The Elusive Pimpernel

Paris, 1793. The guillotine never rests. Every day, more aristocrats lose their heads to Robespierre's Revolution, until someone starts stealing them away right under the revolutionary government's nose. The Scarlet Pimpernel leaves only a flower symbol on his calling cards, driving Chauvelin mad with frustration as aristocrats escape to England one after another. But the Pimpernel's greatest enemy has a plan: trap the hero through his own wife. Sir Percy Blakeney seems the perfect fool, an idle English baronet more concerned with fashion than politics. No one suspects that beneath the witless smile lies the most daring spy in Europe, or that his French-born wife Marguerite holds secrets that could get them both killed. As Chauvelin tightens his web around the couple, Marguerite must choose: expose the man she loves, or watch him die trying to save others. This is the swashbuckling adventure that invented the masked hero trope, a tale of disguises, narrow escapes, and the revolutionary idea that a gentleman can be a outlaw for the right reasons.