Orczy, << AWR tsih, >> Baroness (1865-1947), was a Hungarian-born English author known chiefly for her adventure-filled novels and detective stories. She also wrote several plays.
Orczy’s most famous novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905), is set during the French Revolution (1789-1799). The hero, an English aristocrat named Sir Percy Blakeney, appears to be an idle, useless person. But, as the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, he gallantly rescues aristocrats who have been sentenced to death. This character also appears in 12 other novels.
Orczy created several detectives in various short stories. For example, the nameless Old Man in the Corner solves baffling crimes as he sits in a corner of a London teashop, knotting and unknotting a piece of string. He appears in the story collection The Old Man in the Corner (1909). Another detective, Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk, one of the first female detectives, is featured in the collection Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910).
Baroness Emmuska Orczy was born on Sept. 23, 1865, in Tarnaors, Hungary, near Jaszbereny. Her family moved to London when she was 15. She died on Nov. 12, 1947.
