Baroness Orczy

Born Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci in 1865 to a noble Hungarian family, Baroness Orczy moved to London as a child. She studied art but turned to writing, achieving fame with her 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel, which she adapted from a successful play. Set during the French Revolution, it introduced Sir Percy Blakeney, a foppish English aristocrat who secretly rescues condemned nobles—a prototype for later superheroes. The novel spawned numerous sequels and adaptations. Orczy also wrote detective fiction and historical romances, but her legacy rests on The Scarlet Pimpernel, which established the 'hero with a secret identity' convention and remains a classic of adventure literature.