#GoRead The Scarlet Pimpernel

Hello, friends! I am going to do my best to not spoil this witty, darling story for anyone. My first book recommendation for you all is to read The Scarlet Pimpernel  by Baroness Emma Orczy. My commute to work each day at the beginning of this year was very long, every morning and every evening. I had almost an hour on the way in, and over an hour on the way out. I love and hate technology, but I loved it for saving those tedious minutes that felt utterly wasted in the car.

It was around February that I found a free app that had audio books and I began listening to anything that had been recorded in a British accent. I felt like I was in a BBC production for those hours and the days began to pass much more pleasantly. I happened upon The Scarlet Pimpernel, pressed play, loved the voice of the reader, and was immediately captivated by a story of a rather newly married couple who treated each other as strangers, and even appeared to be enemies at first glance.

Set during the French Revolution, the book chronicles the lives of  Sir Percy Blakeney, the silliest and wealthiest nobleman in Britain, and his beautiful, artful, yet clueless French wife, Marguerite Blakeney. During the time while they are emotionally distant, Marguerite is blackmailed with a threat to her brother's life if she does not agree to cooperate with the malicious French agents who have traveled to Britain in hopes of finding the identity of the members of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The British aristocrats in the League risk their lives constantly to rescue innocent Frenchmen from the clutches of "Madame Guillotine." Their stories of rescue are daring, humorous, and varied. Behind each successful rescue mission is the masterful ringleader, the Scarlet Pimpernel, himself. He is a heroic man and one whom Madame Blakeney admires very much, so she is reticent to betray the little knowledge that she has of him. It seems it will all end in tragedy, and then... (The Scarlet Pimpernel PDF)

After one day of listening in my car, I went to the bookstore, bought a copy, and finished the rest of the story within a day or two. While many modern novels portray romance as a woman (or man) leaving her spouse for her true "soulmate," Orczy portrays a marriage that is only saved and made beautiful only by forgiveness, courage, and humility.  It is only when both spouses choose to humble themselves to truly accept and forgive the other for past wrongs that their relationship can flourish and be joyful once more.

I am (not-so-secretly) a hopeless romantic, lover of intrigue, and I admire a novel that allows true love and sacrifice to triumph. I highly recommend The Scarlet Pimpernel to be your next read.