BARONESS ORCZY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1879, 13 October 1913, Page 3

BARONESS ORCZY.

A CHARACTER SKETCH.

All interesting sketch of the Baroness Orczy is given in the August number "of the "Bookman." Ten years ago, states tile writer, her name was unknown at tho libraries ; but in tho fenyears that have passed since her hjst book mado its ..appearance she has achieved rapid and signal success both as a teller of stories and as a writer of plays. Her Love for England. . Though sho has a warm affection for England, tho country of her adoption, tho Baroness Orczy was horn in Hungary, at Tnrna-Eors, an agricultural' district at tho heart of the most magnificent corn-lar)d in Europe. Her parents only came to England when she was almost grown up, and sho had never spoken a word of our languago until sho was fifteen. "I think," sho says, "I must havo been extraordinarily predisposed to the assimilation of tho English tongue, for directly wo arrived in London 1, as a schoolgirl rising fiftoen, was sent to a preparatory school for the purpose of learning the languago, and within three months I was acting in tho school play, and had passed a first-class College of Preceptors' examination with honours, winning a special prize for languages. My thcosophist friends tell 1110," blio adds whimsically, "that this fits so perfectly into tho theory of reincarnation that in ono of my previous existences I must certainly have been an Englishwoman!" Of Musical Tastes. However that may be,, in her tastes, lier sympathies, in everything but blood, the Baroness Orczy is a brilliant and charming Englishwoman; nobody who was unaware that sho was a Hungarian by birth would guess from her speech that sho was anything but English. Her father, besides being a distinguished diplomatist in his own country, was above all things a musician. Ilis beautiful opera, "II Rinnegato," dedicated to the late Queen of the Belgians, who was a Hungarian Princess, was performed in London, at tho old Her Majesty's Theatre, with great success. It came about, that, in ner childhood, tho great musical geniuses of the latter part of lqst century wero intimate guests at tho house of tho Baroness Orczy's parents, and Wagner, Liszt, Gounod, Massenet, and others of that glorious company, took a kindly interest in their host's little daughter. Her first initiation into tho author's life was when she sent two stories to Pearson's Magazine. They were accepted and she received 10 guineas for them. Then followed "The Scarlet Pimpernel." It was the play that was written first; having done this in collaboration with her husband, Baroness Orczy wrote tho novel, and for all the instant popularity that accrued to it when it did get into print, the book had 110 ready welcome from tho publishers. But whilst the book so tardily accepted was received with a chorus of acclaim by critics and public, the play that met such immediate acceptance was decried by almost all tho critics, though tho public hailed it with unqualified enthusiasm. It was staged at the New Theatro on January 5, 1005; the house, crowded in every part, witnessed it with intent excitqment and applauded it without stint. But, says the Baroness, "next morning camo a rudo awakening! With the exception of one or two papers (not more), the play received from the dramatic critics the soundest round of abuse that any play, to my knowledge, has ever had. Tho next work to follow was "By the Gods Beloved," after which camo "I Will Repay," "A Son of the People," "Beau Brocade," "Tho Emperor's Candlesticks," "The Elusivo Pimpernel," "The Tangled Skein," and ''The Nest of the SparrowHawk." Her last book, recently published, "Eldorado," is a return to the scenes of the French Revolution. Her Home in Kent. Nowadays, Baroness Orczy lives in Kent, much occupied with her beautiful garden there and her favourito horses and dogs. Sho has a team of five Hungarian horses which she drives herself. Often, whero tho widthof the roads will permit—which i» Kent- is not very often —she drives them Hungarian fashion: two .wheelers and three loaders, at lightning speed. But sho regrets that the multiplicity of motorcars has spoilt tho pleasure of driving, the noise and dust of them being maddening tu highly-strung animals. 111 her own part of the country, where al'oretimo tho coach and four was a frequent and pleasing sight along tho Ashford Road, she and her husband are now tho only peoplo who drive in that fashion, and she is somotimes saddened by a fear that they too may havo to give up that last remnant of Old-World charm and ho contented to go about in motor-cars liko tho majority. Sho admits the utility of the motor, but declares that "to sit, behind a woll-ap-I pointed, well-matched team, to handlo tho ribbons and feel that there is life at tho other end of them, is tho most exhilarating recreation in the world."-