I Will Repay by Emmuska Orczy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well, this was deeply, deeply enjoyable.
The third in the Scarlet Pimpernel series, I Will Repay is, perhaps, more constructively understood as a book in which the Scarlet Pimpenel plays something of a guest role. The attention is entirely upon Juliette Marny and Paul Déroulède and their star cross’d romance against the bloody darkness of the revolution. Percy Blakeney does pop in but for the main, we’re with Juliette and Paul and it’s kind of fabulous. I am very appreciative of books that lean completely into what they are and I Will Repay does that with abandon. We have swash, we have buckle, we have high, high romance, and it’s all completely ridiculously fabulous and wildly emotional and I loved it.
It’s also important to note that underneath all of the (melo)drama, we also have a very gritty and severe look at the impact of the revolution. Orczy is unafraid of giving you all of the blood and truth of those years and the pages sing with mention of the Widow Capet, Charlotte Corday, Marat and so on. Boxes are left out for the written denunciation of the fellow man; the guillotine is monitored by blood-thirsty mobs, Paris is wild and dark and full of fear. And it’s powerfully done. The writing is so, so confident and unabashed and knows entirely what it’s trying to do.
I loved this. It was precisely what I needed. I am so very here for books that just lean into themselves and I Will Repay does that and then some.
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Daisy May Johnson 