The Scarlet Pimpernel

$2,250.00
By Moons Rare Books

6b Baroness Emmuska Orczy. London: Greening & Co., Ltd., January 1905. First Edition

Notes

The Scarlet Pimpernel was written by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865–1947), a Hungarian-born British aristocrat, novelist, and playwright. The daughter of a distinguished composer, Orczy immigrated to London with her family in 1880, where she later studied art and met her husband, illustrator Montague Barstow. Despite her noble lineage, she initially struggled to find commercial success as a writer, turning to detective fiction before conceiving her masterpiece. Facing repeated rejections from publishers who failed to see the potential in her historical adventure story, she and her husband adapted the manuscript into a stage play. The production premiered in London in 1905, starring the famous romantic lead Fred Terry, and became an overnight box office sensation. This theatrical triumph forced publishers to reconsider, launching Orczy into international literary stardom and leading her to pen over a dozen sequels tracking her elusive hero.

The inspiration for the titular hero struck Orczy on a foggy afternoon at an underground tube station in London, where she claimed to have suddenly "seen" the character of Sir Percy Blakeney in a vision. Set during the brutal Reign of Terror following the French Revolution, the narrative was heavily fueled by Orczy’s own aristocratic sympathies and her deep anxieties regarding mass political uprisings. The novel holds immense historical significance because it created the blueprint for the modern superhero genre. Sir Percy Blakeney established the definitive archetype of the dual-identity hero: an effete, dim-witted socialite by day who secretly operates as a daring, masked vigilante by night. This exact formula directly inspired the creation of later pop-culture icons, most notably Johnston McCulley's Zorro, Bob Kane and Bill Finger's Batman, and Bob Kane's early pulp contemporaries.
The first edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel was published in London by Greening & Co. in January 1905, strategically timed to capitalize on the massive success of the concurrent West End stage play. Because the publisher was relatively small and initially skeptical of the book's success, the initial print run was modest, making genuine 1905 first editions exceptionally rare and highly sought after by antiquarian book collectors today.

Description 

Decorative blue cloth boards with gold lettering. Illustration of a scarlet pimpernel flower on the front cover. Softening to head and foot of spine. Some fading to spine coloration. Foxing to edges. Later impressions of the novel were marked as such on the title page and this copy has no such indication and so is of course the rare first printing. Very good condition overall. 
View details