Scarlet Pimpernal

Scarlet Pimpernal by Baroness Orczy

Orczy's bestselling novel had as its background the French Revolution. Sir Percy Blakeney is a mysterious hero, who saves the lives the French aristocrats and helps them to escape the guillotine. He falls in love with a beautiful actress, Marguerite St Just. To conceal from Marguerite and others his secret identity as the master of disguise, Sir Percy assumes the role of a clumsy English aristocrat. As a spy Percy can be seen as a forefather of James Bond and other espionage agents. The persecutor of the Scarlet Pimpernel is Citizen Chauvelin, an agent of Robespierre. Orczy's sympathies were shown clearly: she was suspicious of the "lower orders" and Pimpernel rescued the French nobility - sometimes others - only because he admired the nobility of all countries. Once Percy disguises himself as a Jew, thinking that the French despise Jews and do not ask questions. He also formed a band of helpers, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, Lord Anthony Dewhurst, Lord Hastings, etc..Fantastic classic story i've ever read.

About the author:



Baroness Emmuska Orczy was born in Tarna-Ors, Hungary, as the only daughter of Baron Felix Orczy, a noted composer and conductor, and his wife Emma.Orczy's first detective stories appeared in magazines. As a writer she became famous in 1903 with the stage version of the Scarlet Pimpernel. It was written with her husband - he co-authored two other plays, THE SIN OF WILLIAM JACKSON (1906), produced in London.