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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
He plays the fool in public. In secret, he rescues people from the guillotine.
In The Elusive Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy takes you into France during the Terror, where being named an enemy of the Revolution can mean death. Sir Percy Blakeney seems devoted to fashion and jokes. Behind that mask, he leads loyal friends who help the hunted escape.
Chauvelin, a French agent already humbled by the Pimpernel, is determined to unmask and catch him. Percy's wife, Marguerite, knows his secret and lives with the fear it brings. As disguises shift and the pursuit tightens, rescue depends on quick thinking, trusted companions, and a convincing false face.
What you’ll discover
- A fool with a secret Look past Percy's elegant clothes and jokes to the daring purpose his public manner conceals.
- An enemy who remembers Follow Chauvelin's relentless pursuit as he seeks to catch the man who has shamed him.
- Love under strain Share Marguerite's fear as love for her husband means knowing the danger behind his disguise.
- Friends who risk everything Meet Lord Anthony Dewhurst and Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, trusted companions who follow Percy into danger.
- Faces you cannot trust Enjoy quick escapes and changing identities in a world where ordinary appearances can hide daring intentions.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy swashbuckling adventure, daring disguises, clever villains, and a love story set against the French Revolution.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Chauvelin gets another chance to hunt
- Kindness opens the door to danger
- A necklace turns hospitality into conflict
- Marguerite follows love into the trap
- Conscience becomes a stronger prison
- A town becomes part of the trap
- Percy faces a bargain over honor
- Marriage offers both strength and vulnerability
- The trap depends on human goodness
Who’s who
- Sir Percy BlakeneyA wealthy English dandy with a lazy laugh who secretly leads the League that rescues people from the guillotine and accepts a duel he knows is a trap.
- Marguerite BlakeneyPercy's loyal and brilliant wife, a former French actress who guards his secret and cannot bear to wait at home while he risks his life.
- ChauvelinA former French ambassador, thin and pale, who wants revenge for last year's defeat and plans to destroy the Pimpernel's honor, not just his life.
- Desiree CandeilleA vain French actress, a kitchen maid's daughter, who is lured by diamonds and the role of the Goddess of Reason to serve Chauvelin's plot.
- Abbe FoucquetA gentle old priest from Boulogne who is made Marguerite's jailer by threats against his blind niece and his nephew, yet wants only to pray.
- Juliette MarnyA young aristocrat rescued from the guillotine, who is grateful to the Blakeneys and distressed to see her mother's necklace on Candeille.
- Collot d'HerboisA brutal figure on the Committee of Public Safety who travels from Paris to Boulogne, seeking blood while Chauvelin seeks disgrace.
- RobespierreThe cold, ambitious leader of the Committee, who calls himself incorruptible and uses Chauvelin's hatred as a tool.
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The Elusive Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy · 1908
An English dandy accepts a duel in France that he knows is a trap, and his wife follows him into danger.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Those damned murderers haven’t caught me yet.”
In short
Paris, September 1793. In a ruined boudoir of the Tuileries, Robespierre sits in a sea-green coat and polishes his nails.
The Elusive Pimpernel at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 20 min4 h 15 min fast, 6 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 76,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1908by Baroness Orczy
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Paris invents a goddess and Chauvelin gets one chance
The book opens in a Paris that has run out of things to destroy and wants a new toy. The Convention decides that Christianity is finished and that France needs a faith of its own, with a Goddess of Reason played by a beautiful woman.
Robespierre says nothing. He works out how a festival could lift him higher, and Orczy shows his famous incorruptibility as a mask for ambition. Then she looks back two days. Prisoners have vanished from carts, and a landlady has handed over a scrap of paper left by an English lodger. It holds two lines of rhyme and a small red flower drawn in ink.
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Details
- First published
- 1908
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Orczy, Emmuska. The Elusive Pimpernel. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-elusive-pimpernel.
Orczy, E. (2026). The elusive Pimpernel. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-elusive-pimpernel (Original work published 1908)
Orczy, Emmuska. The Elusive Pimpernel. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-elusive-pimpernel.
@book{orczy2026elusive,
author = {Orczy, Emmuska},
title = {The Elusive Pimpernel},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-elusive-pimpernel},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is The Elusive Pimpernel about?
It follows Chauvelin, a French revolutionary, as he lures the Scarlet Pimpernel to Boulogne with a staged quarrel and a duel challenge. Sir Percy Blakeney's wife Marguerite is drawn into the trap, and the story builds around a hostage and a demand for his honor.
Who is the Scarlet Pimpernel?
He is the secret leader of an English League that rescues French nobles from the guillotine. His identity is the open secret of the story, since he hides behind the manner of a lazy fashionable baronet named Sir Percy Blakeney.
Do I need to read The Scarlet Pimpernel first?
The story stands on its own, since Orczy explains who the main people are and what happened at Calais a year before. Readers who know the first book will enjoy the echoes, but newcomers can follow every scene easily.
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.
“Those damned murderers haven’t caught me yet.”
More by Baroness Orczy
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