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SUMMARY: England, 1793: The grieving widower Sir Christopher Larabee is called
upon to gather a group of men to assist the Scarlet Pimpernel, a mysterious
Englishman working in disguise to rescue innocents from the guillotine during
the French Revolution.
DISCLAIMER: The characters of the Magnificent Seven are owned by MGM, CBS,
and Trilogy. The characters and settings connected to the novel and musical
versions of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' were created by Baroness Orczy and Nan
Knighton. I am making no money from their use.
AU TYPE: This story was written in response to the January M7 fic challenge,
in which writers were asked to rewrite a movie or TV show using the M7
characters. While there have been several 'Scarlet Pimpernel' movies, this
version actually is based on the characters as presented in the1997 musical.
I've hopefully included enough explanation so that you don't need to be familiar
with either the book or the musical to understand the story. However, more
information never hurts! :) So we move on to...
A BIT OF BACKGROUND: 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' is the story of a wealthy Englishman
who, along with his friends, rescues imperiled Frenchmen, women and children
from the guillotine during the French Revolution. In order to protect himself
and his men, he adopts a disguise, that of The Scarlet Pimpernel, named after
a small red roadside flower. Written first as play in 1904 and turned into
a novel the next year, 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' was the first work of fiction
to give its hero a secret identity, marking itself as the forerunner to other
'secret identity' heroes such as Superman, Batman, Zorro, etc. Several more
'Pimpernel' books followed the first one.
There have been many versions of this story over the years; my favorite
is the 1997 musical by Nan Knighton and Frank Wildhorn, so that's the version
I based this story on. (Just the characterizations-this is not a musical
fic! :) ) I've based Sir Percival Blakeney on the performance of the wonderfully
talented and drop-dead gorgeous Douglas Sills, and his nemesis Chauvelin
on the equally talented and stunning William Michals.
ADDITIONAL INFO: Here are some very helpful links for anyone looking for
more information on the book/musical on which this fic is based:
http://sarahb1.tripod.com/sp/sp.html-this is a page my sister Sarah put together
with some pictures of Douglas Sills as Sir Percy and William Michals as Chauvelin
to give readers an idea of what those characters in my fic look like. Thanks,
sis!
http://www.thepimpernel.com -the site for the musical-has a synopsis of the
show's plot, and lots of great pictures!
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/scarp-table.html-the URL for an online
version of the first book in the series, 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'. Read how
it all began! The plot differs from the musical version, but all of the key
characterizations are the same.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Palais/1797- Blakeney Manor, a site devoted
to the Pimpernel in all of his incarnations. Contains e-texts for several
of the 'Pimpernel' books, as well as images, a great timeline plotting events
of the books alongside the French Revolution, 18th century fashion, and
more!
http://www.SirPercy.org-One of the most comprehensive Pimpernel sites around-more
e-texts of Pimpernel books, info on Pimpernel books, films, etc.
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/9027-Kelda Blakeney's Palace, a very
fun website dedicated to the musical. Lots of great pages, pictures,
contributions by fans, the Scarlet Pimpernel Message Board, and more!
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/4138/sp.html- "Into the Fire', an excellent
site featuring images, lyrics to songs from the show, etc., and a very nice
entrance page!
http://www.dragonfare.com/Pimpernel-A very well put together fan page for
the musical, with lyrics, images, a running account of seeing the musical,
etc.
I'd like to send big thanks to my sister Sarah and my betas NotTasha, Joan,
Carla and Sara for all their help and great suggestions!! You guys are the
best!!! I had a lot of fun writing this story, and their ideas helped make
it all fall into place!!!
I hope you all enjoy the fic!!
Sue :)
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