the Scarlet Pimpernell?

[Ontir]

Has anyone read this book?

It's credited as the birth of the secret identity, and the super-hero, but I've never read it, nor has anyone I know. Even my father who reads 3 -5 books a week has only seen films/serials of it.

I'm interested in spoiler free thoughts on it, if someone's got any.

[K'Nort]

I've just seen the movie. Two versions. But my understanding is they're faithful to the movie. They were certainly the same. And super duper good. And fun. And exciting.

Not really a spoiler because this is made quite clear from the get go, but the general idea is very similar to Zorro.

[Jade_GL]

My BF had to read *The Scarlet Pimpernel* in one of his history courses in college. He really liked the book, and has tried to get me to read it. In fact, it's sitting on our bookshelf behind my chair. :)

Maybe we should all decide to read it at the same time!

Anyway, all I know is that he enjoyed the book a lot. That and he said it was kind of interesting because the protagonist had to hide who he was, much like a French Revolution Batman or something, all the while dealing with a woman in his life and an agent bent on catching him.

So yeah, it does sound kind of like that, but I have no idea if it was the genesis of the idea.

I guess now I know what I am going to read after I finish *The Alienist*...

[Gordon Smith]

I have read the book, but it was a very long time ago, in 1972 or thereabouts. I was in elementary school at the time and my memories of the book are now pretty much completely gone.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Obviously The Scarlet Pimpernel didn't originate the idea of the secret identity. You might as well say Homer did in the last third of The Odyssey, when Odysseus returns in secret to Ithaca, or that Shakespeare did it with Rosalind's multiple identity shifts in As You Like It.

What The Scarlet Pimpernel did was to popularize the concept of a man who lives a double life for the purpose of heroic adventure, rather than for the normal literary (and real-life) purpose of having sex without getting caught. Its primary inspiration was the romances of Dumas and Stevenson; like most lesser writers, Orczy fixated on one aspect of their much richer story-worlds -- adventurous intrigue -- and built her sales-chart-conquering novel on that. The "father of the superhero" line just means that it was the first wildly popular novel to feature that specific plot device (which the creators of superheroes were more likely to have taken from the hundreds of pulp hacks who took it from other pulp hacks, who took it from others, who might possibly have read Orczy's fruity adventures in their salad days).

It also pre-dates the Zorro franchise by about thirty years. Baroness Orczy (a contemporary and peer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells; also, not a real baroness) was whipping up silly adventure stories by the boatload before Johnston McCulley, the pulp-hack creator of Zorro, could walk.

[Ghost]

It's actually a series of short novels. I've tried reading one but grew disinterested. French Revolution has never been my favourite era.

Jonathan here hit it pretty much on ther spot. I'd like to add that the Scarlet Pimpernal isn't really a super hero; more an early pulp hero.

Bonus Fact: contrary to popular belief, the Scarlet Pimpernel himself was not French, but British.

[K'Nort]

I didn't realize he had a reputation for being French. Then again, I'd pretty much seen the movie before I'd heard much about the character.

Now the Scarlet Pumpernickle on the other hand....

http://www.blakeneymanor.com/images/daffy/tada.jpg

[Greg Hatcher]

I quite like the Pimpernel stories, myself; but Jonathan is right, they're very pulpy and a bit breathless. And best not read all in a row.

The two best are the first one, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and its follow-up, Eldorado... but really the best place to enjoy the Pimpernel is the movies. My favorite is the 80's made-for-TV version with Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, and Ian McKellan; a clever weaving of the two books I mentioned into one sprawling story.

[Ontir]

Thanks for your insights. I've wondered about the Pimpernell for a long time, but wasn't sure if it was something that was better in its day, or stood the test of time. I've still got a number of books I'm working my way through, but this will be added to future acquisitions.