Emmuska, Baroness Orczy

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.