The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel, written initially as a play in 1903 by Baroness Emma Orczy, is one of the first spy novels.  The Scarlet Pimpernel is a story set during the French Revolution and involves a man who helps French aristocracy escape the guillotine.  The French are set upon catching him, but can't get past the numerous disguises he uses.

A young French woman has married a foppish, wealthy Englishman.  Unfortunately some words she said indiscreetly in  France has resulted in the deaths of a French aristocratic family.  This has turned her husband against her.  She tries to get back into his good books, but to no avail, so she mocks his seemingly inept life.  Her brother's life is put in peril when a French spy forces her to help him discover the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel through her connections in English society.  A surprising discovery in her husband's study sets her off on a dangerous trip to France to help her brother and the Scarlet Pimpernel.

This is another classic story I have put off reading until now, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.  The best lines of the book have to be:

We seek him here, we seek him there.  Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.  Is he in heaven?  Is he in hell?  That damned, elusive Pimernel.

This is an amusing novel well worth the read.