Exotic Romance: The Doubled Hero in The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Sheik

Abstract

I was born too late in the twentieth century to have my romance-reading fires lit by The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) or The Sheik (1919). My generation learned the structures of romance from Gone with the Wind (1939). Margaret Mitchell’s two heroes were actually two different men, not a doubled one; they did, however, appeal to the curious virgin and the managing mother in Scarlett, and in me. When I saw Leslie Howard play Ashley Wilkes in the film version, I knew why Ashley attracted me as much as Rhett, and wished they were both one hero; when later I saw Leslie Howard star in The Scarlet Pimpernel on late-night television I saw my doubled/unified hero in the flesh and went hunting the original novel. Little did I know at the time that this romanticized version of Englishness was written by a Hungarian émigré, that the 1934 film version I saw on television was produced by the Hungarian émigré Alexander Korda, and that its Regency dandy star was the grandson of a Hungarian.KeywordsFrench RevolutionWoman WriterFilm VersionHistorical RomanceAction HeroThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.