BARONESS ORCZY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 167, 16 July 1908, Page 6

BARONESS ORCZY.

-In the last number of the "Woman at Home" Sarah Tcoley,' has an interview with the Baroness Orcay, whose extraordinary popular and financial success with the play • and the novel of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" have made her a subject of much interest to the novel-reading world. Baroness Orczy has lately appeared in a London Court case under her married name of Mrs Barstow, but the more romantic title is stated to be also hers by right. Hungarian by birth, cosmopolitan by education, and English by adoption, the baroness has had a most interesting and varied life., Her mind was enriched by travel and romantic experiences before she made even a tentative effort in fiction. Four years ago she was unknown in the literary world, to-day she has a world-wide reputation. The story of her ris4 to fame and fortune is as romantic as her own romances, still it was not by a sudden fluke of good fortune that she gained success —it was honestly worked for and fairly won.

The baroness inherited her title as the oldest daughter of her father, the late Baron Orczy, a descendant of a long line of ancient Hungarian nobles. She married an Englishman, Mr Montague Barstow, and has long made her home in this country. It is an astounding fact that no fewer than eight publishing houses- refused "The Scarlet Pimpernel." The baroness thinks that her struggles and disappointments in entering the literary world may serve as an encouragement to other beginners to go on persevering. Not' only did the Baroness meet with continuous disappointment in trying to vget "The Scarlet- Pimpernel" published, but her two earlier books, "By the Gads Beloved" and "A Son of the People,"-which have since achieved such popularity, were also sent the round in vain.

It is remarkable that though the baroness has achieved all her literary successes in England, with English books, she never went to that country or spoke a word of English until sho was fifteen. She is about the last of an. ancient Hungarian aristocratic " family, who all served their, country from time immemorial in the diplomatic and foreign service. She was born at Tarna-Eors, in Lower Hungary, the ancestral chateau which, under the name of Bideskut, she describes in, "A Son of the People" as "a low, regular, two-storied construction, built; in a quadrangle round a courtyard in the middle. The stone had been plastered and painted over a bright yellow,' after the fashion of the beginning of the century, and a double row of green shutters ran like two bright-coloured belts all round^ the house." Her father, Baron .Orczy,, was a distinguished diplomatist as well as an accomplished musician, and at one time was director of the National

Opera House of Buda .Pesth, and her mother was the Gomfcesse Wass. As children, the Baroness and her only sister.lived a romantic life in the old chateau, playing in the garden of rose-trees and amidst sweet-scented acacias. Beyond was the boundless stretch of the puszta., with quaint villages nestling on its bosom, over which, the sisters galloped on their ponies, free children of nature. They were surrounded by all the primitive pomp and circujpstance of an ancient family of the soil. Life for them was mediaeval and picturesque, and distinguished by lavish hospitality. The great dining-hall .of the chateau would seat two hundred, guests,1 and. on high days and holidays it was packed to overflowing. There were occasional visits to Buda, Pesth, which gave the baroness a glimpse of city doings.

The future novelist fcherished an ambition to become an artist, and at Mrs Heatherley's Art School entered, a charmed world. Whilst studying art the baroness met her husband, Mr Montague Barstow, already then a well-known black-and-white . and water-colour artist, and for a few years_ after her marriage she joined him in doing illustrations for . books and magazines.

The baroness's first novel, "The Emperor's Candlesticks," was not a great success. Three more novels followed, and then "The Scarlet Pimpernel," which, has now reached a circulation" of a quarter of a million, and has been translated into twelve languages.