Historical fiction book · Curated
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Baroness Orczy · historical fiction
Series: The Scarlet Pimpernel
In 1792, as the Terror’s guillotine claims French aristocrats, a foppish English baronet named Percy Blakeney leads a league that smuggles the condemned out of Paris under the sign of a small red flower. Baroness Orczy’s novel is French Revolution historical adventure: double identity, a Channel chase, and the template for the masked rescuer.
Why read it: A perennial title-search historical adventure of the Reign of Terror—the founding masked-hero novel readers still look up by name, and a swashbuckling counterpart to Dickens’s revolution already on the shelf.
About this historical novel
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy is historical fiction set around 1792 in the Regency / Napoleonic period with key settings including Paris, London, Calais, France. In 1792, as the Terror’s guillotine claims French aristocrats, a foppish English baronet named Percy Blakeney leads a league that smuggles the condemned out of Paris under the sign of a small red flower. Baroness Orczy’s novel is French Revolution historical adventure: double identity, a Channel chase, and the template for the masked rescuer.
On HisFic we tag it under 6. Adventure & epic and 2. Historical romance so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include revolution, disguise, rescue, loyalty, and terror. A perennial title-search historical adventure of the Reign of Terror—the founding masked-hero novel readers still look up by name, and a swashbuckling counterpart to Dickens’s revolution already on the shelf.
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Plot summary
In 1792, as the Terror’s guillotine claims French aristocrats, a foppish English baronet named Percy Blakeney leads a league that smuggles the condemned out of Paris under the sign of a small red flower. Baroness Orczy’s novel is French Revolution historical adventure: double identity, a Channel chase, and the template for the masked rescuer. A perennial title-search historical adventure of the Reign of Terror—the founding masked-hero novel readers still look up by name, and a swashbuckling counterpart to Dickens’s revolution already on the shelf.
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Regions & places
Europe · Britain & Ireland
Paris · London · Calais · France · England
Themes
- revolution
- disguise
- rescue
- loyalty
- terror
Tags
classic · adventure · series