Book Group: The Scarlet Pimpernel

Thursday night I had the great pleasure of hostessing a book group! This was a first for me, and I'm glad I did it. The book was "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baronees Emmuska Orczy. Our gathering was small, but all attendees had read the whole book, so we enjoyed lots of discussion.

Before I really begin, I have to recommend this book to all readers out there. There's adventure, history, mystery, politics, romance, and even an inspiring hero that leaves you feeling good and hopeful and ready to make a difference. I was first introduced to the story by my dad, who rented the movie when we were little. I've always loved it, and have seen the (1980s making of the) movie lots and lots of times. I finally read the book this last fall and would truly recommend it to anyone. The random French and old English words in the beginning can be a little daunting, but you don't really need to know what they mean anyways, so use your context clues and just plow forward.


As I was preparing for it, I searched the internet far and wide for discussion questions/book club ideas for this book and in the end found 9 questions total (most of which were lame). That's it. So, I've decided to post my questions here just in case someone would like to use them. And perhaps those of you who read the book, but couldn't make it last night, would enjoy thinking about these questions for a few minutes.

1. What was your favorite part of the story: romance, adventure, politics? Your favorite moment?
2. What character do you like best? Why?
3. Did it end how you thought it would? Was it predictable?
4. Was the work of The Scarlet Pimpernel and his band ethical?
5. Did the Scarlet Pimpernel or any of his men “make a mistake” which led to their identities being discovered?
6. Do we ever have to “play the fool” in order to do the right thing?
7. Did Percy treat Marguerite unfairly? Did he still love her after hearing that she betrayed the Marquee?
8. Did Marguerite treat Percy unfairly? Did she really love him before discovering his masked identity?
9. Have you ever put on a mask with someone close to you? Is it ever a good choice?
10. Has anyone close to you masked themselves to you? What do you do?
11. If you were Marguerite, would you choose to save your brother rather than the SP and the aristocrats he might save in the future? Is her choice ethical?
12. Is Marguerite ultimately a likable character?
13. In Les Miserable the common people are our heroes. Who was really right in this conflict? The aristocracy or the people? Should have other countries intervened?
14. Are there other heroes in the story besides Percy, and if so, who are they and why are they heroes?
    
15. Any favorite parts you’d like to share? Other topics you’d like to discuss?

After discussion we enjoyed some chocolate fondue. Really, you don't need a fondue pot for chocolate fondue, because eating it all before it gets cold isn't really a problem. And at least decent choc. fondue isn't hard to make. Perhaps amazing choc. fondue is hard to make; I wouldn't know. :)


Then we tried to follow the example of our novel's hero, and write a note to brighten someone's day.


And last we enjoyed some clips from the movie (1980s version). Thank you work for letting me borrow the projector, and thank you YouTube contributor cozypillowx who posted THE ENTIRE movie in 10 minute segments beginning with this one here.



And thanks to Tiffany for tirelessly organizing Book Group and for simply being fun and great. Thanks to everyone else who came last night. It was fun for me, hope it was for you too!