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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
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(1905)
Historical romance by Baroness *Orczy, about the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel – a band of Englishmen, headed by Sir Percy Blakeney, who rescue aristocrats from the guillotine during the *French Revolution. The story had succeeded as a play, adapted by Orczy herself from her much rejected manuscript, before a publisher was found for the original novel. Blakeney, a genius at disguise, baffles French and English alike: We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven? – Is he in hell?
That demmed, elusive Pimpernel? The book was very successfully filmed by Alexander *Korda in 1934, with Leslie Howard as the Pimpernel.
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