I patted The Scarlet Pimpernel and Poe"s very clever short story, The Purloined Letter. I think the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would suit me. Yes, a gentleman of breeding who rescues aristocrats who are about to be guillotined by the French Revolution, leaves a blood red flower (a scarlet pimpernel) behind in their place, and gallops off to his home, where his wife eventually joins forces against him, but he finally rescues her, as well, and her brother. A hero after my own heart. The Purloined Letter, a mystery and love story, dramatic and tragic, by the mad Poe. Both books made me yearn for an age when I could flaunt learning and cut to the quick of the action, but think my way out of a mystery and into a solution, be brave and be a man.
The Scarlet PimpernelThe Purloined Lette
