I was so taken with the concept of this twist on The Scarlet Pimpernel that I read the whole thing on my iPod. My iPod, people! (Please, please can publishers release Kindle books internationally, and not tease UK readers with US only releases?) And C.P. Lesley's take on Orczy's novel is good fun, if not all that original (think Lost In Austen mixed with Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation novels). As published fan fiction goes, I quite enjoyed this reworking, minus the Marguerite bashing (and the necessary Lilliputian format).

A young grad student called Nina (or Ninel, which is Lenin backwards) joins four other classmates in a virtual reality simulation of The Scarlet Pimpernel. They must re-enact the novel, playing the five main characters - Sir Percy, Marguerite, Sir Andrew, Lord Tony and Suzanne de Tournay - and compete against each other to win a place in the oversubscribed class of their history professor, who will be playing Chauvelin. The Mary Sue plot device allowing Nina/the author to play Marguerite doesn't stand up to close inspection - who programmed Orczy's characters? - but achieves the aim of casting a new slant on an old story. The first half of the novel is a rehash of the original text, with inserts from Nina's perspective, so I'm not really sure of the intended audience - is Lesley colluding with other Pimpernel aficionados, or introducing the book to new readers? For myself, I didn't appreciate the little digs at Orczy's writing style and content - particularly when Lesley's own take contains similar inaccuracies (hoop skirts in the late eighteenth century? Calling the 1982 film adaptation the 'BBC version'?) Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I suppose, but don't start pulling apart the source material while borrowing heavily from another author.

Another irritation was the way Marguerite's character is treated - I don't know if C.P. Lesley was being ironic or simply prefers reading about Sir Percy, but at least try to be fair! After pages of ignoring the real Marguerite's personality in favour of Nina's narrative voice, suddenly Marguerite becomes a 'smart, funny French companion'. Yes, she is, so why do her down and then cut her out? In the limited words of Marguerite: 'What did you think? That you were better than me?' I don't know where modern readers get this insulting perception of Lady Blakeney, but they can't have read the novels properly - she is actually a very complex character who acts and responds like a human being, not an action hero. Nina is disgusted when Marguerite 'flirts' with Chauvelin at Dover, but Orczy's Marguerite knows better than to trust the French agent - she's aware of his true nature, and actually asks him, 'What - or who - are you doing in England?'

I didn't really get a sense of Nina and Ian (the student playing Sir Percy), bar the typical details found in most chick lit novels (Nina's quirky dress sense and a fear of heights, Ian with his random Scottish accent). And while Nina came to inhabit Marguerite completely, and could also tell Ian apart from Percy, the other role players, two of which were helpfully called Anthony and Suzanne, sort of faded out until the final 'return to reality' chapter. Basically, this is a retelling - and a recasting - of Orczy's novel, only Nina doesn't quite match up to Marguerite (she's scared to death of being driven in Percy's carriage - how is that dragging the character into the supposed gender equality of modern day sensibilities?)

Apart from those few inaccuracies and injustices, however, I did get a kick out of reading C.P. Lesley's first novel - and more importantly, I now want to go back and re-read all the original Scarlet Pimpernel books too! ( )