Adventure · Historical
The Scarlet Pimpernel
A mysterious hero rescues aristocrats from the guillotine, and no one suspects the foppish English lord.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
They seek him here
It is 1792, and the Terror in Paris sends aristocrats to the guillotine every day. Some escape, smuggled out by a band of English gentlemen whose leader signs his messages with a small red flower, the scarlet pimpernel. No one knows who he is. In London the brilliant French actress Marguerite, now Lady Blakeney, is admired by everyone, while her husband, Sir Percy, a rich, lazy fop, seems to care mostly about the cut of his coat. When a French agent, Chauvelin, forces Marguerite to help him unmask the Pimpernel, she is caught between her brother’s life and her conscience. Baroness Orczy first wrote the story as a play, and published the novel in 1905.
Why it works for learners
Orczy tells much of the story through Marguerite, and her feelings are spelled out clearly, which keeps the plot easy to follow as the intrigue thickens. The settings are vivid and varied: a Paris city gate, an English inn, a London ball, the cliffs of the French coast. The vocabulary of disguise, society and danger repeats often: mask, secret, letter, spy, ball, carriage, escape. And the famous rhyme, “They seek him here, they seek him there”, is the kind of line you remember in any language.
Which level to start at
B1 works well; the plot is compact and the suspense survives simplification. B2 brings back more of the wit in Sir Percy’s drawling conversation, which is half the fun. At C1 and C2 you get Orczy’s lush, romantic style in full. In Lexo’s narration, Percy, Marguerite and Chauvelin each have their own voice, which helps in the long scenes of verbal fencing.
Read next
- A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens’s novel of the same Revolution
- The Three Musketeers, an earlier France of swords and schemes
- The Prisoner of Zenda, another gentleman adventurer