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sophia_sol) wrote2014-09-14 09:47 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2014-09-14 09:47 pm
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emma Orczy
I accidentally reread this book within like half a year of last reading because I was suddenly in the mood for it. What makes me "in the mood" for a particular book at a particular time is always so mysterious to me!
But what I actually want to talk about is that I'm still obsessed with trying to figure out the details of Percy's foolish act. Because the book has some indications that he's been pretending to be an idiot for basically forever; and some indications that he's been pretending just since his marriage to Marguerite. And it's explicitly stated that the reason for his pretence is so nobody will suspect him of being the Scarlet Pimpernel - but when did he start being the Scarlet Pimpernel, exactly? The author is not clear, but it doesn't seem to be that he begins immediately after marriage with Marguerite and discovery of her betrayal of the St Cyr family. Did he start before his thing with Marguerite, or after? And IS his foolish act exactly correlated with his becoming the Scarlet Pimpernel? I can't imagine it would have worked - because he's been out in society and fairly well known for a while, I think, and if he suddenly changed his character people would have noticed. Maybe he's always affected a bit of foolishness for various private reasons of his own (unsurprising, given the apparent notoriety of his parenthood; he may well have wished to turn attention from himself when he was younger by not appearing too notable, and the habit stuck until he suddenly had a USE for the pretense).
IDK I just have so many questions about the entirety of the backstory for both characters, since backstory is evidently NOT one of the author's strengths!
But what I actually want to talk about is that I'm still obsessed with trying to figure out the details of Percy's foolish act. Because the book has some indications that he's been pretending to be an idiot for basically forever; and some indications that he's been pretending just since his marriage to Marguerite. And it's explicitly stated that the reason for his pretence is so nobody will suspect him of being the Scarlet Pimpernel - but when did he start being the Scarlet Pimpernel, exactly? The author is not clear, but it doesn't seem to be that he begins immediately after marriage with Marguerite and discovery of her betrayal of the St Cyr family. Did he start before his thing with Marguerite, or after? And IS his foolish act exactly correlated with his becoming the Scarlet Pimpernel? I can't imagine it would have worked - because he's been out in society and fairly well known for a while, I think, and if he suddenly changed his character people would have noticed. Maybe he's always affected a bit of foolishness for various private reasons of his own (unsurprising, given the apparent notoriety of his parenthood; he may well have wished to turn attention from himself when he was younger by not appearing too notable, and the habit stuck until he suddenly had a USE for the pretense).
IDK I just have so many questions about the entirety of the backstory for both characters, since backstory is evidently NOT one of the author's strengths!
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