Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel A Publishing History Sally Dugan BARONESS ORCZY’S THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL Ashgate Studies in Publishing History Offering publishing histories of well-known works of literature, this series is intended as a resource for book historians and for other specialists whose scholarship and teaching are enhanced by access to a work’s publication and reception history. Features include but are not limited to sections on the text’s composition, production and marketing, contemporary reception, textual issues, subsequent editions, and archival resources. The series is designed to allow for flexibility in presentation, to accommodate differences in each work’s history. Proposals on works whose publishing histories are particularly significant for what they reveal about a writer, a cultural milieu, or the history of print culture are especially welcome. Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel A Publishing History SALLY DUGAN Birkbeck, University of London, UK First published 2012 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2012 Sally Dugan Sally Dugan has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Dugan, Sally. Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel: a publishing history. – (Ashgate studies in publishing history) 1. Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness, 1865–1947 – Characters – Sir Percy Blakeney. 2. Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness, 1865–1947 – Adaptations. 3. Blakeney, Percy, Sir (Fictitious character) I. Title II. Series 823.9’12-dc23 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dugan, Sally. Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel: a publishing history / by Sally Dugan. p. cm. — (Ashgate studies in publishing history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4094-2717-9 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness, 1865–1947. Scarlet Pimpernel 2. Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness, 1865–1947—Adaptations. 3. Blakeney, Percy, Sir (Fictitious character) I. Title. PR6029.R25S2834 2012 823’.912—dc23 2012010019 ISBN 9781409427179 (hbk) ISBN 9781315568720 (ebk) To David, for putting up with this elusive third person in our marriage. This page has been left blank intentionally Contents List of Figures ix Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv List of Abbreviations xvii Introduction: ‘The Baroness Orczy’, Englishness and the Scarlet Pimpernel 1 1 From Red Carnation to Scarlet Pimpernel 37 2 The Scarlet Pimpernel on Stage 69 3 Champion of Empire or Swashbuckling Hero? Marketing the Myth in Print, 1899–1939 109 4 The Dandy at War: The Scarlet Pimpernel and Print Culture, 1914–1940 147 5 Adaptations, Nostalgia and Wartime Morale 181 6 Re-Inventing the Scarlet Pimpernel, Post 1947 201 Conclusion 231 Appendix A: The Daily Express and ‘The Sign of the Shamrock’ 235 Appendix B:‘The Sign of the Shamrock’ as an Apprentice Piece for The Scarlet Pimpernel 237 Appendix C: Hodder & Stoughton: ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel Series’ (1913) 239 Appendix D: The Scarlet Pimpernel Short Stories 241 Appendix E: Orczy’s Publishing History: The Scarlet Pimpernel in Context 243 Appendix F: Hodder & Stoughton Yellow Jacket Two-Shilling Paper Series: The First Dozen 251 Appendix G: Select List of Manuscripts Relating to Orczy, Listed by Location 253 Bibliography of Works Cited 257 Index 287 This page has been left blank intentionally List of Figures I.1 Dust jacket of Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1913]). Princeton University Library. 4 I.2 Cover of sixpenny paper edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Hodder & Stoughton [1913]). By kind permission of Monash University Library Rare Books Collection. 4 I.3 The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Folio Society, 1997). Binding illustration © Lucy Weller. By kind permission of the Folio Society. 6 I.4 The Scarlet Pimpernel (New York: Random House, 2002). Book cover © 2002 by Modern Library. By permission of Modern Library, a division of Random House Inc. 6 I.5 Manuscript page of The Scarlet Pimpernel. By kind permission of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums and A.P. Watt Ltd. on behalf of Sara Orczy Barstow-Brown. 7 I.6 Sketch, 17 June 1908, p. 301. © The British Library Board. Shelfmark LD52NPL. 9 1.1 Orczy, ‘There’s Many a Slip’ (1894) Bookman, 44 (1913) p. 205. Senate House Library, University of London. By permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. on behalf of Sara Orczy Barstow-Brown. 42 1.2 ‘La Rue des Vieilles Écoles’ from Robida’s Vieux Paris, 1900. Paris Exhibition souvenir postcard. By kind permission of Laurent Antoine LeMog. http://lemog.fr. 58 1.3 La Famille Royale amenée au Temple’, Robida, Paris de Siècle en Siècle (Paris: La Librarie Illustrée, 1895), p. 137. © The British Library Board. Shelfmark 10173.f.5. 60 2.1 James Gillray, ‘Petit souper at la Parisienne; – or – A Family of Sans-Culottes refreshing, after the fatigues of the day’. © The Trustees of the British Museum. 74 x Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel 2.2 Francis Barnard, ‘Carton on the Scaffold’, from Lyceum Theatre, The Only Way: A Tale of Two Cities. Adapted by Freeman Wills from Charles Dickens’ Novel. Produced at the Lyceum Theatre, 16 February 1899 by Martin Harvey. (London: Nassau Press, 1899) [Souvenir of the 100th performance], [n.p.]. © The British Library Board. Shelfmark 1874.b.5. 82 2.3 Julia Neilson as Lady Blakeney, Play Pictorial, 5 (1905), p. 137. 86 2.4 Fred Terry as Sir Percy Blakeney, Play Pictorial, 5 (1905), p. 140. 87 2.5 Sir Percy Blakeney in disguise at the opening scene of The Scarlet Pimpernel, New Theatre, London, Play Pictorial, 5 (1905), p. 135. 94 2.6. Horace Hodges as Chauvelin, Play Pictorial, 5 (1905), p. 149. 99 3.1 Dust jacket of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Greening’s Colonial Library (London: Greening, 1907). By kind permission of Monash University Library Rare Books Collection. 112 3.2 Paperback edition of The Elusive Pimpernel (London: Hutchinson, [1920]), with the price altered by hand from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence. By kind permission of Monash University Library Rare Books Collection. 114 3.3 Advertisement for the Popular Edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel in programme for ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’, New Theatre, 16 May 1907. © V & A Images, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 117 3.4 Dust jacket of I Will Repay (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1913). © Princeton University Library. 122 3.5 Sixpenny paperback edition of I Will Repay (London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1920]). By kind permission of Monash University Library Rare Books Collection. 123 3.6 Cover of Grand Magazine, June 1921. © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark per.2705 d.174. 130 3.7 Illustration by A.C. Michael for ‘Out of the Jaws of Death’, in Princess Mary’s Gift Book (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1914), facing p. 108. By kind permission of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums. 134 List of Figures xi 3.8 H.M. Brock, ‘He bowed very low and kissed her hand’, from the illustrated edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Greening, 1905). 135 3.9 Dust jacket of sixpenny edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Greening, 1909). © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark 2542 e.830. 137 3.10 Dust jacket of ninepenny Yellow Jacket edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Hodder & Stoughton [n.d.]). Princeton University Library. 139 3.11 Dust jacket of an omnibus edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930). Princeton University Library. 140 3.12 Dust jacket of Yellow Jacket edition of The Scarlet Pimpernel featuring Leslie Howard (London: Hodder & Stoughton, [c.1934]). Mary Evans Picture Library. 141 3.13 Dust jacket of The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Cassell, 1919). © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark 2542.e.1424. By kind permission of Orion Books. 144 3.14 Dust jacket of Lord Tony’s Wife (New York: Doran, [1917]). Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 145 4.1 Dust jacket of Mam’zelle Guillotine (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1940). By kind permission of Leonard Shoup Books. www.leonardshoup.com. 179 6.1 Cover of The Elusive Pimpernel (Hutchinson, [1950]). Reproduced by kind permission of the Random House Group Ltd. 203 6.2 Dust jacket of The Scarlet Pimpernel (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1950). 205 6.3 Cover of Mam’zelle Guillotine (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1950). 208 6.4 Cover of Eldorado (London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1960]). 215 6.5 Cover of Eldorado (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1952). 216 6.6 Cover of The Scarlet Pimpernel (New York: Pyramid Books, [1960]). 218 This page has been left blank intentionally Preface This book covers the Scarlet Pimpernel’s manifestations in a wide variety of genres; in order to limit confusion, I have referred to The Scarlet Pimpernel in italics only when discussing the novel, play or film. I have used plain font when referring to the Scarlet Pimpernel as a series of books or films, as a fictional character and as a cultural phenomenon. Following Orczy’s own preferences, I have used the Hungarian version of Christian names, i.e. Emmuska rather than Emma, and Bodog, rather than Felix for her father. Her husband’s name, Montagu, is spelt without an additional e, although it is mis-spelt in many sources.