Student Essay on Critical Book Review, Scarlet Pimpernel

Critical Book Review, Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy

Essay

The Scarlet Pimpernel, written by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, is a fictional account of the bloody French Revolution. In the book, Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and his fellow Englishman risk their lives to rescue French aristocrats from the Guillotine and bring them back to England where they can escape persecution. The French Committee of Public Safety tries to capture the Scarlet Pimpernel to take him to the Guillotine for his actions, but they fail to capture him. The main characters in this story are Sir Percy Blakeney and Marguerite Blakeney. The book was extremely well written; the excitement from the vivid descriptions and the suspenseful situations and scenes made me feel as if I actually was there.

The author's purpose for this book was to vividly describe the difficulty of living in France during the French Revolution as accurately as possible. The author also sought to describe the difficulty of an aristocrat or foreigner to be in France during the French Revolution. This novel shows careful planning with a very clear and well-organized plot. The planning produced an awesome book. The author uses lively descriptions and goes deep into the history of France to bring this book to life. The author's style appropriately fits the story as recorded in history. The book is lively and vivid, bringing the characters to life. The author accurately depicts the story as it was in France in 1792. "The howls of Benjamin Rosenbaum were fit to make the dead rise from their graves" is an example of the lively descriptions used in the book.

I believe the author did an awesome job of writing the book. All of the lively, action packed chapters were written well. It made me feel as if I was actually in France in 1792.