The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness (Emma) Orczy (1905)

I read this as a child, as my parents subscribed to Reader's Digest Condensed books for me. I usually read a couple of the 4-5 books in each volume, which provided me with some exposure to classics and contemporary literature. This is one of the few I remember, though not in detail, so I thought it was time to reread the whole thing. I just remember that it was about the French Revolution and that the Scarlet Pimpernel was an exciting spy or something.

Actually, the Scarlet Pimpernel (named after a small flower in England) was an Englishmen, who in daring disguises helped French nobility escape the guillotine in 1792. (I now am curious about how many of the aristocracy were killed and what happened with the rest. Did they stay in England and other countries? Wikipedia gives the number of up to 40,000 civilians killed, but that was anyone who seemingly opposed the revolution.) We then get the story from the viewpoint of a French woman  Marguerite, who is married to slow witted Sir Percy Blakeney and who is forced to try to discover the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel by threats against her brother. Once the characters started appearing on the scene, I remembered who was the audacious rescuer of French aristocrats. But it was still a fun story and gave a bit of an insight into the French revolution and how it was viewed from the English side. Marguerite was a bit much - supposedly sharp witted, but dim in ways, putting people around her in danger. But then I have to remember that the book was written over 100 years ago - and by those standards, she was quite an adventurous woman. I guess I liked the book back in childhood, because it was probably one of the first secret identity, thriller type books I read. The genre has evolved since then, but I was always able to recognize the Scarlet Pimpernel reference, though the book itself has not crossed my path for decades until now. I like these circles of life.