by Emmuska Orczy
El Dorado is one of the Pimpernel books upon which my beloved 1982 movie was based. Plot-wise it's one of the more complex novels to date with Orczy pulling out all the stops. Insta-love--er, I mean romance, honor, betrayal, clever schemes, more romance, more honor, and so on: this book pretty much ...
This would have to be one of my favourite Scarlet Pimpernel books. I enjoyed the change from the norm with Percy's incarceration and the different feel it gave to the book. Although I believe modern DNA testing has proved that the Dauphin did die in prison, it is interesting to speculate if he did e...
Ironically, perhaps the best part of this adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel is Orczy's petulant introduction: "Oh Em Gee, people! The Baron de Batz can't be the inspiration for Percy. They're, like, totes different! Gawd!" In fact, as psuedo-proof, the Baron de Batz plays a small role in the novel,...
[These notes were made in 1983:]. A better-than-run-of-the-mill entry in the series, for two reasons. First, the stakes are sufficiently high - the Dauphin himself, and Percy actually in captivity and slowly being starved and driven mad. And second, Percy is betrayed by his devoted but wrong-heade...