Saturday Morning at the Library

 

Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon in "The Scarlet Pimpernel"

When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.

This week, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. The first book in a series of historical novels. Sir Percy Blakeney an English dandy by day becomes the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel and rescues aristocrats during "The Reign of Terror" in the early days of the French revolution. 

First written as a play then turned into a novel. In 1934 turned into a movie starring Leslie Howard in the title role.

If you haven't read this book, you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg, or you may be able to find it at your library or favorite bookstore. The Baroness wrote a series of books about her Scarlet Pimpernel. Some of the other books of the series have also been digitized by Project Gutenberg.