Caught My Fancy Friday: All things SCARLET PIMPERNEL

I grew up without internet. My reading was limited to what my library carried. I told my grandma that I didn't really need to go to the library anymore, because I'd read all their books. And I had--in the children's section--at least, everything that caught my interest.

The adult section was my salvation. Series were the best, because it was so hard to find good recommendations before goodreads and facebook!

And I found this series by Baroness Orczy:







My library's copies were bound in old cloth, smelled like decades of mold, and delighted me for hours.

And then I saw Anthony Andrew's Scarlet Pimpernel:



Costumes, perfect; acting, delightful; music, evocative; dialogue, witty. I bought a DVD and forced my children to watch it with me a couple of months ago. I was transported--I thought it held up beautifully and was as delightful as ever--but they found it to be mockery fodder. What do they know? They're the meme generation.














Okay, so as it turns out, I also love Scarlet Pimpernel memes.

 I think I've watched all the versions. I like the old one because of my soft spot for Leslie Howard:

But the Anthony Andrews one is the best.