Baroness Orczy

'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.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. “Vaguely she began to wonder … which of these worldly men round her was the mysterious ‘Scarlet Pimpernel,’ who held the threads of such daring plots, and the fate of valuable lives in his hands.” In the early days of the bloody French Revolution, fleeing aristocrats are being captured and sent to the guillotine. But the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel – along with his band of English gentlemen – is outwitting the revolutionaries. Known only by his calling card, he arrives in disguise and smuggles the nobles out of danger to the safety of England. But can he guard his true identity forever, or will he give his life for his cause?