The Scarlet Pimpernel

Baroness Orczy, 1905

Adventure

A secret rescue network challenges the pursuit of aristocratic fugitives during the French Revolution.

Read the book Contents

Length: 31 chapters
Reading time: About 5 hr 55 min
Words: 84,380

About the book

The opening moves from a Paris barricade, where escape is a dangerous undertaking, to an English inn preparing for its guests. Between these settings lies the work of a mysterious rescuer whose identity is concealed behind the name of a small flower.

Orczy sets political danger beside social performance, using the contrast to sustain a story of pursuit and disguise. The narrator's fierce description of the revolutionary crowd establishes a partisan atmosphere. Reading the adventure involves watching the difference between what a person appears to be and what others can actually establish.

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Adventure

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Baroness Orczy died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original dedication.