the most suspenseful section of the book to be told from Mrs. Blakeney's perspective. Her terror for her husband's fate is pure and adds to the tension considerably. Well worth buying, The Scarlet Pimpernel is sometimes laugh out loud funny, often suspenseful, laced with romance, and generally quite a page-turner.