The story of one of the ancestors of the Scarlet Pimpernel, set in Holland. I thought it wouldn’t be as good as a regular Scarlet Pimpernel book, but it was top drawer. In this classic adventure tale, the title character, a penniless vagabond with an honorable heart, finds himself in a terrible pickle—he has been hired to kidnap a young woman and at the same time return her to her father. How can he do both and collect both rewards? The twists of the plot were truly delightful. As in Beauty and the Beast, this tale relies on a sexist form of Stockholm Syndrome, where the kidnapped maiden finds herself falling for the man who is keeping her prisoner. Annoyingly, this was very effective, making this book kind of a guilty pleasure. Luckily to reduce my pleasure there was a generous helping of anti-Semitism.

I have taken a sacred vow not to discuss book design, forevermore, but here I have been goaded beyond all possible human endurance. Since all the works of 1914 are in the public domain, they are printed by publishers who realized they can do virtually zero work and reap a tiny reward when fools like me buy the book. So you will find that these books have no front matter, back matter, cover art, writing on the spine, or formatting. They have not been run through spellcheck, and they are in tiny font and have no spaces to separate the chapters (making the book shorter and even cheaper to produce.) I accept all that, but this particular publisher chose to print The Laughing Cavalier in a very unwieldy size of 11 by 8 ½, or letter size. I feel there is no society in our galaxy where these proportions would be considered attractive for a book. And aesthetics aside, it’s very hard to read. It’s like the newspaper that Buster Keaton reads in The High Sign that keeps unfolding bigger and bigger (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyLM-y3O9XY, about 40 seconds in.) So while The Laughing Cavalier was one of the books I enjoyed the most, it was also the hardest to read. ( )

A prequel to the Scarlet Pimpernel featuring one of his ancestors. A very nice swashbuckling adventure romance. The best thing about it is how unlikable the main character is, he's a real anti-hero which makes him more interesting than most.
This whole book seems better written than the Scarlet Pimpernel. I'm not sure whether the author improved with age or if its simply because Pimpernel was adapted from a play.
There seem to be a few small spots of confusion as to who knows what and when, but overall its a solid piece of work. ( )

In the spirit of the Three Musketeers, set in 1624, political intrigues and chivalry combine to save a nation and a lady from distress. Invoke a memory of the Girl with the Pearl Earring, as it ties the story to a real printing by artist Frans Hals. ( )

Oh my lord this was stupid. It's partly a style thing - at the time (in all the books from this period I've read), the author was a lot more obtrusive than I'm used to with more modern books. It starts with random scenes with different people involved, and takes about 10 (short, admittedly) chapters to get everyone connected and the story actually started. And throughout those chapters, and slightly more lightly later on, the author is explaining and describing and, I guess, setting the scene - but the style drives me nuts. "If things had fallen out differently - if these gentlemen had been the slightest bit more thirsty - everything would have been different..." She says that, in slightly different words, about 5 times in one chapter. Bleah. So then the story starts - and each individual acts extremely stupidly at least once. Most of them act stupidly pretty much throughout - with the author pointing out how unwise their actions are, too, just in case I'd missed it. Elaborate plot to get Gilda out of the way - and as soon as it's done, no, no, bring her to the center of the action. We need to escape - so do an elaborate job of breaking down a window, rather than hurrying out the (open) door (which was, admittedly, closer to the enemy. But still). The link to the portrait is mildly amusing - probably would be more so if I'd ever knowingly seen it. But overall - I was so happy to _finish_ the stupid book...I was planning to read the entire Pimpernel series, or as many as I could find. I think I'll let that wait for a while, and a lot of good books, until I forget how stupid this one was... ( )

Buckle my swash and call on Erroll Flynn. The perfidious Earl of Stoutenberg waxes threatening against the Prince of Orange and would murder and usurp him. When rich and beautiful Gilda Beresteyn hears men plotting to take the Prince's life, she is doubly troubled to find that one of the conspirators is her brother and another is her ex-fiancée. The conspirators know that Gilda will find some way to thwart them, she being so good and noble, so they hire a soldier-of-fortune to kidnap and hold her until their plot can be accomplished. The man, however, is merry, noble, strong and kind and he finds a way to destroy all their plans.

Despite some turgid prose, this is fun. At the end of the story we learn that the character is the ancestor of Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel. ( )