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Oct. 6th, 2019 12:24 pmI've been saving Sir Percy Hits Back for ages - it's the last Pimpernel book chronologically, and, MORE IMPORTANTLY, it's The One Where Percy! Saves! Chauvelin's! Daughter! from the Guillotine!!!!
...I've now just spoiled the whole thing for you, because the book itself plays coy with the fact that sweet little Fleurette's darling Bibi is in fact Percy's Nemesis Chauvelin for a good half the text, and then tries to convince you that Percy might let Fleurette go to the guillotine in order to get revenge, but a.) the only reason to care about this book is the fact that Fleurette is Chauvelin's daughter and b.) everyone except Chauvelin knows exactly how things are determined to play out from there.
Reasons this is not a good book:
- Fleurette is a virtuous innocent who believes in God, is vaguely appalled by the revolution without knowing anything about it or her father's involvement with it, and is best friends with the aristocrats down the road? I refuse to believe it's possible that any child raised by Chauvelin would turn out this way, it defies all logic except Orczy Heroine Logic
- the villain is the peasant girl who was abandoned by Fleurette's nursemaid to a life of drudgery so that said nursemaid could instead look after Fleurette; the narrative has little to no sympathy for her
- after a while you have to stop and wonder at the fact that Percy's favorite method of rescuing people is 'bring them to trial! incite a riot! whisk them away while everyone else is rioting, presumably causing numerous injuries and a great deal of property damage in the process!' I can believe this was the best way to rescue someone once, maybe, but every time, Percy???
- we never get any narrative follow-through on Fleurette's discovery that her father is a major revolutionary figure and has signed execution warrants for NUMEROUS people, including several of her friends;
- Chauvelin doesn't even think about Percy until like 60% of the way through the book
Reasons this is nonetheless an enjoyable book:
- Fleurette's boyfriend is not an endangered aristocrat but in fact the perfectly nice peasant son of the grocer down the street? I'm genuinely astonished that Orczy with her deep-rooted classism lets this play out happily for Innately Noble Fleurette, daughter of Former Aristocrat Chauvelin
- Fleurette and Chauvelin's father-daughter relationship is actually really genuinely cute and Orczy does a pretty solid job balancing Chauvelin the Good Dad against Chauvelin Who Is Still Perfectly Happy To Execute Literally Anybody Else
- at one point Percy steals Chauvelin's carriage, and I thought it was all part of a clever scheme related to Fleurette, but no, actually at that point Percy had no idea that Fleurette and Chauvelin were related and there was no carriage-related plan whatsoever, he just couldn't resist a single opportunity to troll Chauvelin for shits and giggles
- there is honestly not anywhere near as much Sexy Kate Beaton Nemesis content as I'd hoped on seeing the premise but what there is ... it's good. It's good content.
( quotes under the cut )
...I've now just spoiled the whole thing for you, because the book itself plays coy with the fact that sweet little Fleurette's darling Bibi is in fact Percy's Nemesis Chauvelin for a good half the text, and then tries to convince you that Percy might let Fleurette go to the guillotine in order to get revenge, but a.) the only reason to care about this book is the fact that Fleurette is Chauvelin's daughter and b.) everyone except Chauvelin knows exactly how things are determined to play out from there.
Reasons this is not a good book:
- Fleurette is a virtuous innocent who believes in God, is vaguely appalled by the revolution without knowing anything about it or her father's involvement with it, and is best friends with the aristocrats down the road? I refuse to believe it's possible that any child raised by Chauvelin would turn out this way, it defies all logic except Orczy Heroine Logic
- the villain is the peasant girl who was abandoned by Fleurette's nursemaid to a life of drudgery so that said nursemaid could instead look after Fleurette; the narrative has little to no sympathy for her
- after a while you have to stop and wonder at the fact that Percy's favorite method of rescuing people is 'bring them to trial! incite a riot! whisk them away while everyone else is rioting, presumably causing numerous injuries and a great deal of property damage in the process!' I can believe this was the best way to rescue someone once, maybe, but every time, Percy???
- we never get any narrative follow-through on Fleurette's discovery that her father is a major revolutionary figure and has signed execution warrants for NUMEROUS people, including several of her friends;
- Chauvelin doesn't even think about Percy until like 60% of the way through the book
Reasons this is nonetheless an enjoyable book:
- Fleurette's boyfriend is not an endangered aristocrat but in fact the perfectly nice peasant son of the grocer down the street? I'm genuinely astonished that Orczy with her deep-rooted classism lets this play out happily for Innately Noble Fleurette, daughter of Former Aristocrat Chauvelin
- Fleurette and Chauvelin's father-daughter relationship is actually really genuinely cute and Orczy does a pretty solid job balancing Chauvelin the Good Dad against Chauvelin Who Is Still Perfectly Happy To Execute Literally Anybody Else
- at one point Percy steals Chauvelin's carriage, and I thought it was all part of a clever scheme related to Fleurette, but no, actually at that point Percy had no idea that Fleurette and Chauvelin were related and there was no carriage-related plan whatsoever, he just couldn't resist a single opportunity to troll Chauvelin for shits and giggles
- there is honestly not anywhere near as much Sexy Kate Beaton Nemesis content as I'd hoped on seeing the premise but what there is ... it's good. It's good content.
( quotes under the cut )
