The Scarlet Pimpernel is by far the best known not only of Orczy?s works but also of stories set during the French Revolution, although the Hungarian-born novelist wrote many more historical novels and a number of sequels to this 1905 novel. It has been dramatised and also filmed a number of times with great success and is a fun if not always historically accurate or wholly convincing story. The novel tells of the mysterious and much spoken-of League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. This group is led by the cunning and noble Sir Percy Blakeney who with accomplices risks life and limb rescuing the innocents caught up in the Reign of Terror in Paris. His disguises and other inventive ways of eluding capture stretch to his anonymity even amongst the English. It is an entertaining yarn, as suited to children as adults but none the worse for its simplicity.