Science Fiction & Fantasy: ‘Scarlet’ by Genevieve Cogman

Summer has few real holidays, so here’s hoping you all had a delightful Bastille Day! I celebrated by playing the card game “Guillotine” with my family and reading “Scarlet” by Genevieve Cogman. The author of the popular Invisible Library series now tackles two of the bloodiest subjects in the literary world: the French Revolution, and, of course, vampires, in a lively retelling of the Scarlet Pimpernel stories by Baroness Orczy.

Eleanor Dalton works in the English household of Lady Sophie, Baroness of Basing, where she is tasked with all the sorts of mid-level drudgery a servant slowly climbing her way through the ranks could expect. She dreams of working as a dressmaker or embroiderer someday, but for now Eleanor is just glad she’s no longer a scullery maid—a job whose duties include opening a vein so the Lady might enjoy a glass of her blood now and then. In this version of history, there are vampires among the nobility—“sanguinocrats,” as they are called. (In our world, that evocative term was used to describe Robespierre’s bloodthirsty Reign of Terror.)

Eleanor’s formidable sewing talents set her apart from her peers, but she also has one other feature of which she has been ignorant until now: a face that could be mistaken for Marie Antoinette’s. Enter the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, a secret aristocratic boys’ club dedicated to saving French nobility from the guillotine. They spot the resemblance and press Eleanor into their plans to rescue the imprisoned queen. Eleanor complies, for she believes the nobility do not necessarily deserve their fate. She is also promised her own shop as a reward for helping. Facile-peasy!

Except, of course, it’s not. Eleanor is set upon by angry mobs, unhinged ancient vampires, and worst of all, Armand Chauvelin of the Committee for Public Safety. The only thing this “revolutionary” wants more than the death of all the aristocrats is a secure position for himself and his daughter—along with a mansion. And power.

Besides the constant threats of violence, Eleanor has to endure the social and emotional repercussions of being with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, but not in it. As a woman and a member of the common people, she has to mind her step around her aristocratic co-conspirators. When she dares to correct their presumptions about how the world works they can get testy: Lord Charles in particular always nastily puts her in her place (but he also might be falling in love with her, another problem).

Eleanor comes to realize that what she wants more than anything else is control over her own life, something which the nobility, vampires and even the sans-culottes deny her. It isn’t until Eleanor is accidentally united with the bodiless spirit of a sorceress long dead—a state that comes with problems both like and unlike Eleanor’s—that our heroine begins to see a way out.

“Scarlet” is a satisfying, historically accurate adventure that doesn’t lean too heavily on its one fantastical invention. Two fangs up, and vive la révolution!