Just added: Four eBooks from Baroness Orczy!
We’ve just added four classic books from Baroness Orczy, two novels and two short story collections! Our new titles 
include The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Elusive Pimpernel, The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Old Man in the Corner. The eBooks feature new introductions by Otto Penzler, and have been professionally proofread and formatted to ensure readability on any device.
In the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, one man dares to fight for the terrorized nobility: that man is mild-mannered Englishman Sir Percy Blakeney, better known as his heroic alter-ego, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Armed with only a mask and a sword The Scarlet Pimpernel travels repeatedly to France, each time narrowly saving aristocrats—and himself—from the scourge of the guillotine.
The Scarlet Pimpernel was first introduced to the public in 1903, when a play written by Orczy and her husband opened in England. As the character’s popularity grew, Orczy began publishing fiction that chronicled his adventures, introducing a series that would continue for the next 35 years, and crafting one of the most enduring heroes of the twentieth century, whose popularity in film persists into the present day.
But Orczy wrote other characters as well, and The Old Man in the Corner introduces a Sherlock Holmes-like detective, a man that, without leaving the café in which he passes the days, solves crimes simply by reading about them in the newspaper. In a collection of stories, he deduces the culprits in cases of murder, blackmail, and counterfeit, all to the wonder of his companion, a young journalist.
Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) was a member of the Hungarian aristocracy who came of age living in England. She began writing as a way to supplement her husband’s low earnings, and, after some initial frustrations, eventually found her biggest success with the Scarlet Pimpernel character.
