9 h 35 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 35 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In Paris, the guillotine waits. Across the Channel, a secret rescuer hides behind the sign of a red flower.
France, 1792. A band of English gentlemen smuggles condemned people out of the Terror, led by the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel. The French government wants him caught; London society wants to guess his name. Baroness Orczy’s adventure moves from a guarded Paris gate to the warmth of the Fisherman’s Rest, where talk and mystery fill the room.
Marguerite Blakeney, once a brilliant Paris actress, now shares a silent, troubled marriage with Sir Percy, a rich English baronet who seems devoted to clothes and empty jokes. Then Citizen Chauvelin finds a way to use her love for her brother, Armand. As he hunts the Pimpernel, Marguerite faces a terrible choice, with her brother’s safety and her husband’s trust at stake.
What you’ll discover
- Daring behind a disguise Follow secret rescues where quick thinking and false appearances stand between the condemned and death.
- A marriage behind silence Feel the strain as Marguerite and Percy struggle with judgments neither has spoken aloud.
- A patient, dangerous enemy Meet Chauvelin, whose hunt for a hidden name turns family love into a weapon.
- Loyalty under pressure Discover a league of young gentlemen bound by an oath and the risks of rescue.
- Wit with a ticking clock Enjoy brisk chapters, chases, and disguises that keep the danger close and the pages turning.
Who will love it
For readers who love fast plots, secret identities and romance with real tension, and anyone who enjoys history as costume drama, daring rescues and disguises.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Paris in the grip of the Terror
- A rhyme, an inn and a mystery
- A brilliant wife and a husband who bores her
- The League and its secret oath
- Chauvelin arrives with a demand
- Marguerite searches for a hidden name
- Love, trust and the cost of silence
- Orczy's view of the Revolution and its limits
- How the story is told: disguise, speed and wit
Who’s who
- Marguerite BlakeneyA brilliant French actress turned English lady, she loves her brother and wants her husband's trust back, but she is forced to make a terrible choice.
- Sir Percy BlakeneyA rich English baronet who plays a bored, foppish dandy in society, and whose wife senses there is more to him than he shows.
- Armand St. JustMarguerite's elder brother, a French idealist whose ties to the Pimpernel's League put him in danger and gives her enemies a hold on her.
- Citizen ChauvelinA cold and patient French agent sent to London to unmask the Pimpernel, and willing to use Marguerite's love for her brother to do it.
- Sir Andrew FfoulkesA young English gentleman and trusted friend of Sir Percy, who is secretly sworn to the League and tries to guard its work.
- Lord Antony DewhurstA cheerful young English lord and member of the League, who lives for the risk of each rescue and the loyalty of his friends.
- The Comtesse de TournayA French noblewoman who has escaped the Terror with her daughter Suzanne, and who owes her life to the unknown hero.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 35 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear La Primula Rossa in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La Primula Rossa
by Baronessa Orczy · 1905
A secret rescuer signs his notes with a red flower as a French agent uses a wife's love to hunt him.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Scarlet Pimpernel is an adventure novel by Baroness Orczy, first published in 1905. It grew out of a stage play she wrote with her husband, Montagu Barstow, and the novel soon outran it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Paris in the grip of the Terror
The novel opens in September 1792 at one of the gates of Paris. A crowd has gathered there, and the mood is ugly. Each day, the guillotine takes dozens of lives, and the people at the barrier come to watch the carts and cheer. Orczy describes a city run by fear, where a neighbor's whisper can send a family to the scaffold.
The soldiers at the gate are under orders. Nobody may leave Paris without being searched, because aristocrats are trying to flee. The sergeant in charge is proud of how thoroughly he does his work. Then a cart comes through, and the guards let it pass. Soon afterward they learn what they have missed. A group of the condemned has slipped out under their noses, and the only sign is a small red flower drawn on a scrap of paper.
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What is The Scarlet Pimpernel about?
It is about a secret English hero who rescues people from the guillotine during the French Revolution, and about Marguerite, a clever wife who is forced by a French agent to help hunt him.
Who is the Scarlet Pimpernel?
He is the unknown leader of a league of English gentlemen who smuggle the condemned out of France. His name is the central mystery, and he signs his notes with a small red flower.
Is The Scarlet Pimpernel a true story?
No. It is fiction, published in 1905 and set in 1792. The Reign of Terror is real, but the Pimpernel, his League and the plot are Orczy's invention.
The author
Baroness Orczy
1865–1947 · Hungarian-born British novelist
Baroness Orczy (1865–1947) was a Hungarian-born British novelist and playwright. Born Emma Orczy in Tarnaörs, Hungary, she moved to London in 1880. She wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel, published in 1905, and detective stories, including The Old Man in the Corner and Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. She died in London.
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