The Scarlet Pimpernel: How a Victorian Era Woman Invented Modern Superheroes

[@joshmckell9]

I remember a friend told me once, "go see the Scarlet Pimpernel," so I went and bought tickets :) only after I bought the tickets did I look up the plot synopsis to discover that the Scarlet Pimpernel is the OG Superhero Archetype, and being a fan of superheroes myself it became my favorite show :D glad I found this video for reference!

[@EllieDashwood]

Your friend lead you in the right direction!

[@Ammeeeeeeer]

"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is basically a Batman story told from the POV of Selina Kyle who married Bruce Wayne and she discovered he is Batman because Alfred forgot to lock up the Batcave 🤣

[@williamdelmar3964]

Wow, I just reached a similar conclusion.

[@alondraperez-ramirez8363]

I think the metaphor would fit better with Silver St. Cloud or Andrea Beaumont on account of them not having their own alter ego when dating Bruce but otherwise spot on.

[@citrinedragonfly]

The Pimpernel is also the inspiration for Zorro, who was the template for Batman.

[@madamepampadour]

Zorro was made a few years later, 1919

[@alyssakortright4679]

Oh my gosh! I could talk about the Scarlet Pimpernel for hours! I’ve read every Percy book, the two prequels, and an Austen/Pimpernel spin-off sequel! I’ve also seen four Pimpernel movies. So happy there’s someone else who loves the series too!

[@EllieDashwood]

Yay!!! All Pimpernel fans unite! That’s so cool! Which book is your favorite?

[@alyssakortright4679]

@@EllieDashwood I love the first book, of course, and Eldorado is epic! The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel was also great but took awhile to get going.

[@EllieDashwood]

Those sound so exciting! I am awful at reading ebooks because they give me a headache so I haven’t been able to read a lot of the Pimpernel books. I randomly picked up the first book at the thrift store and loved it so much. Did you find physical copies of the sequels or did you read them ebook?

[@alyssakortright4679]

@@EllieDashwood I have physical copies. I think Amazon sells all of them. I believe they also sell bigger books that have collections of about three. I do have a Kindle that I like to use, but for those books, I did prefer having print copies. There's something about holding it in my hands while I enjoy it! How many Pimpernel books have you read?

[@EllieDashwood]

That’s good to know! I’ll have to check it out! I have read the first book multiple times and then got the audiobook for the second book, but I got distracted by life part way through and need to get back to it.

[@viniri]

You have no idea how excited I am to see a video on The Scarlet Pimpernel! It's my favorite book of all time. It's so great to hear someone talking about it!

[@MagnoliaBelle369]

YES! Thank you!!! I've been saying this for years! I've been a Pimpernel since I was introduced to the book and series in middle school. To this day I even wear a signet ring of the Scarlet Pimpernel flower. My teacher was a massive Anglophile, and the school term was spent solely focused on the time of the French Revolution. We watched SP and A Tale of Two Cities. (We were supposed to watch Les Mis, but she couldn't get a copy of it. In hindsight as an adult now I'm glad for that, and can't believe how much I loved A Tale as I did as a teen. It's a Horrible story.) We learned to write with quill and ink, and to seal letters with wax.... 30 years later and I can still remember the smell of that wax. Like burnt autumn leaves. But I had this same realization too, many years ago. How more people can't see that Percy is a super hero, is the world's first, and that Baroness Orczy (a woman) wrote the first super hero storyline, astonishes me. But Stan Lee recognized her and Percy and the significance of the SP series, because he publicly stated in interviews that reading SP and the League books is what inspired him to create his characters, and eventually Marvel. That is the highest praise The Baroness and the series could ever receive. I just wish a new and cinematically spectacular movie was done for the Scarlet Pimpernel. (On par with the new production of Napoleon. It looks to be epic. Cinematically spectacular.) The books and the characters deserve a full movie production, with today's special effects and quality of cinematography, while staying true to the characters and the original storyline.

[@kristispangler9435]

I just found you today. LOVED your connection between Orczy and the modern superhero. Never thought about that connection. I loved TSP and have read or listened to it several times. I simply must read all of the other installments. Thank you for sharing your insights ~

[@EllieDashwood]

Aw, thank you! And welcome to the channel! 😃😃😃

[@jmarie9997]

When I read it as a kid, I was surprised by a heroine who wasn't an eighteen year old girl. Marguerite knew she was pretty, enjoyed being rich, wore fashionable clothes, and snarked back when insulted. She also didn't hesitate to use her husband's friendship with the Prince of Wales to slap down the woman who insulted her. Until then, all the romances I had read were Mills and Boon, with heroines who were so humble, I couldn't stand them. I do wish someone would make a movie doing her justice.

[@reinematthews7480]

Wouldn't Robin Hood be considered the first super hero? He was Robin of Locksley, but his alter ego was Robin Hood and has similar things that other super heroes go through. Just a thought. But I did watch the Scarlet Pimpernel after you mentioned it and I loved it!!! It was so good.

[@gabbar51ngh]

I think we are making a huge jump here. Swashbuckler were their own genre & way older. It eventually led to pulpheroes some of which like Zorro were swashbucklers but SciFi & fantasy elements started to take in. Eventually pulpheroes led to superheroes.

[@fructuous7242]

@@gabbar51ngh honestly the lines between pulp heroes and superheroes are very blurry

[@gabbar51ngh]

@@fructuous7242 I think there's a difference between pulpheroes & Superheroes. In pulpheroes the heroes themselves didn't always had powers. It was very rare. It was mostly about them entering a fantastical or Adventurous world. Like John Carter on Mars, Tarzan raised in jungle, Green Hornet with Mafia or phantom fighting pirates. When superheroes came into trend. The emphasis was on superpowers even if they live in an ordinary World. Superman despite being so powerful works as a journalist & ordinary guy. Spiderman without superpowers is just a smart whiz kid. I think this is what separates the two. It's not a clear cut difference since characters like Punisher fit the pulphero mold & characters like doc savage & shadow have powers. There's outliers but this seems to be major difference.

[@rlkinnard]

Robin does not have a dual life as Robin of Loxley and Robin Hood; he is a full time Robin Hood though you are right that he does do some scouting around in disguise.

[@lakrids-pibe]

In the first stories about Robin Hood he was just Robin Hood. The origin story of being Robin of Locksley was a later invention, to give him a more refined background, and not just a common bandit. And he didn't switch between the two identities to hide the fact that he was doing the Robin Hood things.

[@abrahemsamander3967]

Thanks for this video. I definitely plan on reading the scarlet pimpernel soon. We need to give more recognition to old adventure authors like Baroness Orzy, Rafael Sabatini, and who could forget Alexandre Dumas? I would also recommend Harold lamb, historian and adventure novelist. The early history of super hero’s, from the Victorian and Wild West era dime novels, to the hard boiled pulps of the 20s and 30s, deserves more recognition.

[@teresaellis7062]

I have loved the Scarlet Pimpernel since I found a CD of the musical at my library. I was looking up the Millennium Falcon and found "Falcon in the Dive". The CD lead me to the book and then, I guess I was kind of obsessing over the music and my dad found that the musical was playing in a city near us and I got to see it! My dad took my sisters and I to the showing. That was like, 20+ years ago and I am still a big fan of Orczy and The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is one of the few romance books I enjoy. I have been going through the other books in the series recently and now KZbin exists and I can find more Pimpernel content that I didn't know existed all those years ago, like a black and white TV series! Your mom might not understand your love of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but there are quite a few of us who do. 😍

[@EllieDashwood]

Yay! All the Pimpernel fans unite! 🎉 That is a cool Pimpernel fan origin story! And the sad thing is this is one of my lowest viewed videos on KZbin and so my mom is like, "See, what did I say?" 😂😂😂

[@pamliebegott6227]

Ellie. Love you channel. Just need to point out that the Scarlet Pimpernal occurred during the French Reign of Terror/Georgian Era. By the Regency, Napoleon was the French Emperor and Wellington was in a knock down, drag out fight with French troops in Spain and Portugal. Hmmm. Maybe you could do a segment on the impact in the UK of the war in Spain as well as the subsequent occupation of France?

[@sylvanaire]

Zorro is another Superhero w/a secret identity that is much closer in time to the Scarlet Pimpernel than Batman or Superman, being written in 1919 by Johnston McCulley for his novel, The Curse of Capistrano, & he’s my favorite example of the genre! 😊 Especially the silent film w/Douglas Fairbanks Sr. 🥰

[@LK-se2ju]

The Scarlet Pimpernel is great! I binged read like last week. I recently watched a booktuber rage about the series. He kept saying it’s nothing but “old pulp fiction”; and “she only kept writing it because it was popular”. GASP - the horror of writing books people like. Happy Holidays and I am so surprised you posted a video... ooo pretty please do a video on the “holidays” during Austen times.

[@EllieDashwood]

😂 That is so funny. It’s true, the last thing any writer would want to do is write something people like reading. Oh the horror. 😂 That’s a great idea. I’ll add it to my ideas list! Also, welcome to the Pimpernel fan club! 🎉

[@LK-se2ju]

@@EllieDashwood Thanks! For your entertainment: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqSQqWNnpJhmmcU Honestly, reading Austen I thought Michaelmas was another name for Christmas. I just learned it’s another whole holiday that fell out of fashion!

[@EllieDashwood]

Thanks! And I thought the same thing the first time I ever read P&P!!!

[@abrahemsamander3967]

L K. That’s something that happens a lot. Old pulp stories written for fun are looked down upon by literature snobs. But they always prevail in the end! Read some other pulps too, they’re great. Even if Orczy wrote before pulp magazines were a thing, she’s a definite ancestress.

[@signespencer6887]

I read The Scarlet Pimpernal when I was a teenager and I LOVED it.

[@EllieDashwood]

Yay! That's awesome!

[@Violet1686]

One of my all time favorite stories 😍

[@prettypic444]

i know it's more of an "early 20th century American pulp" novel, but i'd love a part 2 about Zorro's influence on the genre and relation to the pimpernel

[@rebekasomogyi2695]

This is one of my all-time favourite books! And I also love the film (1982) even though it is nearly a different story (which is very rare for me). :D I'm so glad to see this book get some appreciation. :))

[@EllieDashwood]

It definitely needs more appreciation!!! And yes, it's story is so different in the film versus the book. And yet they're both good. A really rare feat!

[@ellymaschinowrinn8609]

What an interesting premise! I think you are correct but the Scarlet Pimpernel is much more elegant and gentlemanly so he appeals to me more than a Batman or Superman. She made up this character but put him in an actual historic situation. She wrote it in such a way that he could have existed whereas Batman and Spiderman and Superman are more fantasy. Even Zorro could have existed. Johnston McCulley fashioned it in such a way that he was a plausibly real hero. Zorro is very similar to the Scarlet Pimpernel although he doesn't have a loyal band of fops to aid him. Sir Percy and Don Diego share similar qualities especially their sense of justice... and their sense of humor. Simple calling cards finish the effect. I recall finding the Scarlet Pimpernel in the library as a teenager and I couldn't put it down! I binge-read until I finished it. Good thing it was a Saturday! 😂 After that I managed to find a few other of her novels and imagine my delight when I happened upon a treasure trove of her works - including Lady Molly - in the bowels of my university library! They've probably been tossed out by now but I enjoyed them very much. Thank you for posting! ❤

[@YToVSTRoX0]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Victorian woman in possession of a good fortune came with the basic super hero traits. Sir Percy Blakeney is dashing, witty, ingenious and brave, just as Ulysses and Cyrano of Bergerac were before his time.

[@deblawrence8341]

Just discovered you and found this video utterly brilliant! I'm going in for more . . .

[@fruzsimih7214]

Which film version was that of the Scarlet Pimpernel? It's fun to see Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen in it!

[@lakrids-pibe]

It looks like the TV adaption from 1982, with Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy.

[@Zeel_BTS]

Scarlet Pimpernal was a course book in my 6th grade English and it's literally my favourite book about heroes XD

[@carolinaceci8817]

Ellie, I simply love your videos! They are so enlightening and neatly done. Pride and Prejudice is certainly one of my favourite books and all your videos have helped me find it even more delightful. But, before I read Pride and Prejudice in my late teens, my absolutely favourite book was Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. I used to read it over and over again when I was a kid, absolutely fascinated by Jim's bravery and terrified and awed by Silver's treachery. And in between, I read The Pirate, by Sir Walter Scott... and Why am I telling you this? Because I would love hearing your videos on them too... Those two books are certainly not like Pride and Prejudice, but I think they share a sort of "era mentality", being the sense of honour of those times a continuous link among them. Well, for some time now I had been wanting to ask you if you would like to comment on those two books too. It would certainly be very interesting. Thank you for your videos so far. I really enjoy them!

[@peterwindhorst5775]

he also had the Batcave. In his rescues of royals, he used caves in Brittany to hide them.

[@christopherflux6254]

He also has a superhero name so ridiculous and campy that it makes his enemies fall down laughing

[@sjbh7371]

I love that you say thank you to Alexa! I say it to Google, part habit, part because I think it teaches my kids good manners :) Love your videos!

[@Kelly-zv6ui]

Do you like the 1940s movie with Leslie Howard?

[@MutantsInDisguise]

I hope to read the book sometime, but I'm proud to know a woman invented the superhero concept.

[@kathyp1563]

Thanks for this. I saw your video just before I went on vacation, so I got this book from the library. Fun read. The romantic theatrics were very, very corny. I'm not a big rom-com fan, so I had to roll my eyes a bit now & then. but, overall I'm glad I read the book. Surprised to see it's a series, because he was exposed in the first book. I'll check out the others, eventually.

[@EllieDashwood]

I love how over the top the romance is just for the amusement of it. 😂 I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@kathyp1563]

@@EllieDashwood Oh, I forgot to ask.... Do you think the fact that Sir Percy & the Scarlet Pimpernel being the same person was supposed to be a reveal for the original reader? I remember the first time I read "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hide". Somewhere through the story, I realized that what is common knowledge today was actually a great reveal at the end of the book. It was purposely written so people wouldn't know. I couldn't quite tell if Scarlet Pimpernel was written to hide his identity. I think it may have been.

[@Andrea_of_AtLastCrochet]

Isn't it surprising when someone points out something obvious and you never put the pieces together yourself? This video did that for me. Sigh. As Percy was fond of saying, "There is nothing so bad, as not so bad." Have a look at the old 1938 Scarlet Pimpernel sometime. It's my favorite. I saw the Anthony Andrews Pimpernel when I was a kid and liked the swash-buckling fun of it. Later, I watched the black and white film, sometime in college, and just loved it. I even got my husband to like it. I'll have to dig up the other books also since I have only read the first one. Thanks for an interesting connection video of where supers came from.

[@EllieDashwood]

Yay for all the Pimpernel fans! Good job getting your husband into the fandom. 😃

[@fruzsimih7214]

Yes, that's a great movie! With Leslie Howard as the Scarlett Pimpernel (most people today may know this great British actor as Ashley from Gone With the Wind).

[@CDcooper3876]

The league of the scarlet pimpernel is the original ATeam and Sir Percy is original ColJohn Hannibal Smith

[@CatarinaCasanova-p6l]

It's very true that up until that point , most of the main protagonists of books were more 'romantic ' heroes. So for the non-literature people out there, when I talk about heroes of the Romanticism (late 18th century to mid 19th century) I mean your French and British Byronic anti-heroes, your Count of Monte Cristo, your Phantom of the Opera, your Heathcliff in Wuthered Heights...it's a whole spectrum but basically guys that are commiting horrible things but, with affairs of the heart (emotional , vindictive) personnas. Sir Percy from what I have heard and read is...more on the lawful good spectrum leaning towards chaotic. He's helping the 1 percent (which is something I honestly don't give a f) ...but looking from a privilege noblewoman who was seeing all these movements of Republics back in the 20th century flourishing, I honestly feel like she wanted something else than a criminal. Btw, even though the whole 'morally good hero with an alter-ego wasn't invented till the Scarlet Pimpernel, I can say that the idea of heroes did exist. It's just more often than not , they were ...very flawed characters. Give Emilio Salgari's books a read, Ellie Dashwood. The first three I think were published before the Baroness's first book. I can see her taking some inspiration from Salgari's own books.

[@Sechrest65]

I’m nitpicking, but did the Baroness invent the SP during the Victorian Era or the Edwardian Era?

[@MementoMorituri]

Sink me!!! How did I not see this video before now? Surprised you didn't mention Zorro, who was more directly inspired by Sir Percy and the Pimpernel. I think Baroness Orczy may have had a predecessor. Eugene Sue in his Mysteries of Paris series which was, I believe early or mid 19th century had a crime fighter named Rodolphe le Justicier who hung out in the slums and knew all the customs, even as he fought for justice but was in reality Prince Rodolphe of the (fictional) kingdom of Gerolstein. A precursor to Sir Percy surely.

[@LaurenCohen67]

Didn't know a woman wrote it :-) Thank you for this very interesting video 🤓

[@EllieDashwood]

You’re welcome! 😃 Thanks for watching!

[@nathanwilkowski3131]

The Wayne family are secretly the descendants of the Blakely family...

[@lornenoland8098]

They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere…

[@basura8355]

cinema peaked with the tobey maguire spider-man movies

[@EllieDashwood]

This is very true.

[@auntyjo1792]

Leslie Howard as The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pimpernel Smith was pretty good.

[@ianbowden2524]

Not to mention how much Zorro took from this character.

[@kevinyoka4258]

I know this is an old video but if you happen to find the inspiration for this character, please 😊enlighten us

[@b0000sie]

🤺

[@كاتيكاتي-ز8ج]

I was waiting for a Nikola Tesla rant 😂

[@EllieDashwood]

😃 Just watch the video with my mom and you will get one! 😂😂😂

[@nebucamv5524]

Do I hear some Kiwi accent? 😁

[@rlkinnard]

The same person who plays Chauvelin plays the anti hero, Magneto, in the X man films. Being Hungarian, Orczy throws in some gratuitous anti semitism in the book.

[@BrettCaton]

Except this didn't happen. Anymore than the tale of Gilgamesh did. This is a retcon.

[@OriginalAkivara]

So the Scarlet Pimpernel was never written and we're all talking about, what, some kind of mass hallucination?