I don't know how I missed reading this classic when I was in school, but I wish I had discovered it sooner. Mind you, I'm not sure how much I knew about the French Revolution back then, so I wouldn't have appreciated it.
How times have changed! I'm willing to bet that the English don't adhere to monarchist values quite so tightly any more, King Charles being much less popular than his mother, Elizabeth II. However I would hope that people would still rescue those condemned to death by kangaroo courts.
Marguerite was annoying, being thick as a brick, not the most intelligent woman in Europe as the author assured us repeatedly. But that is less important than the romance of the tale. It's not often that we read of a romance between husband and wife, but all of this plot was geared towards getting Sir Percy and Marguerite to be truthful with each other and to trust. To regain the love that precipitated their marriage.
Percy's act of being a good natured fop fools everyone quite successfully. He sets the standard for many of the current pop culture heroes. Superman fools people simply by wearing glasses and Batman’s alter ego is the unremarkable Bruce Wayne. Sir Percy is far more dramatic.
This also brought to mind a cartoon I watched as a child—Klondike Kat, who pursued a French Canadian mouse known as Savoir Faire. The rodent's tag line was “Savoir Faire eez everywhere," as he pulled off yet another escape from the cat's clutches. My closest brush with the Scarlet Pimpernel until now!
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