How to Tie a Cravat, and 13 Thermidor

[simply_kelp]

I just found this comm tonight. I do so adore the Scarlet Pimpernel (despite chère Margot, and the Baroness’ dodgy writing…). I come bringing two fanfiction:

Title: How to Tie a Cravat: or how the Scarlet Pimpernel was successfully able to seduce Armand Chauvelin in one-hundred words exactly.
Author: Simply Kelp
Pairing: hinted Pimpernel/Chauvelin

Comments

[madeleinestjust]

I don't really like being told which characters I should like (since I generally like the ones you shouldn't like...)

Do you know, I'm usually like that, too - I fight against 'worthy' characters, and refuse to read 'cult' titles (like The Da Vinci Code) - but I have never had any issues with Marguerite. I probably should have - she is definitely a proto-Mary Sue - but perhaps I also like her because she is everything I'm not, as well as everything that the Baroness wanted to be. I love her, really - she's beautiful, popular ... French ... and married to a wealthy man who loves her, and is also her romantic hero! I would probably have found it more realistic if she wasn't so universally well liked - I can imagine that there would have been some bitching behind her back! - but I do appreciate how she is also very flawed. She did denounce the Marquis de St Cyr, despite what the films insist to the contrary, and did so out of spite - he embarrassed her family, and she nursed a grudge for four years until she could get her revenge! She is also proud, vain and manipulative, but also insecure and a little naive.

If you only read one of the sequels, I recommend Eldorado - Marguerite is still perfect and wonderful, but Percy and her brother really put her through the wringer. Also, it's darker and better written than the first novel. You may finish up wanting to slap Jeanne, Armand's girlfriend, but that's perfectly natural!

I would love to read more of your stories - post away!

[simply_kelp]

My brother says that I have a pathological obsession with hating main characters; which isn't exactly true... I like Dantes from Count of Monte Cristo (but he's not your average goody-goody MC)... So that probably explains part of why I'm not fond of Margot.

I didn't remember that she denounced St. Cyr four years later... Maybe I should reread the book; I'm very fuzzy on the details (and that would probably help me to get more ideas for writing!). And I'll have to check out Eldorado. (Is that the one I've heard about where Armand mysteriously ages backward?)
<3Kelp

[madeleinestjust]

(Is that the one I've heard about where Armand mysteriously ages backward?)

Heh, yes, but he suits the 'younger brother' role better - particularly with his behaviour in this story! As to St Cyr, I think it was about that - he had Armand beaten 'some two years' before the Revolution began in 1789, so ... yeah. I have read that book far too many times, and it's not even the best of the bunch!