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Jun. 1st, 2019 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI don't know whether The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel was intended to be Baroness Orczy's attempt to escape the adventures of Sir Percy or not, but it's definitely ... the one where he takes all the credit for overthrowing Robespierre and ending the Terror ...... so maybe?
Okay, the plot: Chauvelin recruits Historical Figure Theresa Cabarrus, who has immediately become my second-favorite Orczy villain, in his latest anti-Pimpernel plot. Theresa Cabarrus is engaged to Tallien, but she's not really into the Terror and is a historically important moderating influence -- a fact which Baroness Orczy would sort of like to ignore in making her a Scarlet Pimpernel villain but can't quite bring herself to do --- but she but also would very much like to be wealthy and important and doesn't mind compromising her principles to do so, but she also has this royalist ex that she's sort of fond of and would prefer not to see die but is also deeply and justifiably annoyed by, because for once Orczy and I agree on the fact that he's kind of a tool --
THERESA'S EX: "My God! Do you not know that I would at any time lay down my life for yours?"
THERESA: "I do entreat you not to go into heroics at this hour, and not to put on tragic airs."
(Theresa's Ex also has his own ex-girlfriend, who is deeply and justifiably stressed out by the fact that he's recruited her baby brother and sister into The Ill-Advised Anti-Revolution Revolution; I spent the whole book very worried that he was going to be Redeemed through her Love but in fact their breakup scene at the very beginning of the book manages for once to stick! Good for you, Theresa's Ex's Ex.)
Anyway, Chauvelin tries to threaten Theresa into seducing! the Scarlet Pimpernel! Theresa thinks ... this is hilarious nonsense.
THERESA: "Think how the accusation would sound, citizen Robespierre! The citoyenne Cabarrus, for refusing to make amorous overtures to the mysterious Englishman known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, and for refusing to administer a love-philtre to him as prepared at the bidding of Citizen Robespierre! Confess! Confess that we none of us would survive such ridicule!"
By this point I am fully Team Theresa, and Percy agrees when she finally shows up on his doorstep in the personal of a Damsel In Distress:
PERCY: "With the exception of my friend Chauvelin, I have never had so amusing an enemy; and it would afford me intense satisfaction to render you a signal service."
Anyway, Project Seduction By Theresa is clearly off the table, so she contents herself with arranging for the usual kidnapping of Marguerite, after which the usual sorts of threats and plots unfold, complete with one of the most Peak Kate Beaton Nemesis scenes in the whole series to date:
"Easy, easy, my friend," he said. "Do not, I pray you, lose that composure for which you are so justly famous. There! Allow me to arrange your cravat for you. A gentle tug here," he added, suiting the action to the word, "a delicate flick there, and you are the most perfectly cravated man in France!"
"Your insults leave me unmoved, Sir Percy," Chauvelin broke in savagely, and tried to free himself from the touch of those slender, strong hands that wandered uncomfortably in the vicinity of his throat.
Along the way Chauvelin also arranges for Percy's current convenient Parisian body double, a tuberculitic drunkard, to be BRANDED so he can ALWAYS TELL HIM APART FROM PERCY. Percy allows this to happen! I was appalled!
....but then it turns out that Percy ALSO got himself a MATCHING brand to foil Chauvelin's plot more successfully?
PERCY (to Marguerite): "I shall always love that scar, for the exciting time it recalls and because it happens to be the initial of your dear name."
So that's fine?? I GUESS????
(Some people just get themselves romantic tattoos, Percy! Until this book, I thought that was a choice that was a Little Too Much, but by comparison it honestly seems restrained.)
Then the next bit happens sort of as in history -- Theresa is arrested, Tallien rises against Robespierre to get her out of it -- except this time Percy's Cunning Scheme To Frame Theresa is at the bottom of it all, after which he watches Tallien do all the work of overthrowing the current government, dusts his hands, and announces that his work here is done.
PERCY: "I only regret one thing, my dear M. Chambertin. And that is, that you and I will never measure wits again after this. [...] But no one will free you from the guillotine when the time comes, unless I myself ... a pleasant conceit, what? I'll think on it, I promise you!"
I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S THE PLOT OF THE NEXT BOOK AND I'M SO READY.
Okay, the plot: Chauvelin recruits Historical Figure Theresa Cabarrus, who has immediately become my second-favorite Orczy villain, in his latest anti-Pimpernel plot. Theresa Cabarrus is engaged to Tallien, but she's not really into the Terror and is a historically important moderating influence -- a fact which Baroness Orczy would sort of like to ignore in making her a Scarlet Pimpernel villain but can't quite bring herself to do --- but she but also would very much like to be wealthy and important and doesn't mind compromising her principles to do so, but she also has this royalist ex that she's sort of fond of and would prefer not to see die but is also deeply and justifiably annoyed by, because for once Orczy and I agree on the fact that he's kind of a tool --
THERESA'S EX: "My God! Do you not know that I would at any time lay down my life for yours?"
THERESA: "I do entreat you not to go into heroics at this hour, and not to put on tragic airs."
(Theresa's Ex also has his own ex-girlfriend, who is deeply and justifiably stressed out by the fact that he's recruited her baby brother and sister into The Ill-Advised Anti-Revolution Revolution; I spent the whole book very worried that he was going to be Redeemed through her Love but in fact their breakup scene at the very beginning of the book manages for once to stick! Good for you, Theresa's Ex's Ex.)
Anyway, Chauvelin tries to threaten Theresa into seducing! the Scarlet Pimpernel! Theresa thinks ... this is hilarious nonsense.
THERESA: "Think how the accusation would sound, citizen Robespierre! The citoyenne Cabarrus, for refusing to make amorous overtures to the mysterious Englishman known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, and for refusing to administer a love-philtre to him as prepared at the bidding of Citizen Robespierre! Confess! Confess that we none of us would survive such ridicule!"
By this point I am fully Team Theresa, and Percy agrees when she finally shows up on his doorstep in the personal of a Damsel In Distress:
PERCY: "With the exception of my friend Chauvelin, I have never had so amusing an enemy; and it would afford me intense satisfaction to render you a signal service."
Anyway, Project Seduction By Theresa is clearly off the table, so she contents herself with arranging for the usual kidnapping of Marguerite, after which the usual sorts of threats and plots unfold, complete with one of the most Peak Kate Beaton Nemesis scenes in the whole series to date:
"Easy, easy, my friend," he said. "Do not, I pray you, lose that composure for which you are so justly famous. There! Allow me to arrange your cravat for you. A gentle tug here," he added, suiting the action to the word, "a delicate flick there, and you are the most perfectly cravated man in France!"
"Your insults leave me unmoved, Sir Percy," Chauvelin broke in savagely, and tried to free himself from the touch of those slender, strong hands that wandered uncomfortably in the vicinity of his throat.
Along the way Chauvelin also arranges for Percy's current convenient Parisian body double, a tuberculitic drunkard, to be BRANDED so he can ALWAYS TELL HIM APART FROM PERCY. Percy allows this to happen! I was appalled!
....but then it turns out that Percy ALSO got himself a MATCHING brand to foil Chauvelin's plot more successfully?
PERCY (to Marguerite): "I shall always love that scar, for the exciting time it recalls and because it happens to be the initial of your dear name."
So that's fine?? I GUESS????
(Some people just get themselves romantic tattoos, Percy! Until this book, I thought that was a choice that was a Little Too Much, but by comparison it honestly seems restrained.)
Then the next bit happens sort of as in history -- Theresa is arrested, Tallien rises against Robespierre to get her out of it -- except this time Percy's Cunning Scheme To Frame Theresa is at the bottom of it all, after which he watches Tallien do all the work of overthrowing the current government, dusts his hands, and announces that his work here is done.
PERCY: "I only regret one thing, my dear M. Chambertin. And that is, that you and I will never measure wits again after this. [...] But no one will free you from the guillotine when the time comes, unless I myself ... a pleasant conceit, what? I'll think on it, I promise you!"
I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S THE PLOT OF THE NEXT BOOK AND I'M SO READY.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-01 04:03 pm (UTC)Going by the quotes here I'm kind of amazed that Theresa Cabarrus is cast as a villain, because she sounds like A++ material all around. But then again, given Baroness Orczy's Thing for these nemesis-type relationships, maybe it's actually her way of giving Theresa a compliment? "I love you enough to make you a villain! Have some sweet sweet nemesis UST with everyone who crosses your path!"
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Date: 2019-06-01 11:11 pm (UTC)I think Orczy had sort of a tricky time figuring out what to do with Cabarrus' historical role in the fall of Robespierre given her own personal opinions and prejudices, and I'm quite grateful she went the route she did, because the other option would have been Virtuous Wronged Angel and this is vastly more interesting. A compliment indeed!
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Date: 2019-06-01 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-06-01 11:14 pm (UTC)... except for one vague memory of a briefly-glimpsed entry online about a scene in which Chauvelin pops up at an English ball claiming to be the Scarlet Pimpernel, which I loved. I'll be honest, a large part of my commitment to reading the series All The Way is to discover whether this scene actually does exist or if I somehow imagined it wholesale.
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Date: 2019-06-01 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-06-01 05:59 pm (UTC)I imagine the copyedits of Orczy's novels were just covered with divers hands of "JUST KISS."
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Date: 2019-06-01 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-01 06:34 pm (UTC)...why is it first "citizen" and then immediately after "citoyenne"?
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Date: 2019-06-02 01:38 am (UTC)sjlfdkjsalkdfj ajajajajsfloiusdf
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