Conversation Hearts Exchange!
(very late, and with black pepper for snuff)
From your list (and @onaslansside 's) I chose The Scarlet Pimpernel.
I should have read The Scarlet Pimpernel YEARS AGO what a delight of a book. It manages to check every box for me, Percy is agshdjkdkdfnf goals?!! He is the exact type of guy that younger me imagined myself as during play. Daring rescues, unlikely disguises, laughing in the face of the enemy and the main weapon used being your own wits and acting ability? Zounds! It's my childhood daydreams and backyard escapades come to life and rolled up into one very fashionable fop of a man!
I finished the book last night and have not stopped thinking about it all day, it followed me into my dreams, my every thought is haunted by "Odd's fish!"
AND â¨spoiler alert⨠I STINKING CALLED IT!!!!! I SHOULD HAVE TOLD SOMEONE!!!
As soon as it mentioned that Benjamin Rosenbaum wore a hat that shadowed his face and then also the fact that Chauvelin, the racist he was, would not dare to step near a Jew I KNEW IN MY SOULLLL that it was Percy in disguise. The sheer nerve of the man! The archetype of all my childhood fantasies!!
And Marguerite!! (My great-grandmother's middle name was Marguerite, so that's neat) I love her. In my mind I still love Percy more (which I believe she herself would respect and even demand) but she is such a good character. Flawed and determined to right the wrongs she had inadvertently caused, you can't help but feel for her. She was put through the agonies and I am so glad things worked out in the end- if they hadn't I would have BAWLED.
Hers and Percy's relationship is so, so fascinating to me as well. They are both so completely deranged in love, it's enough to make one sick - and I mean this most positively. I adore them, your honor! They are exactly my flavor of freak. Percy kissing the stairs where her feet had stepped, hello!??? Marguerite sneaking along barefoot in a ditch just for the chance to die beside him!??? Him carrying her in his beaten arms as she whispers sweet nothings to him??!! I am unwell and so are they in the best way possible.
Also raise your hand if you hate Chauvelin. All my friends hate Chauvelin. He has been added to my List of Characters I Absolutely Despise. He was a great villain because he was a terrible man. Reading him was both amusing but also had me gritting my teeth in rage. Is he the originator of the "villain rubbing his hands together" trope? If not, he makes good use of it anyhow.
My favorite part of the bookâ *looks back at all my highlighted passages about Percy and Marguerite being absolutely, abysmally, pathetically, and freakishly in love with each other* Heh... consider all those tied for first.
My favorite non-them scene is the black pepper snuff scene. I laughed so hard, I physically had to stop and pace around a bit to get myself back under control. It was so funny, 10/10, best get away ever written.
This ask is like a beautiful recommendation to read the book and I think my best response is to let it be that:
Read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy it is soooooo goooood
The peril of the revolution! The kissing the stairs! The yearning! The pepper incident! The mad journey to warn him! The wonderful wonderful League! The reveal! The other reveal! Experience this delight anywhere books are shared/traded/sold/free.
