Set in the 1920s, this book introduces us to the Scarlet Pimpernel's great-great-grandson, Peter Blakeney. He's in love with Rosemary, who has just gotten engaged to another man. There's spy stuff, mistreated aristocracy, and a daring rescue, but it did drag in the middle. Also, we don't get to see nearly enough of Peter. The story stays largely with Rosemary and her new husband, and it tries to build suspense and plant doubts as to the integrity of Peter Blakeney, but fails. There's also a REALLY long monologue by the villain at the end, which presents a rather pathetic view of how he basically can't help himself, and that all men have a wolfish nature (not intended by the author to be taken as truth, but still, too comic-book villain-y. I highly doubt that evildoers sit around at midnight psychoanalyzing themselves for you, starting with their CHILDHOOD.). Seriously, this is one self-aware bad guy! ( )

Dear old Baroness Orczy, I do love you and thank you for creating the Scarlet Pimpernel, but you really should have stopped when you were ahead. I have previously tried to read this disaster of a sequel, ostensibly about Sir Percy's great great grandson ("Peter," she said, "is the great-grandson of Jack Blakeney, who was known as the Little Pimpernel, and was the Scarlet Pimpernel's eldest son. In face and in figure he is the image of that wonderful portrait by Romney of Sir Percy Blakeney."), but only just managed to get through the appalling purple prose by skim-reading. And even then, I knew exactly what was going to happen!

Rosemary Fowkes - not Ffoulkes, no connection to Sir Andrew, sadly - is Orczy's favourite type of heroine - beautiful, intelligent, independent and wholly dependent on the men in her life. She is supposedly a high profile political journalist, nicknamed 'Uno', but her career is merely a device to land her in trouble. She is asked to travel to Transylvania - which hasn't ended well in other novels - and write a series of mitigating articles about the conflict between Romania and Orczy's own Hungary for the English and American press. For some reason, she can't see a problem with this arrangement, especially when she can stay with Peter's Hungarian relations in their grand mansion. This despite dropping Peter - who wanted to make his fortune before marrying such a successful career woman (what happened to the Blakeney inheritance?) - and marrying 'dear, kind old Jasper', who plays the devoted swain but is quite clearly the villain of the piece. Rosemary, Jasper - and Peter - troop off to Transylvania and Rosemary realises that she has trusted entirely the wrong men.

The plot is a predictable rehash of The Scarlet Pimpernel but without interesting characters or any convincing (or understandable) danger and betrayal. I knew exactly who the Romanian spy was and couldn't care less about 'little Anna' and her boyfriend. My biggest issue, apart from the melodramatic writing - 'She had thought of her love as a heap of smouldering ashes, and lo! it had proved itself to be a devastating fire that burned fiercely beneath' - was with Orczy's rampant xenophobia and ridiculous prejudices bursting through in every other chapter. A few examples:

Elza, too, like her sister, had a magnificent figure, and the perfect hands, arms and wrists peculiar to her race.

Certain it is that his face and hands were swarthy, his nose hooked and his eyes very dark and piercing; characteristics which he had transmitted in a softened degree to his son Philip. But he was a man of culture for all that.

If there was gipsy blood in his veins it had given him nothing but physical beauty and the highly developed musical talent of that race.

Half Oriental in his capacity for lying

I must admit, I was suffering second-hand shame while reading these descriptions (and of friendly characters we're supposed to care about too!) Orczy is one of my favourite authors, or at least created some of my favourite books, but WOW. And the story is set in the early 1920s, not the eighteenth century. She even repeatedly uses an offensive cultural term throughout that had me thinking, 'Did I just read that?' Yes, this was written after the First World War and Orczy was proud to think of herself as British, but her writing has not aged well.

Oh! Almost forgot the references to physical abuse ('Being smacked did not hurt, but it acted as a tonic, and braced up Rosa's slackened nerves') and how scared Rosemary is that her own husband might rape her ('Rosemary would have struggled, would have screamed if she dared').

And for all that, we don't really get to learn much more about Peter or the Blakeney family - the painfully stupid Rosemary, who falls to her knees and prays when the going gets tough, is the centre of the action.

I can't stress this enough - even for fans of the Scarlet Pimpernel series, AVOID! ( )

This was an interesting break from the usual Pimpernel books. To start out i was quite confused as to the characters etc. But still rather enjoyable! Not something remarkable, but definatly worth reading if you are a Pimpernel follower! ( )