A Ramble through Smilie Land

OK Ive chosen to do the Baroness Emmuska Orczy next because I feel like a bit of true escapism, and nothing spells escapism quite like a rip roaring adventure daggers cloaks stupid gullible beautiful women.... the scarlet pimpernel
Unfortunately Ive read all the scarlet pimpernel books and the litnet doesn't hold my favourites and the point of this challeneg is to read books held by the litnet) so I decided to read one of 2 I hadn't read, now I know Castles of air should probably have been my first choice as it was shorter, but really I ha vent read one of these books in YEARS and the nostalgia demands I read the epic.

Little things:Lady Molly of Scotland yard is a fun set of short stories the female Sherlock Holmes. The grey man in the corner is rather weird I never quite got it, The one about Bonnie Prince charlie ( I think its called the black something) is really over the top highway men, conspiracy theories grand adventure disguise high speed chances life threatening illnesses... good for a chuckle though. The scarlet pimpernel series should really be called the Blakeley series as it includes 2 preludes to the Scarlet pimpernel about his ancestor (set in Holland something to do with the Prince of orange and some uprising thing? ) they are the laughing cavalier and the first sir Percy-- would you believe Ive retained all this rather useless information what is it I read them when I was 14 so 6 and a half years later. The children of the Revolution is the one scarlet pimpernel book where no Blakeley turns up actually its a story the scarlet pimpernel is telling to the Prince regent of a french couple hes recently got out of France..the guy was a peasant pro the revolution and the wife was an aristocrat who was forced to marry him. They there is a book randomly set after WWI called the pimpernel and Rosemary ( OK I had to look that up couldn't remember the name).
Oh yes The pimpernel wasn't actually a real person... although how cool would it have been if he was? I spent about 10 minutes the first time I read the book going wait is this a real person??
Anyway the Bio the litnet has is good she is actually quite an interesting lady. And her books are always rather amusing.
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Anyway onto my choice The nest of the sparrowhawk.

all the info I have to start with is the few words the litnet provides

A Romance of the XVIIth Century.


(1909)



~

Not really much to go on Ill have to write an introduction blurb thing once Ive read it.
Anyway so far from just reading the first few paragraphs of the first chapter I have a feeling that it will provide me with the dose of ridiculous melodrama I'm craving, enough to keep me amused for the next 20 hours or so, although its nearly 4 am and I'll probably just go to bed soon.
what is a Master hymn-of-Praise anyway ??
and whats with the names Busy, charity, Courage.... wait is hymn-of praise his name it cant be, can it?!

Ooh Puritans, 17th century England of course so another civil water bonny prince charlie thing good I think I quite enjoyed the silliness of the other one and Puritans would explain the funky names - mystery numero uno solved!
Oh dear goodness hymn-of-praise is his name, what evil parent saddles their child with that kind of name?

I think I might need to point out at this point that civil war/ uprising and struggles between classes in historical context are usually present in most of Orczy's books not surprising given her history really. Anyway if you are going to read her its usually a good idea to brush up on the big historical event of the period she is writing about because otherwise the political Me-me (whats the word) doings might get confusing.

But I think this is enough for the first post on Orczy.

Later OK this is the beauty of drafts I can keep adding to it as I go along... I did actually go to sleep but woke up less than 3 hours later and I doubt Ill be sleeping again so more of he story.. I'm loving itMcDonald's as it sounds. Actually I think I will develop a new a new rating scheme a Golden M means its fun but junky like junk food it make you happy but doesn't have alot of substantial value.

By chapter 6 we now have political a social unease , and Evil greedy poor Guardian (Marmaduke), a beautiful young naive heiress ward lady Sue, missing nephews who the rightful heirs to the dukedom he Guardian ( don't know their names yet think they might be twins), Quakers, and conspiracy theories, military dictatorship and oppression, spies, a mysterious exiled french prince- o some reason living in the cottage of the poor but strange Quakers in a tiny obscure village in the middle of nowhere, and servants who are running around spying on their masters in the hopes of finding dirt that they can use for blackmail so they can go off to London and get married.

More rambles in this book will continue in part 2
OT: Ha, my mum's internet explorer has an inbuilt spell checker I need to get this for my computer