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StoryPDFThe Scarlet PimpernelBaroness Orczy

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Baroness Orczy

Complete text
NovelEnglish

During the French Revolution, a mysterious English rescuer helps threatened aristocrats escape across the Channel. Marguerite Blakeney becomes entangled in the pursuit of his identity, with political pressure and personal loyalties making the information she holds dangerous to more than one person.

31 sections84,614 wordsAbout 6 h 25 min
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About The Scarlet Pimpernel

Disguise extends beyond costumes into manners, reputation and the performance of indifference. Characters try to read one another while concealing the commitments that matter most. Marguerite's position gives the adventure an intimate pressure, because decisions made within conversation and marriage may carry consequences far outside the room.

Reading focus

Compare public performances of character with the private loyalties that make identifying the rescuer so difficult.

This reading edition contains 84,614 words in 31 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.

Author: Baroness Orczy. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.

Opening excerpt

A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate. The hour, some little time before sunset, and the place, the West Barricade, at the very spot where, a decade later, a proud tyrant raised an undying monument to the nation’s glory and his own vanity.

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Contents

All sections
  1. CHAPTER I. PARIS: SEPTEMBER, 179213 min
  2. CHAPTER II. “THE FISHERMAN’S REST”15 min
  3. CHAPTER III. THE REFUGEES12 min
  4. CHAPTER IV. THE LEAGUE OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL12 min
  5. CHAPTER V. MARGUERITE8 min
  6. CHAPTER VI. AN EXQUISITE OF ’9215 min
  7. CHAPTER VII. THE SECRET ORCHARD10 min
  8. CHAPTER VIII. THE ACCREDITED AGENT17 min
  9. CHAPTER IX. THE OUTRAGE10 min
  10. CHAPTER X. IN THE OPERA BOX22 min
  11. CHAPTER XI. LORD GRENVILLE’S BALL10 min
  12. CHAPTER XII. THE SCRAP OF PAPER13 min
  13. CHAPTER XIII. EITHER—OR?4 min
  14. CHAPTER XIV. ONE O’CLOCK PRECISELY!13 min
  15. CHAPTER XV. DOUBT8 min
  16. CHAPTER XVI. RICHMOND23 min
  17. CHAPTER XVII. FAREWELL11 min
  18. CHAPTER XVIII. THE MYSTERIOUS DEVICE8 min
  19. CHAPTER XIX. THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL15 min
  20. CHAPTER XX. THE FRIEND11 min
  21. CHAPTER XXI. SUSPENSE13 min
  22. CHAPTER XXII. CALAIS15 min
  23. CHAPTER XXIII. HOPE11 min
  24. CHAPTER XXIV. THE DEATH-TRAP11 min
  25. CHAPTER XXV. THE EAGLE AND THE FOX13 min
  26. CHAPTER XXVI. THE JEW14 min
  27. CHAPTER XXVII. ON THE TRACK12 min
  28. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE PÈRE BLANCHARD’S HUT15 min
  29. CHAPTER XXIX. TRAPPED7 min
  30. CHAPTER XXX. THE SCHOONER20 min
  31. CHAPTER XXXI. THE ESCAPE18 min

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Is this the complete The Scarlet Pimpernel?

This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 31 sections and 84,614 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.

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