Sir Percy Leads the Band, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Reviewed by Sarah
avaliable here
Start Date: May 30th
Finish Date: June 1st (or 2nd, depending on how you want to count finishing it 40 minutes after midnight.)
Star rating: 9 stars ********
"Movie" Rating: PG, mostly for mild language (Lud sir, but it is a demmed nuisance, what?)

"But by whom?" the other insisted.

"By the Scarlet Pimpernel."

"The Devil!" cried the commisary, and gave a mighty jump...

"No, Citizen, not the devil, the Scarlet Pimpernel."

"One and the same."

So after re-reading The Scarlet Pimpernel recently, this time I was caught up in the desire to continue, to read the rest of the series. Unfortunately they're not readily avaliable around here as hard copies, but fortunately they are avaliable online. I would have much prefered to have a hard copy, but some things you can't help.

I've decided to read the books in chronological order according to the historical events that take place in them, rather than in the order that they were written/published. This means that, although this one was the next in the series chronologically, it was one of the last written. Hmmm.

In many ways (but not in others) this book was just "more of the same"--Sir Percy being awesome and saving the day with clever and well-thought-out plans, which he makes work despite treachery and that bumbling Chambertin... er, pardon me, Chauvlin. (Chambertin, it turns out, is the name of a vinyard in France. Haha, Percy. You think you're so funny. And I admit that you are.)

I didn't really like the title before I read it, but now I really like it. Haha, kinda punny. I mean funny.

And, as you might expect with old books, there were a whole lot of unfamiliar/less familiar words. My favorite: quidnunc. Awesome word. And, since I wrote them down, here are the others: contumely, exiguous, impedimenta, effete, disseminate, volubility, traducer, compunction, perpration, arbiter, insensate, chaffing, amenable, obsequious, beatitude, penury, venality, ebullition, sabot, inanition, stentorian, sybaritic, inane, contumacious, diffidence, perron, escutchem, moke, athwart, incontinently, egregious, hostelry, verisimilitude, hector, jorum, recalcitrant, effrontry, scrag, troublous, aegis, stertorous, somnolence, ignominous, sybarite.

Whew! Most of those I didn't know, some I wrote down because I knew them but don't often see them. This is one problem with mostly reading books coming out now--people don't use very creative or unfamiliar vocabulary. Supposedly kids are too lazy to look things up. Meh.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE. PLEASE DON'T READ ON UNLESS YOU HAVE a) already read the book or b) don't intend to ever read the book or c)want to completely spoil your reading experience.

Ok, so for most of the book I really, really hated Devinne. Stupid upstart. Who was he to question Sir Percy? Was he not aware that one is supposed to worship the Scarlet Pimpernel? But in the end, of course, it turned out to be all for the best, with remorse and forgiveness and such. Not unlike the previous book, but this was even worse treachery--not by Sir Percy's wife, of course, but by a trusted friend who looked his friend in the face, knew all he was fighting for, and still betrayed him. And because he fancied himself in love, but mostly just because of offended pride. Humph.


And Percy slinging Chauvlin over his shoulder and carrying him off shouting, "Spy, spy!"--funniest image ever. Can't you just see the Chauvlins face?