The Adventures Of The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1929 short story collection drawing together eleven of Orczy’s Pimpernel stories that had previously appeared in magazines. The stories range across the entire timeline of Sir Percy Blakeney’s rescue work, with several set chronologically before the events of the original 1905 novel. Most of them are tight self-contained rescues of named historical or semi-historical figures from the guillotine.

The shorter form actually suits the Pimpernel formula very well. The set-up is fast. Some condemned noble is going to be executed in three days, or three hours, or by sunrise. Percy and the League go in disguise, the disguise nearly fails, the rescue succeeds at the last possible moment with Chauvelin two steps behind. The collection works as either a series introduction or a good follow-up to the main novels. The stories were intended for serial readers and have the brisk pacing that magazine fiction of the period demanded. A useful entry point for new readers who do not want to start with a full novel.