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The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the French Revolution. It was first produced as a record-breaking play in an adaptation by Julia Neilson and Fred Terry. The play first opened on 15 October 1903 at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal; it was not a success. But Terry had confidence in the play and, with a re-written last act, he took it to London where at the New Theatre on 5 January 1905 it began a run of 122 performances and numerous revivals. The novel became a runaway bestseller and Fred Terry had a hit, playing the Pimpernel for the rest of his life, on and off.
The literary characterImage:Anagallis arvensis 2.jpg Anagallis arvensis, the Scarlet Pimpernel The action takes place during the French Revolution, when a secret society of English aristocrats, called the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, is engaged in rescuing their French counterparts from the guillotine. Their leader, the Scarlet Pimpernel, takes his nickname from the small red flower with which he signs his messages. No one except his small band of 19 followers, and possibly the Prince of Wales, knows his true identity. Plot summarySpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Marguerite Blakeney, a very beautiful French actress, is married to wealthy English fop, Sir Percy Blakeney. The couple have become estranged due to her earlier unintentional denunciation of a French aristocratic family, which resulted in their being sent to the guillotine. Like many others, Marguerite is entranced by stories of the Scarlet Pimpernel — an anonymous hero who, through a combination of courage and daring, has rescued many aristocrats from Madame la Guillotine, and brought them safely to England.
When Sir Percy leaves for France, Marguerite discovers, to her horror, that he is the Pimpernel — the man she has betrayed, who had created the persona of a witless fop in order to deceive the world as to his true activities. She follows him to France to try to warn him. Sir Percy outwits Chauvelin, and manages to rescue Armand, as well as the father of Marguerite's schoolfriend, who has been accused of treason in the country of France and under threat of execution. Touched by his wife's remorse, and by her devotion and courage, he forgives her, and the reconciled couple returns to England. SequelsBaroness Orczy wrote numerous sequels that revolve around the other characters with whom Blakeney comes into contact, and the activities of his followers, Lord Tony Dewhurst, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, Lord Hastings, and Marguerite's brother, Armand St. Just. These include The Laughing Cavalier (1914) and The First Sir Percy (1921), about an ancestor of the Pimpernel's; Pimpernel and Rosemary, about a descendant; and The Scarlet Pimpernel Looks at the World (1933), a depiction of the 1930s world from the point of view of Sir Percy. Some of her non-related Revolutionary-period novels reference the Scarlet Pimpernel or the League, most notably The Bronze Eagle (1915). Scarlet Pimpernel books in chronological orderPREQUELS
SEQUELS
COLLECTIONS OF SHORT STORIES OMNIBUS EDITIONS
RELATED BOOKS
Members of the LeagueA. The original League or Founder Members who formed the party on August 2nd, 1792, nine in number:
B. Members enrolled in January, 1793, ten in number:
Marguerite, Lady Blakeney, is also named as a member of the League in the book, Mam'zelle Guillotine, but it is not known when she was formally enrolled. Precursor to superheroesThe Scarlet Pimpernel is often cited as an early (perhaps the earliest) precursor of the superhero of United States comic books: he is an independently wealthy person with a secret identity which he maintains in action by disguises, while in public life he appears as a politically irrelevant dandy to draw attention away from himself. In his hero guise, he accomplishes good, in a field in which the state is not competent to act, with his superior reasoning and fighting abilities. However, he never in the entire canon takes a life or indeed seriously wounds a foe. He even has a symbol in his name, which he does use as an emblem, though not on a costume. Johnston McCulley's Zorro (1919) and Bob Kane's Batman (1939) later followed the same pattern. In addition, his penchant for disguises and his great intellect are similar to those of Sherlock Holmes. The hero in the operetta The Desert Song borrows heavily from the character, assuming the identity of a milquetoast in order to carry out his heroic deeds. Similarly, mild-mannered Clark Kent and Superman borrow from the character. Film and other mediaHollywood took to the Pimpernel early and often, though most of the Pimpernel movies have been based on a melange of the original book and Eldorado 1913. Film treatments were done as early as 1917 and again in 1928 and 1937.
Other versionsA popular TV adaptation written by William Bast was filmed in 1982, starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellan. A British TV series based on the novel, produced by ITC Entertainment, aired for a season in 1956. The novel has even been parodied as a Warner Bros. cartoon short featuring Daffy Duck (as the Scarlet Pumpernickel), in 1954. (A figure of the Scarlet Pumpernickel was released by DC Direct in 2006, making it one of the few--if not the only--toys produced based on the Pimpernel.) By contrast, a 1950 version (The Elusive Pimpernel) starring David Niven has been widely panned by serious fans of the canon. Image:Dontloseyourhead.jpg Carry on Poster In 1987, the BBC sitcom Blackadder the Third included an episode, "Nob and Nobility", in which the Scarlet Pimpernel is praised by everyone, apart from Mr. E. Blackadder, who sees nothing admirable in "filling London with a load of garlic-chewing French toffs... looking for sympathy all the time simply because their fathers had their heads cut off". The episode ends with Blackadder killing two Noblemen claiming to be the Pimpernel. Unfortunately, Prince George was about to give some money to the Pimpernel just before he died, so Blackadder claims to be the real Pimpernel, thus taking the money. The BBC filmed The Scarlet Pimpernel as two 3-part series in 1999-2000 with Richard E. Grant in the title role and Martin Shaw as Chauvelin. The series was shown on the A&E network in the United States. It took many liberties with the characters and plot, and was not well received by fans of the books. Returning to the work's stage roots, a 1997 Broadway musical based on the story was composed by Frank Wildhorn and written by Nan Knighton. This musical starred Douglas Sills as Sir Percy Blakeney, Christine Andreas as Marguerite Blakeney, Terrence Mann as Citizen Chauvelin, and James Bohanek as Armand St. Just. For more information, see The Scarlet Pimpernel (musical). In print, one of Simon Hawke's Time Wars novels, The Pimpernel Plot (1985), involves the Scarlet Pimpernel. Steve Jackson Games published GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel, by Robert Traynor and Lisa Evans, in 1991, a supplement for playing the milieu using the GURPS roleplaying game system. There has also been a recent string of novels by Harvard grad student Lauren Willig, beginning with The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. These novels chronicle the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel's associates, including the Purple Gentian (alias of Lord Richard Selwick). During the course of the first novel, a female spy emerges and takes the name of the Pink Carnation.
'The Tartan Pimpernel'Inspired by the title Scarlet Pimpernel, the Tartan Pimpernel was a nickname given to the Rev Donald Caskie (1902-1983), formerly minister of the Paris congregation of the Church of Scotland, for aiding over 2,000 Allied service personnel to escape from occupied France during World War II.
'The American Pimpernel'Varian Fry, was a 32 year old Harvard-educated classicist and editor from New York City, who helped save thousands of endangered refugees who were caught in the Vichy French zone escape from Nazi terror during World War II. His story is told in American Pimpernel - the Man Who Saved the Artists on Hitler's Death List Historical accuracyThe Baroness's sympathies are plainly with the aristocracy and in truth, she was more interested in telling a good tale than in strict historical accuracy. To this end Orczy frequently distorts real historical figures and events so they can be woven into the storylines of the books, placing the Scarlet Pimpernel and his league in the middle of the action. In particular, the career of Chauvelin, the recurring villain of the series, is much altered; referred to as Armand Chauvlein in the books, in fact, Bernard-François, marquis de Chauvelin, survived the Revolutionary period to become an official under Napoleon I of France and a noted liberal Deputy under the Bourbon Restoration. Other real life historical figures who crop up in the series include:
References in Popular Culture
Footnotes
Also, there is a reference to the more modern film of "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny", where in one of the last scenes of the movie, Satan sings "I can't wait to take Kage back to Hell, i'm gonna fill him with my hot demon's gel, make him squeal like the Scarlet Pimpernel..." Whether this is related to the actual Scarlet Pimpernel is unknown.
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