Emmuska Baroness Orczy

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EBO , a best-selling novelist of the early twentieth century, is best-known for The Scarlet Pimpernel, her romance of aristocrats during the French Revolution. This was a play before it was a novel, and according to its author provoked a polarised response, with ecstatic audiences and fiercely disapproving critics. Apart from almost a dozen Scarlet Pimpernel sequels, she published many other historical romances, a few thrillers with modern settings, one historial biography, and her memoirs. Her short stories include a pioneering volume about a woman detective, who, as an amateur relying on her intelligence, intuition, and feminine guile, regularly out-performs her male professional associates.
  • BirthName: Emma Magdalena Rosalia Maria Josefa Barbara Orczy
  • Self-constructed: Emmuska
  • Married: Barstow
  • Titled: Baroness
    According to the system of nobility in continental Europe, she held the title of Baroness from her father.

Milestones

23 September 1865

Emma, Baroness Orczy , was born at her grandparents' home, the huge, rambling, square, commodious and ugly family country house of Tarnaörs on the Hungarian puszta, seventy-five or so kilometres west of Budapest.
She herself writes the name of the house as two words, hyphenated: Tarno-ors.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness. Links in the Chain of Life. Hutchinson, 1947.
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Friday 13 May 1903

A stage version of Emma, Baroness Orczy 's The Scarlet Pimpernel (written by herself and her husband ) was accepted for production by Fred Terry and his wife Julia Neilson to follow the successful Sweet Nell of Old Drury.
Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness. Links in the Chain of Life. Hutchinson, 1947.
100

Early 1905

EBO 's The Scarlet Pimpernel (about heroic English aristocrats led by Sir Percy Blakeney rescuing their French counterparts during the revolutionary Terror) won instant success as a novel after a shaky debut on stage.
Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness. Links in the Chain of Life. Hutchinson, 1947.
107

By 21 November 1940

The stage version of EBO 's The Scarlet Pimpernel, written by herself and her husband, Montagu Barstow , opened in London, where despite war and bombing it was highly popular with audiences.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(21 November 1940): 6

12 November 1947

Emma, Baroness Orczy , died at Brown's Hotel in London of kidney failure.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By 22 November 1947

In the year that Emma, Baroness Orczy , died there appeared her autobiography, Links in the Chain of Life, which she had begun writing in 1938, before the war.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness. Links in the Chain of Life. Hutchinson, 1947.
136n
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
2309 (22 November 1947): 604

Biography

Birth and Background

23 September 1865

Emma, Baroness Orczy , was born at her grandparents' home, the huge, rambling, square, commodious and ugly family country house of Tarnaörs on the Hungarian puszta, seventy-five or so kilometres west of Budapest.
She herself writes the name of the house as two words, hyphenated: Tarno-ors.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness. Links in the Chain of Life. Hutchinson, 1947.
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