The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy

I'm quite surprised this book appears on so many classic romance lists, because I'm not even sure if it was a romance. 

It's a story of beautiful Marguerite, called the most intelligent woman in Europe, who married a very stupid, but extremely rich man, Sir Percy Blakeney. Their marriage is not a happy one, they are disappointed in one another and they hardly even speak.  Marguerite is blackmailed into helping a French agent to discover the identity of a mysterious English hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Then, feeling guilty about what she'd done, she goes to France to save the great man.

I had two main problems with this book: first, most of the plot didn't make any sense whatsoever. Why did the Pimpernel's people keep writing notes to one another, why didn't they simply talk? They were oficially friends, why didn't they visit each other? All this plot at the ball was stupid. Next - Marguerite went to France to help her hero and she did absolutely nothing, she didn't even try to help the Pimpernel. The French agent was trying to catch a dangerous, elusive enemy - so he rented the slowest possible carriage, which Margueritecan could easily follow on foot? It is all so silly and pointless, that I kept rolling my eyes. The second problem was that the book was generally quite boring. It felt much longer than it really was.

I'm really sorry that we didn't get Sir Percy's perspective, I'm sure it would make this book much more interesting and deeper. 

Generally, I didn't enjoy this book very much, but I'm glad I finally read it.

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