Fluctuating Interests

"They seek him here,
They seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere,
Is he in Heaven?
Or is he in Hell?
That Demmed, Elusive, Pimpernel."

My interests are in a constant state of fluctuation all the time. Depending on usually what I'm reading, listening too, studying, looking at, or thinking about. My last post was all about my current fixation on Twilight and even that has given way for another fixation to come back into play. The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The movie (only the Anthony Andrews Version will do), the books, and the musical are simply wonderful. And I'm sure that it will be pushed aside once I get my hands back on the second book of Twilight. But for now my full attention is on The Scarlet Pimpernel.

For those of you who have not yet experienced this wonderful tale, let me introduce you to it.

The Scarlet Pimpernel: Is set in the early stages of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror where all the French aristocrats were being beheaded with the guillotine.

Marguerite St. Just, former French actress, is married to none other then Sir Percival (Percy) Blakeney, Baronet. The center example of London's fashion and one of the richest men in England. Only he's a complete fop, or at least to the eyes of London.

Citizen Chauvelin, of the new French republic, used to be Marguerite's lover before she married an Englishman and moved to England with Percy. He is upset and outraged that Marguerite would choose someone of Blakeney's personality, believing that he is a complete idiot and fop, over one of her own people, mostly himself.

Chauvelin has bigger things to worry about when news soon spreads all over France, and England, that some unknown group of men are rescuing French Aristocrats from the guillotine. And they all follow the leadership of one man known as the Scarlet Pimpernel. Which they figured out from the way he signs his orders with the sign of a small red flower which grows in England under that name. So the only thing they know about this man is that he is English and that he is terribly elusive of their traps to capture him and bring him to justice for freeing all those French aristocrats. For once the aristocrats are off French soil they are safe from death by the guillotine.

Before the marriage of Marguerite and Percy, Chauvelin learns of a plot of treason through Marguerite against a well known French aristocrat known as the Marquis de St. Cyr. As retaliation for Marguerite refusing him, he has her name put on the warrant as informer and has the Marquis de St. Cyr and his entire family sent to the guillotine. Leaving Marguerite to take the blame for their deaths.

Percy, really the Scarlet Pimpernel, and with the help of his followers, The Leauge, uses his foppish idiotic reputation in London as an identity to keep the public from believing that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel. No one as idotic as Percy Blakeney could be intelligent enough to come up with such ingenious plans to rescue all those people from France. So with the cover of being to daft to plan such escapades, Percy and his men continue to save the French aristocrats.

At their wedding, Percy falsely learns from an outside source that Marguerite was involved in the death of the St. Cyrs. And unsure if he can trust her anymore, he devises that he must in strange himself from her like he has with the rest of London. And he starts acting the idiot in public and in private. Distraught, Marguerite wonders what she has done to loose her husbands love and why he acts this way even when they are alone.

At some point Chauvelin learns that Marguerite's brother, Armand, is working for the Scarlet Pimpernel behind his back. And using that information, he black mails Marguerite into helping him discover the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Scared for her brothers life, Marguerite agrees. Unaware that the Scarlet Pimpernel is her husband Percy.

WELL, I will not ruin the rest of the story for you. I suggest you go read the book, watch the movie or listen the the music yourself. The story is wonderful and the music for the musical is even better. But the story is fantastic, the characters enchanting (especially Percy).

So when comparing book Hero's, Percy Blakeney is easily up there with Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), Mr. Knightly (Emma), and Edward (Twilight).