Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I don't see as big a difference between the theme and execution of Scarlet Pimpernel and Musketeers, with the 60 years between them at a time when the world changed more slowly, than I do between Scarlet Pimpernel and now, over a hundred years later. In fact, I think TTM has aged far better; the people are flawed but real, and not just paragons in the heroic mode.
|
I see big differences. Scarlet Pimpernel was so obviously a translation from a stage play that all the early chapters (at least) felt like stage settings; it is not big surprise that the story should move quickly. The over-the-top descriptions and dialogue of the characters in Scarlet Pimpernel make it feel light, and I assume this was the author's intention, and it stays light all the way through.
Whereas the Musketeers was all novel. Long lead in with much more depth and background to more characters. The writing was serious, not fluffy (and almost garish like Sir Percy himself) like the Pimpernel. And even if the Musketeers story began with a certain feeling of lightness, this changed slowly to the quite dark ending.
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
The Scarlet Pimpernel seems very much of its time to me, a typical turn of the last century romance. I was thinking along those lines and that the apotheosis of that type of novel was probably The Prisoner of Zenda when I realized that they were the inverse of each other; SP has one man in a dual role, and PoZ has two men as a single person. The biggest difference, though, is that PoZ was contemporary, albeit set in a fictional country.
|
The previous comments should not be construed to suggest that I think
The Scarlet Pimpernel was a great work of literature. It was, as you say, a fairly typical romance of the author's time. But I feel as if I understand what Orczy intended with The Scarlet Pimpernel as a novel. Whereas I am far from sure I understand what Dumas intended with the Musketeers, there are what seem to me to be inconsistencies in the styling of it that leave me puzzled. If that is a result of the passage of time then I'd have to say Musketeers has not aged well, but I accept that it could be a lack of understanding on my part.