The Scarlet Pimpernel: Orczy Baroness

`Every step the Scarlet Pimpernel takes on French soil is fraught with danger`

The French Terror is raging, and few are safe from the threat of the guillotine. Sir Percy Blakeney, a foppish Englishman, decides to rescue imprisoned aristocrats before they can be executed. Showing great daring and aided by a band of brave comrades, he disguises himself as the formidable Scarlet Pimpernel. But will his beautiful French wife Marguerite unwittingly prove his downfall? Baroness Orczy`s swashbuckling 1905 novel set the standard for all future tales of masked avengers and was later adapted into a famous stage play and several film versions.

The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers` editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.