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Part of the mystique of many past and present superheroes is their secret identity, which is their cover identity, so that no one knows who they really are when they go out to fight villains. They lead a double life, the one life as an innocent person taking their place in society, the other life as an unknown hero who fights evil.
At the start of the 1900s, two heroes first appeared in print who had secret identities. This was a unique concept at the time. The two heroes were Zorro, who was fighting the corrupt Spanish authorities in pre-Mexican War California, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, who was busy rescuing innocent French aristocrats who were condemned to be executed by the guillotine during the Terror part of the French Revolution. The Scarlet Pimpernel novel appeared first, before Zorro in 1905, so that the author, Baroness Orczy, would be credited with being the first author to invent the concept of a hero with a secret identity leading a double life.
Baroness Orczy (1865 to 1947) was a real Hungarian aristocrat, born and raised in Hungary then moving to England at age 14 where she eventually met her husband and had one son. All the Hungarian wealth had evaporated and she and her husband made their living by writing. The Scarlet Pimpernel was her first big success, followed by 11 sequels and many other novels. The popularity of these novels was such that the character of the Scarlet Pimpernel has become embedded in Western culture, symbolizing someone who uses disguises, clever thinking, and extreme daring to carry out good deeds. A cardinal in the Vatican during World War II was called the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican (there is a movie by that title) because of his daring rescues and smuggling, in disguise, of people past the Nazi occupiers of Rome. Also because of similar deeds in World War II a Scottish minister was known as the Tartan Pimpernel and an American journalist referred to as the American Pimpernel. A Swedish diplomat was known as the Black Pimpernel for saving hundreds of political refugees in Chile following the 1973 military coup.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a wonderful adventure story, set during the Terror time in the French Revolution. Former aristocrats, whether they had ever oppressed common people or not, were condemned in show trials to be executed using the guillotine, which was a French invention for quickly and painlessly beheading a criminal. This was really happening in history. In the novel, English society was agog about a mysterious person, thought to be an Englishman, who would cross the Channel and rescue aristocrats and their families and sweep them away from their persecutors to safety in England. No one knew the real identity of this hero, who was daring and clever almost beyond belief, and was a master of disguise. Anyone, male or female, high school age or older, will enjoy this story and will also learn many true things about the people and places of the French Revolution.