The Scarlet Pimpernel

I realized that I finished this book a couple weeks ago, but haven't written my review yet. This was another one of those books that took me a while to get into. After I'd been reading it for a couple nights, Chris asked which page I was on, and I was only on page 16. In my defense, I do all my reading right before bed and sometimes my eyes close pretty fast. But, I did eventually get into the book and even stayed up late a few nights, unable to put it down. This book is set during the French Revolution when the citizens of France were capturing all the "aristos" and sending them to Madame Guillotine. Other than the styles, dress and culture of the time, that is the only history included in the novel. The rest of the story is a romance/adventure novel. I read something that said The Scarlet Pimpernel was the first masked superhero story, preceding zorro, the lone ranger, even batman and superman. So, overall it was adventurous and kept me reading. However, I do have a couple of criticisms. The first is that the author uses a few words in extreme excess. These words being: peremtory, and imperturbable. Maybe this is another manifestation of French culture during the Revolution, but personally I found it annoying that all of the Scarlet Pimpernel's actions were either peremtory or imperturbable. My next criticism is that each time there was a secret identity to be uncovered, (and this too happens often) I had guessed the true identity chapters in advance. This left me just reading to get to the point that the secret identity would be revealed and not so much concentrating on what was happening in the meantime. I would however recommend this book to others, if for nothing else, than to say that you've read one of the classics. Having said that, the next time that I want to read a book set during the French Revolution, I think I'll choose Les Miserables and just watch the movie of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I am looking forward to seeing now that I've finished the book.