The Laughing Cavalier

by Baroness Orczy

Overview

The first of two prequels to The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Laughing Cavalier is set in Holland in 1623. It tells the story of Percy Blake, a foreign adventurer and ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel who goes by the name Diogenes. Diogenes, as told by Orczy, is the real subject of the famous painting The Laughing Cavalier by Franz Hals. Unlike The Scarlet Pimpernel, Diogenes has not yet established himself as a man of sterling character or irreproachable moral integrity. He has spent his life fighting in various battles as a mercenary for hire, but now, along with his two sidekicks he is back in Haarlem, penniless and looking for entertainment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9791041849420
Publisher:	Culturea
Publication date:	07/27/2023
Pages:	518
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 1.15(d)

About the Author

Baroness Orczy was born in Hungary in 1865, the daughter of Baron Felix Orczy, a landed aristocrat and well-known composer and conductor. Orczy moved with her parents from Budapest to Brussels and Paris, where she was educated. She studied art in London and exhibited work in the Royal Academy. She married Montagu Barstow and together they worked as illustrators and jointly published an edition of Hungarian folk tales. Orczy became famous in 1905 with the publication of The Scarlet Pimpernel (originally a play co-written with her husband). Its background was the French Revolution and its swashbuckling hero, Sir Percy Blakeney, was to prove immensely popular. Sequel books followed and film and TV versions were later made. Orczy also wrote detective stories which still prove popular and are equally acclaimed within this genre. She died in 1947.