Sir Percy Blakeney Books in Order
Part ofBaroness Orczy Books in OrderThis page lists the Sir Percy Blakeney books by Baroness Orczy in order, with short summaries, series background, and help choosing where to start.
Last updated: June 10, 2026
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Publication Order
18 books
The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
1905
During the Reign of Terror, a mysterious Englishman rescues aristocrats from the guillotine while France hunts his identity. Marguerite St. Just must choose between blackmail, loyalty, and the truth about her husband.
I Will Repay
by Baroness Orczy
1906
Juliette de Marny enters Paul Déroulède's house bent on revenge for her brother's death. But love, guilt, and the Scarlet Pimpernel complicate a plan that seemed simple at the start.
The Elusive Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
1908
Chauvelin lures Marguerite toward France with what looks like a perfect trap, hoping to bring Percy within reach of the guillotine. The real pleasure is watching Sir Percy turn the snare back on him.
El Dorado
by Baroness Orczy
1913
Armand's recklessness gives Chauvelin his best chance yet to strike at the Pimpernel. The prize is the young Dauphin, and Percy must escape prison before France closes around him.
The Laughing Cavalier
by Baroness Orczy
1914
Set in the Dutch Republic, this swashbuckler follows the ancestor of Sir Percy Blakeney under the name Diogenes. It folds duels, politics, and Frans Hals's famous portrait into one lively adventure.
Lord Tony's Wife
by Baroness Orczy
1916
As revolution erupts in Brittany, love and old feuds pull Lord Tony into a dangerous fight for survival. The story mixes peasant unrest, family honor, and one of Orczy's most impetuous heroes.
The League Of The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
1919
These linked stories widen the Pimpernel world, showing the many rescues carried out by Sir Percy and his network. Each case offers a new disguise, a new escape, or a new trap.
The First Sir Percy
by Baroness Orczy
1921
This sequel to The Laughing Cavalier continues the story of the earlier Percy Blakeney in the Dutch Republic. Orczy gives the Pimpernel legend an adventurous family prehistory.
The Triumph Of The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
1922
Sir Percy moves through the last violent phase of the Revolution, crossing paths with Thérésa Cabarrus, Tallien, and Chauvelin. History and adventure meet in one of the series' most political books.
Pimpernel and Rosemary
by Baroness Orczy
1924
After the First World War, a Blakeney descendant is drawn into the tensions of Transylvania and Hungarian politics. The book keeps Orczy's taste for loyalty and peril, but in a newer century.
Sir Percy Hits Back
by Baroness Orczy
1927
Fleurette, the daughter of Chauvelin, is accused of treason when the Revolution finally reaches her own life. To save her, the great enemy of the Pimpernel must ask Percy for help.
The Adventures Of The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
1929
This story collection follows Sir Percy and his league through a fresh round of rescues, traps, and disguises. It is a good pick if you want shorter bursts of Pimpernel action.
In the Rue Monge
by Baroness Orczy
1931
A short Scarlet Pimpernel adventure set in Paris, where one ordinary street becomes the center of a dangerous rescue. Orczy gets a lot of tension out of a small space and a tight clock.
A Child of the Revolution
by Baroness Orczy
1932
Sir Percy tells the story of André Vallon, a Jacobin who uses the Revolution to force a marriage and then finds love tangled with revenge. It is a darker, more personal Pimpernel tale.
The Scarlet Pimpernel Looks at the World
by Baroness Orczy
1933
Not a novel but a collection of essays and reflections, this book shows Orczy's views on politics, history, and public life. It is useful for readers who want the ideas behind the fiction.
The Way Of The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
1933
Chauvelin closes in again as Sir Percy relies on disguise, nerve, and speed to stay free. Baron de Batz enters the game, giving this shorter Pimpernel novel a strong espionage edge.
Sir Percy Leads The Band
by Baroness Orczy
1936
Set in the first months after The Scarlet Pimpernel, this adventure shows Sir Percy gathering his allies and beginning the work that made him famous. The rescues are risky, quick, and full of early Revolutionary danger.
Mam'zelle Guillotine
by Baroness Orczy
1940
Gabrielle wants revenge on the Saint-Lucque family, even if it sends women and children to the guillotine. But the new agent hunting English rescuers is not what he seems.
Series background & context
The Sir Percy books are built around one of the cleanest premises in adventure fiction. In public, Sir Percy Blakeney looks like a rich English fop, too polished, too lazy, and a little too empty headed to be dangerous. In secret, he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, the man slipping into revolutionary France to rescue prisoners from the guillotine and leave behind his small red flower as a calling card.
That double life gives the series its energy. The books constantly play with disguise, acting, and misdirection. Percy wins as much by timing and nerve as by swordplay, and Orczy loves the moment when a fool turns out to be the smartest person in the room. If you start with The Scarlet Pimpernel, you also get the emotional hinge of the whole saga, Percy's uneasy marriage to Marguerite, and the pressure placed on her by the French agent Chauvelin.
Marguerite matters more than she sometimes gets credit for. She is not just the wife waiting at home while the men have adventures. Her choices, loyalties, and mistakes drive several of the books, and the cat and mouse struggle between Percy, Marguerite, and Chauvelin gives the series its most personal stakes. The French Revolution is the backdrop, but the tension often feels startlingly domestic, who knows what, who trusts whom, and who is prepared to risk everything for one more rescue.
The books range from full length novels to story collections. Sir Percy Leads The Band, I Will Repay, The Elusive Pimpernel, El Dorado, and The Triumph Of The Scarlet Pimpernel carry the main line of daring escapes and political danger. The League Of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Adventures Of The Scarlet Pimpernel widen the view and show the network around Percy. Orczy also branches outward with Lord Tony's Wife, the ancestor stories The Laughing Cavalier and The First Sir Percy, and the much later Pimpernel and Rosemary, which follows a descendant in a very different world.
The guillotine is never far away.
What readers usually get from this series is pace. These are books of false passports, river crossings, hurried disguises, secret rooms, coded notes, and impossible looking escapes that somehow come off. Orczy writes in a theatrical, old-fashioned way, but that is part of the charm. The villains are proud, the loyalties are fierce, and the heroes tend to keep smiling when the situation is at its worst.
They also matter for what came after. Percy Blakeney is one of the early great secret identity heroes, a character built on performance, cover, and showmanship. If you like historical adventure with a clever central trick, this series still feels fresh. It knows exactly what kind of story it wants to tell, and it tells it fast.
Edited by
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