Audiobook · read by volunteers
Elusive Pimpernel
Baroness Emma Orczy (1865–1947)
Read by Karen Savage · 35 chapters · 7 h 30
About the book
Paris, 1793: the Terror has begun, and the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel has saved many from the guillotine. Yet the daring Englishman is still the most hunted man in France, and his old enemy Chauvelin, now out of favour, has one last chance to redeem himself by capturing him. Baroness Orczy’s Pimpernel novel is a story of disguises, narrow escapes, spies and a hidden identity that nobody must guess. Sir Percy Blakeney and his wife Marguerite are again at the centre of the action, as friends and enemies close in. The pace is brisk, the twists are many, and the adventure is told with theatrical energy. One LibriVox volunteer reads all 35 chapters, for about seven and a half hours. It is swift, dramatic and full of suspense, a good companion for a long journey.
Introduction
Baroness Emma Orczy, who lived from 1865 to 1947, was born in Hungary and settled in England, where she became one of the most successful romantic novelists of her day. Her greatest creation was the Scarlet Pimpernel, the English gentleman who, under a mask of foppish idleness, rescues French aristocrats from the guillotine during the Revolution. The first novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel, appeared in 1905, and its stage version had a long London run.
The Elusive Pimpernel was first published in 1908, and it is one of the later adventures of the hero, who also returns in titles such as I Will Repay and El Dorado. Readers who already know the characters will be glad to meet them again, but the story can be followed without having read the others.
Orczy builds her plots around a simple opposition between courage and cunning on one side and fanaticism on the other. The settings move from London drawing rooms to French coasts and country roads, and Chauvelin, the Republic’s agent, is one of the most persistent villains in popular fiction. The books have often been called the model of the swashbuckling adventure, and they influenced later heroes who lead double lives.
The recording has 35 chapters, beginning with “Paris: 1793” and a retrospective chapter, and runs about seven and a half hours, all read by a single LibriVox volunteer. It is entertaining listening for lovers of historical adventure. The spoken form suits Orczy’s theatrical style, with its dialogue, disguises and cliff-hanging chapter endings. The chapters are short, which makes it easy to listen in small portions over several evenings.
Public domain
Baroness Emma Orczy died in 1947: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text