Baroness Orczy

Baroness Emma Orczy was born the only child of Baron Félix Orczy de Orci and Countess Emma Wass de Szentegyed et Cege. Orczy’s immediate and extended family were notable members of Romanian and Italian nobility, and her maternal grandfather was a member of the Hungarian parliament. Her parents owned a large estate in Hungary, but when Baron Orczy tried to modernize and bought mechanical equipment, the peasants revolted and burned the estate to the ground. Orczy and her family were forced to flee and ran first to Budapest, then to Brussels and Paris, before finally settling in London in 1880. Orczy lived a comfortable life in London and was accepted by British society. She was educated at both the West London School of Art and Heatherley’s School of Fine Art, where she focused on painting. While at school, Orczy met her future husband, Montague MacLean Barstow, and they married in 1894. In 1899, Orczy gave birth to the couple’s only child, a son named John, and published her first novel, The Emperor’s Candlesticks. Orczy’s first attempt at writing was a failure, but she continued and published several popular detective stories in the Royal Magazine. In 1901, Orczy published her second novel, In Mary’s Reign, and in 1903, The Scarlet Pimpernel was born as a play written by both Orczy and her husband. The Scarlet Pimpernel was not released as a novel until 1905; however, it was an instant success, and Orczy went on to publish several sequels. Orczy was well known publicly for her support of the aristocracy and her belief in the superiority of nobility, and these opinions are well established in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Orczy was also in favor of British imperialism and colonialism, and this too is reflected in her novel, most notably through the character of Mr. Jellyband, the “worthy” and “honest” innkeeper. The commercial success of The Scarlet Pimpernel series, and numerous unrelated novels, allowed Orczy to move to Monte Carlo in the French Riviera, where her beloved husband died in 1942. Afterward, Orczy lived alone and died in Oxfordshire, England in 1947 at the age of 82.