The Scarlet Pimpernel

The book is an adaptation of the author’s play of the same name. In a play, each scene takes place on a separate set, followed by another scene on another set. The book reflects this structure: Several chapters in a row take place in one location, followed by several more in a different location, and so on. The first such “scene” is The Fisherman’s Rest inn, which dominates Chapters 2-9; Chapters 10-19 take place almost entirely in three scenes, in sequence: the opera at Covent Garden, the grand ball at the Foreign Office, and the Blakeney mansion. Chapters 20-31 happen at The Fisherman’s Rest, at an inn near Calais, on a coastal road, and at a cliffside beach hut. It’s easy to imagine the set changes at the theatre as the story shifts from one scene to the next.

The play’s shape also can be sensed in the dramatic entrances and exits of the various characters. There’s a good deal of coming and going through doorways, which corresponds to the entrances and exits of players on a stage.

With more freedom to move from scene to scene, the book inserts transitions, especially when characters travel by carriage or boat from one place to the next.

The book’s primary precursor is Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, an 1844 adventure novel whose wealthy hero’s disguise is anonymity: Long ago cheated and left for dead, he’s been forgotten. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, a strong, handsome, extremely well-skilled, and beautifully attired man, the count uses a hidden treasure of riches to obtain influence, information, and the latest and best equipment as he wreaks vengeance on the people who viciously betrayed him. (Guides for books by Dumas are available at SuperSummary.com.)

The Scarlet Pimpernel and its sequels opened the door to future books, comics, and movies about heroes with secret identities who hide behind masks and bumbling public personas while using their wealth and high-level training to help the innocent and bring evildoers to justice. In the decades to follow, Zorro and Batman would lead a parade of such heroes that also included hyper-powered versions such as Superman. Variations abound: Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and Carol “Captain Marvel” Danvers, for example, use no disguise; Tarzan lives two public lives, one in the jungle and one in the city; and Black Panther is a king.