The Scarlet Pimpernel is an important figure in the formation of the modern hero.
The author, Baroness Orczy, created The Pimpernel with inspiration from several literary and popular sources, yet out of those, she created a new archetypal hero. Several sources identify The Pimpernel as the prototype for the modern superhero, an inspiration to the likes of Superman, Zorro, and Batman. Also, a modernized version of The Scarlet Pimpernel inspired the heroic actions of Raoul Wallenberg. Historians call such rescuers pimpernels. Yet there is little scholarship on The Pimpernel due to the fact...