Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) · AuthorAuthor
Baroness Orczy
1865-1947 · Hungarian-born British novelist and playwright, creator of The Scarlet Pimpernel
About Baroness Orczy
Emma Orczy (1865–1947), known as Baroness Orczy, was born in Tarnaörs, Hungary, the daughter of a baron and composer, and settled with her family in London as a girl, where she studied art. With her husband, the illustrator Montague Barstow, she wrote the stage play The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the novel of 1905 made her name. She wrote many sequels about Sir Percy Blakeney and his league, as well as detective stories, including those of the Old Man in the Corner.
Notable works
- The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905)
- I Will Repay (1906)
- The Elusive Pimpernel (1908)
- The Old Man in the Corner (1909)
- Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910)
- Eldorado (1913)
On this site
The Scarlet PimpernelBaroness Orczy
1905 · Early 20th Century · Novel
The Scarlet Pimpernel opens in Paris in September 1792, at the height of the Revolution's Terror, where crowds gather at the city gates to watch aristocrats caught trying to flee. Sergeant Bibot boasts that no one will slip past him, yet the hideous old woman whose cart he waves through, after she hints that her grandson inside has smallpox, is the mysterious Englishman known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, and the Comtesse de Tournay and her children are hidden beneath the load.