Baroness Orczy

The Nest of the Sparrowhawk Baroness Orczy

Baroness Orczy was a Hungarian who moved to London. She became a novelist, painter, and playwright. Orcy's book the Scarlet Pimpernel is her best-known work. Set in puritan Kent in 1657, the story focuses on the intrigues of Sir Marmaduke de Chevasse as stiff a roundhead as ever upheld my Lord Protector and his Puritantic government" who is determined to secure the vast fortunes of his lovely ward, Lady Sue, for himself. Sue is a beautiful charming young girl. Among her admirers is Richard Lambert who worships her with protective reverence. Sir Marmaduke persuades his widowed sister-in-law to abet him in a plot, in which she unwittingly disgraces one of her long lost sons and finds the other murdered by the villain.