WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 You know, I was looking through the massive stack 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.679 of research we pulled for today's Deep Dive, 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.099 and I just kept coming back to this really, well, 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.640 this really uncomfortable, but fascinating paradox 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:14.539 at the center of our pop culture. Oh, yeah. I 00:00:14.539 --> 00:00:16.059 think I know exactly what you're talking about. 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:18.300 Right. Because, I mean, if you think about the 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:20.539 archetype that completely dominates the box office 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:22.039 right now, for you listening, you know exactly 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:24.399 what it is. It's the superhero. But specifically, 00:00:24.859 --> 00:00:29.239 it's that, that Bruce Wayne algorithm. The Bruce 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:30.940 Wayne algorithm. I actually really like that 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:34.640 phrase. You mean the whole the wealthy, somewhat 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:37.219 detached elite guy who puts on a mask to go save 00:00:37.219 --> 00:00:40.240 the world. Exactly that. The dual identity, the 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:42.679 billionaire playboy by day and then the dark 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:46.060 Avenger by night. But when you trace that specific 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:49.299 algorithm back to its actual source, and we are 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:51.219 going all the way back into the historical sources 00:00:51.219 --> 00:00:54.320 today, you don't find some progressive forward 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:57.259 thinking idea about justice. No, you really don't. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:00.100 You know, find a comic book writer in 1930s New 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:02.399 York dreaming of fighting gangsters, which is 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:06.260 what I always assumed. You find a woman, a Hungarian 00:01:06.260 --> 00:01:09.579 Baroness, born in 1865, who was, uh... frankly, 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:12.319 absolutely terrified of poor people. It is such 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:14.859 a jarring realization when you really sit down 00:01:14.859 --> 00:01:17.319 with the primary sources. We are talking, of 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:19.640 course, about Baroness Orsi. And you're spot 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:21.760 on. The deeper we dive into her life and the 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:24.159 biographical details we have, the more it looks 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:26.439 like the entire concept of the secret identity, 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:29.659 which is literally the foundation of the modern 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:32.500 superhero, wasn't just a clever plot device. 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:35.459 It was a coping mechanism. It was this massive 00:01:35.459 --> 00:01:37.859 psychological fortress built by a woman who was 00:01:37.859 --> 00:01:40.319 suffering from a very specific kind of aristocratic 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:42.840 trauma. And that for me was the big aha moment 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:44.819 right off the bat. The mask wasn't originally 00:01:44.819 --> 00:01:47.000 invented to fight crime. It was invented to hide 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.780 privilege. So today for our mission on this deep 00:01:49.780 --> 00:01:51.879 dive, we are going to completely unpack the life 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.060 and the incredibly messy legacy of Baroness Orsi. 00:01:55.219 --> 00:01:57.200 Yeah, there's a lot to unpack. We're going to 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.620 trace how this Hungarian refugee who was fleeing 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:03.599 a peasant revolution ended up in Victorian London. 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:06.200 how she seemingly failed at everything she tried 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:09.400 to do, music, art, you name it, and then just 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:11.379 accidentally wrote the blueprint for Marvel and 00:02:11.379 --> 00:02:14.479 DC. While simultaneously, and we absolutely have 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:16.240 to get into this later running, one of the most 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:19.400 controversial and aggressive public shaming campaigns 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:22.180 in British military history. Yeah, that part 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:24.919 of the research is intense. Her legacy is incredibly 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:27.500 complicated. It's not just a cute story about 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:30.620 a famous book. It's a deep dive into the intersection 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:34.180 of fiction, real world political influence, and 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:36.599 the sheer persistence of what the sources call 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:39.500 the aristocratic ideal. So we have a ton of ground 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:41.379 to cover. We've got our biographical details. 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.120 We're looking at the publication history of her 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:45.680 work, theatrical records, which are just wild 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.939 to read through, and some pretty intense analysis 00:02:47.939 --> 00:02:50.240 of her literary themes. So let's start where 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.180 she started. The old world. And we should probably 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.379 address the name first. Oh, yeah. Please do. 00:02:55.530 --> 00:02:57.689 Because if you see it on a book spine or in a 00:02:57.689 --> 00:03:00.430 library catalog, it looks formidable. Her full 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:04.270 name was Emma Magdalena Rosalia, Maria Josefa 00:03:04.270 --> 00:03:07.830 Borbala, or C. de Orsillo. It is a total mouthful. 00:03:08.449 --> 00:03:10.090 But she was pretty specific about how people 00:03:10.090 --> 00:03:12.750 were supposed to say it, right? Because I read 00:03:12.750 --> 00:03:15.509 in an old copy of the Literary Digest that she 00:03:15.509 --> 00:03:18.550 insisted on the pronunciation. Ortzi. Yes, Ortzi. 00:03:18.629 --> 00:03:20.569 Yeah. And she went by a nickname that I actually 00:03:20.569 --> 00:03:22.990 find really charming, considering how formidable 00:03:22.990 --> 00:03:26.129 she became. She went by Imuska. Imuska. That 00:03:26.129 --> 00:03:28.469 means little Emma in Hungarian, right? Exactly. 00:03:28.710 --> 00:03:31.150 Little Emma. And in her own letters, she explained 00:03:31.150 --> 00:03:32.909 that you have to put the accent on the first 00:03:32.909 --> 00:03:35.810 syllable, and the EZ is pronounced like an SH. 00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:39.500 So it's EM -muska. Yamushka. It sounds sweet. 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:42.180 It almost sounds disarming. But there was absolutely 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:44.680 nothing little about her background. She wasn't 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:47.340 just a wealthy person. She was historic. That's 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:49.939 the perfect word for it. Born in 1865 in this 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:53.060 place called Tarnors in Hungary. Her father was 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:56.219 Baron Felix Orsi D 'Orsi. And he wasn't just 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:58.199 noble. He was a composer who actually ran in 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:00.099 circles with Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. 00:04:00.340 --> 00:04:04.379 Right. And her mother was Countess Emma Was Descentegy 00:04:04.379 --> 00:04:07.580 at Siege. I mean, to really understand Orzi, 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:09.639 you have to try and understand the social landscape 00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:12.960 of Hungary in the late 1860s. We are not talking 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.620 about a modern democratic European state here. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:18.579 No, not at all. This is a deeply, deeply semi 00:04:18.579 --> 00:04:21.839 -feudal society. Her grandparents on both sides 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:24.899 were royal counselors. They were Knights of the 00:04:24.899 --> 00:04:27.779 Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George. 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:30.040 They were members of parliament. Wow. They were 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.920 completely entrenched in a system where the aristocracy 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:35.269 truly believed they were divinely appointed to 00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:37.470 rule and the peasantry was essentially just there 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:39.490 to work the land and serve. It sounds like something 00:04:39.490 --> 00:04:41.689 straight out of a fantasy novel or maybe like 00:04:41.689 --> 00:04:44.149 Downton Abbey turned up to an eleven. But this 00:04:44.149 --> 00:04:46.970 is exactly where the trauma comes in. That highly 00:04:46.970 --> 00:04:50.389 privileged seemingly perfect world wasn't actually 00:04:50.389 --> 00:04:53.009 stable. No it was incredibly fragile. Right. 00:04:53.569 --> 00:04:55.490 The historical research highlight that this wasn't 00:04:55.490 --> 00:04:58.149 just some polite political divide it was a physical 00:04:58.149 --> 00:05:01.290 terrifying threat. You have the Ortsy family 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:03.790 sitting in the big house enjoying high culture 00:05:03.790 --> 00:05:07.180 and music. with list, and literally just outside 00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:09.660 the gates, you have a peasantry that is starving, 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:12.879 angry, and becoming increasingly organized. Precisely. 00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:15.620 And in 1868, when Amoska was just a toddler, 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:18.240 she was three years old, that tension finally 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:21.100 snapped. The records show her parents packed 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:23.579 up the entire massive estate and just fled to 00:05:23.579 --> 00:05:26.480 Budapest. The sources cite the specific catalyst 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.240 for that move as the fear of a peasant revolution. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:31.379 I really think we need to pause on that for you 00:05:31.379 --> 00:05:33.319 listening. This isn't just, you know, we moved 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:35.439 to the city for better schools or a job. This 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:37.899 is fleeing for your life because you firmly believe 00:05:37.899 --> 00:05:39.759 the people who work for you are going to march 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:41.680 up and burn your house down with you inside it. 00:05:41.899 --> 00:05:44.379 It is the defining trauma of her entire life. 00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:46.779 Try to imagine being a three -year -old child 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:49.500 in that environment. You wake up, there's absolute 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:51.980 panic in the house. Your parents, these people 00:05:51.980 --> 00:05:54.160 who are supposed to be infallible, powerful, 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:57.180 almost godlike figures in your world, are suddenly 00:05:57.180 --> 00:05:59.519 terrified. And they aren't fighting back. No, 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:02.019 they aren't fighting. They are running. And that 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:04.959 deep, visceral fear of the mob never left her. 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.540 It shaped everything she did. And this is exactly 00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:09.839 what fascinates me about her writing later on. 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:11.600 Yeah. Because if you look at the Scarlet Pimpernel, 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:14.779 the villains aren't some foreign invading army 00:06:14.779 --> 00:06:17.259 or evil super criminals trying to take over the 00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:21.180 world. The villain. is the mob. It's the French 00:06:21.180 --> 00:06:24.139 Revolution. Exactly. It's the dirty, unwashed 00:06:24.139 --> 00:06:26.860 masses trying to drag the fancy people out of 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:29.899 their homes and kill them. That is the key insight 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:33.199 into her psychology. To Ortsy, the concept of 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:36.100 safety meant the aristocracy remaining in power, 00:06:36.339 --> 00:06:38.920 full stop. And chaos was democracy, or at least 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:40.920 any kind of violent revolution that upset that 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:43.360 natural order. Right. So when she eventually 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.649 creates her hero, Sir Percy Blakeney, He isn't 00:06:46.649 --> 00:06:48.850 fighting for the little guy. He's not Robin Hood. 00:06:48.910 --> 00:06:51.389 Not at all. He is literally fighting the concept 00:06:51.389 --> 00:06:55.069 of equality. His entire mission is rescuing the 00:06:55.069 --> 00:06:57.629 special ordained people from the ordinary people. 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:00.670 Which completely flips the script on how we view 00:07:00.670 --> 00:07:02.970 superheroes today. I mean, today you have Superman 00:07:02.970 --> 00:07:05.009 swooping in to save a bus full of public school 00:07:05.009 --> 00:07:08.129 kids, right? In Orsi's mind, the superhero exists 00:07:08.129 --> 00:07:10.389 specifically to save a carriage full of dukes 00:07:10.389 --> 00:07:13.040 and duchesses. Exactly. And the secret affinity 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:15.639 is the mechanism she invented to make that possible. 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:18.800 Think about it. If the mob knows you're an aristocrat 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.379 who opposes them, they just send you to the guillotine. 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:24.279 Right, you're dead. So the mask of the Scarlet 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:26.600 Pimpernel isn't there to protect his loved ones 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:28.740 from standard criminals like Peter Parker does. 00:07:29.079 --> 00:07:31.819 It's there to protect his class status from the 00:07:31.819 --> 00:07:34.660 general public. It's a survival strategy that 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:37.000 was born directly from that frantic flight to 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.480 Budapest back in 1868. It's incredible how a 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.639 childhood trauma just gets woven into global 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:45.519 pop culture. So the family flees to Budapest, 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:47.399 but the sources show they don't actually stay 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:49.319 there. It seems like that sense of displacement 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:52.560 just kept going. It did. nomadic childhood. From 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:54.959 Budapest they moved to Brussels and then eventually 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.300 to Paris. And in Paris she really tried to follow 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:00.720 in her father's footsteps. Right. I read she 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:03.439 studied music hoping to become this great composer 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:06.139 or performer, but the biographical details are 00:08:06.139 --> 00:08:08.920 actually quite blunt about this. She basically 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:12.060 failed. She did. She just didn't have the innate 00:08:12.060 --> 00:08:14.879 genius her father was surrounded by. And that 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:17.180 has to be tough. You have a father who hangs 00:08:17.180 --> 00:08:19.459 out with Wagner, and you just can't make the 00:08:19.459 --> 00:08:22.000 cut in the Parisian music scene. So you're a 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:23.959 failed musician. What do you do next? You go 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:26.839 to London. The family finally arrived there in 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:30.319 1880 when she was 14. And London in 1880 is a 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:32.940 completely different universe. This is the absolute 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:36.480 height of the Victorian era. The smog, the massive 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.419 industrialization. in the sprawling empire. For 00:08:39.419 --> 00:08:41.659 a Hungarian teenager who speaks French and German, 00:08:41.980 --> 00:08:44.340 it must have been an overwhelming sensory experience. 00:08:44.419 --> 00:08:46.240 Oh, it had to be a total shock to the system. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:49.000 The sources say they lodged with a fellow Hungarian 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.940 expatriate on Great Portland Street. And since 00:08:51.940 --> 00:08:54.679 music was a bust for her, she pivoted to visual 00:08:54.679 --> 00:08:56.720 art. And she was actually pretty good at this. 00:08:57.179 --> 00:08:59.159 She attended the West London School of Art and 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:01.080 then moved on to the Heatherly School of Fine 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:03.340 Art. She even got some of her paintings exhibited 00:09:03.340 --> 00:09:05.860 at the Royal Academy, which is no small feat. 00:09:06.029 --> 00:09:09.070 It's a huge achievement. She clearly had talent, 00:09:09.429 --> 00:09:11.350 but art school provided her with something perhaps 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:14.350 even more important than a career path. It is 00:09:14.350 --> 00:09:17.029 where she met her husband. Henry George Montague 00:09:17.029 --> 00:09:21.179 McLean Barstow. Yes. Montague Barstow. He was 00:09:21.179 --> 00:09:23.259 the son of a clergyman working as a commercial 00:09:23.259 --> 00:09:26.019 illustrator and honestly this feels like the 00:09:26.019 --> 00:09:28.879 one area of her life that wasn't touched by anxiety 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.500 or fear. By all accounts in her memoirs it was 00:09:31.500 --> 00:09:33.399 a profoundly deep connection. They got married 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:36.159 in 1894 and she described their relationship 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:39.240 as perfect happiness and understanding and perfect 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:41.929 friendship for nearly half a century. It is rare 00:09:41.929 --> 00:09:44.509 to see such an uncomplicated, joyful description 00:09:44.509 --> 00:09:47.389 of a marriage in literary biographies. Usually 00:09:47.389 --> 00:09:49.590 you dig into these lives and there is some secret 00:09:49.590 --> 00:09:52.289 strife or resentment, but they were true partners 00:09:52.289 --> 00:09:54.789 in every sense. They really had to be because 00:09:54.789 --> 00:09:57.149 they were totally broke. That whole starving 00:09:57.149 --> 00:09:59.830 artist trope was very real for them. They were 00:09:59.830 --> 00:10:02.230 doing translations and minor illustrations together 00:10:02.230 --> 00:10:05.210 just to scrape by and pay rent. And that crushing 00:10:05.210 --> 00:10:07.889 financial pressure is exactly what brings us 00:10:07.889 --> 00:10:10.610 to the birth of the Scarlet Pimpernel, because 00:10:10.610 --> 00:10:13.029 there is nothing that motivates a career change 00:10:13.029 --> 00:10:15.830 quite like needing to pay the bills. Especially 00:10:15.830 --> 00:10:19.190 after their son, John Montague, was born in 1899. 00:10:19.699 --> 00:10:22.519 So you have new baby, you have very little money 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:25.080 coming in, and you decide, OK, I'm going to write 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:27.759 novels to save us. Which is a bold strategy. 00:10:27.860 --> 00:10:29.940 Very bold. But she didn't just hit a home run 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.179 on the first swing, did she? Not even close. 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:35.519 Her first novel came out in 1899 called The Emperor's 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:38.340 Candlesticks, total flop. Then she dried again 00:10:38.340 --> 00:10:41.379 in 1901 with a book called In Mary's Rain. That 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:43.000 one did slightly better, but she was essentially 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.860 churning out what critics called racy mannered 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.110 melodramas that nobody was really buying. So 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:49.590 where does the lightning strike? Because this 00:10:49.590 --> 00:10:52.090 is one of my favorite parts of her entire story. 00:10:52.509 --> 00:10:55.450 It is just so cinematic. The historical records 00:10:55.450 --> 00:10:58.070 say she actually conceived the character of the 00:10:58.070 --> 00:11:00.570 Scarlet Pimpernel while standing on a platform 00:11:00.570 --> 00:11:04.230 on the London Underground. The tube. Yes. It 00:11:04.230 --> 00:11:06.590 is a wonderfully contrastive setting. You have 00:11:06.590 --> 00:11:09.529 the grime, the thick smoke, the noise of industrial 00:11:09.529 --> 00:11:12.629 London, the very definition of the modern working 00:11:12.629 --> 00:11:15.070 class world that she probably found quite ugly 00:11:15.070 --> 00:11:17.110 and distressing. And right in the middle of all 00:11:17.110 --> 00:11:19.990 that dirt and noise, she just has this vision 00:11:19.990 --> 00:11:23.669 of the ultimate Pristine aristocrat. Sir Percy 00:11:23.669 --> 00:11:25.830 Blakeney. Sir Percy. She sees this character 00:11:25.830 --> 00:11:28.389 who is an English fop. He's obsessed with the 00:11:28.389 --> 00:11:30.669 latest fashion. He seems totally useless to society 00:11:30.669 --> 00:11:33.889 on the surface. But secretly, he is crossing 00:11:33.889 --> 00:11:36.970 the channel to rescue French aristocrats from 00:11:36.970 --> 00:11:38.929 Madame Guillotine. I love the imagery of that. 00:11:39.009 --> 00:11:41.289 She is standing there, probably surrounded by 00:11:41.289 --> 00:11:44.389 tired commuters and coal smoke, dreaming of satin 00:11:44.389 --> 00:11:47.210 suits and sword fights. It's pure escapism. But. 00:11:47.450 --> 00:11:49.269 As we know, just because she had a brilliant 00:11:49.269 --> 00:11:51.509 idea didn't mean the world was ready to embrace 00:11:51.509 --> 00:11:55.070 it. No. She wrote the novelization of this idea 00:11:55.070 --> 00:11:57.990 and she submitted it to publishers. And the research 00:11:57.990 --> 00:12:00.529 says she was rejected by 12 different publishers. 00:12:00.669 --> 00:12:03.309 12 rejections. We hear these stories today about 00:12:03.309 --> 00:12:06.070 J .K. Rowling or Stephen King getting rejected, 00:12:06.129 --> 00:12:09.809 but in 19 or 3, getting 12 doors slammed in your 00:12:09.809 --> 00:12:12.330 face had to be demoralizing. Why do you think 00:12:12.330 --> 00:12:14.620 they hated it so much? Well, you have to think 00:12:14.620 --> 00:12:17.919 about the literary landscape of the early 1900s. 00:12:18.100 --> 00:12:21.919 The trend was heavily moving toward gritty realism 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:25.620 and naturalism. High adventure and romantic melodrama 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:28.059 were seen as a bit old fashioned. Like a bit 00:12:28.059 --> 00:12:30.779 lowbrow. Exactly, a bit lowbrow. The publishers 00:12:30.779 --> 00:12:33.159 just didn't see a market for a story about a 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:35.779 guy in a disguise saving dukes from the guillotine. 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:38.279 It felt out of step with the times. But Orsi 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:40.940 and Montague, they didn't quit. And this is where 00:12:40.940 --> 00:12:42.639 that partnership you mentioned really shines. 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:44.460 They couldn't get the book published, so they 00:12:44.460 --> 00:12:47.139 pivoted to the stage. Right. They sat down and 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.879 co -wrote it as a play in 1903. And this time, 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.299 they finally got a yes. They took it to Fred 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:54.720 Terry and Julia Nielsen, who managed a theater, 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:57.460 and they accepted it for a West End production. 00:12:57.740 --> 00:13:01.059 And when it finally opened on January 5th, 1905, 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:03.840 it wasn't exactly an overnight sensation. No, 00:13:04.019 --> 00:13:06.440 the initial audiences were quite small. The critics 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:08.519 were actually not kind at all. They found the 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:11.419 play silly and overly dramatic. But the audience, 00:13:11.700 --> 00:13:13.559 the people who actually bought tickets, they 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:16.370 found it completely addictive. The sources show 00:13:16.370 --> 00:13:19.350 it started slow, but then the word of mouth just 00:13:19.350 --> 00:13:21.990 spread like wildfire across London. It ran for 00:13:21.990 --> 00:13:24.730 four straight years in London. It broke stage 00:13:24.730 --> 00:13:27.649 records. It ended up playing over 2 ,000 performances. 00:13:27.909 --> 00:13:30.549 2 ,000? That is massive. That is Phantom of the 00:13:30.549 --> 00:13:33.129 Opera or Hamilton levels of success, but for 00:13:33.129 --> 00:13:35.509 Edwardian London. And naturally, once the play 00:13:35.509 --> 00:13:37.990 was a certified mega hit, the publishers who 00:13:37.990 --> 00:13:40.870 had rejected her came crawling back. The novel 00:13:40.870 --> 00:13:43.429 was finally published and became a massive international 00:13:43.429 --> 00:13:45.990 bestseller. And suddenly our starving artists 00:13:45.990 --> 00:13:48.730 have total financial stability. They end up moving 00:13:48.730 --> 00:13:50.590 out of their cramped quarters to a beautiful 00:13:50.590 --> 00:13:53.049 place in Thanet, Kent. Talk about a turnaround. 00:13:53.309 --> 00:13:55.070 A complete life changer. But I want to spend 00:13:55.070 --> 00:13:58.769 some time really deconstructing why this specific 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:02.129 character works so well and why he is still so 00:14:02.129 --> 00:14:04.899 relevant to you and me today. Because when you 00:14:04.899 --> 00:14:07.580 strip away the 18th century clothes and the powdered 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:10.840 wigs, Sir Percy Blakeney is the very first superhero. 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:13.899 He really is the cultural blueprint. If you analyze 00:14:13.899 --> 00:14:15.879 the character and break him down, you see the 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:17.779 establishment of all these conventions that we 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:20.159 now just accept as standard for the genre. So 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:21.879 let's go through them. The most important one, 00:14:21.899 --> 00:14:25.279 as we touched on, is the dual identity. The alter 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:28.259 ego right before this heroes in literature were 00:14:28.259 --> 00:14:32.059 usually heroes 24 -7 Odysseus is always Odysseus 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:35.169 Robin Hood is always Robin Hood Sure, Robin Hood 00:14:35.169 --> 00:14:37.149 might put on a cloak to trick the sheriff of 00:14:37.149 --> 00:14:39.289 Nottingham for an afternoon, but he doesn't go 00:14:39.289 --> 00:14:41.230 home and live a fake life as a boring accountant. 00:14:41.610 --> 00:14:44.549 Exactly. But Sir Percy does. He lives a completely 00:14:44.549 --> 00:14:48.009 fake life as a boring, stupid fashionista. He 00:14:48.009 --> 00:14:50.750 hides behind this meticulously crafted public 00:14:50.750 --> 00:14:54.009 persona of a slow -thinking, foppish playboy. 00:14:54.190 --> 00:14:56.610 He deliberately makes people think he is an idiot 00:14:56.610 --> 00:14:58.730 so that no one suspects he's the mastermind. 00:14:58.950 --> 00:15:01.169 And that is the Bruce Wayne and Batman dynamic 00:15:01.169 --> 00:15:05.879 perfectly executed. It really is. Oh, Bruce Wayne. 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:08.379 He's just a rich idiot who fell out of a club 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:10.740 at 3 a .m. He couldn't possibly be the Batman. 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:14.320 Sir Percy did it first. And it goes much deeper 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:16.820 than just the personality split. He has the signature 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:19.740 symbol. The calling card. He leaves behind this 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:22.740 small red flower, the scarlet pimpernel, at the 00:15:22.740 --> 00:15:25.100 scene of his interventions. It's a brand. It's 00:15:25.100 --> 00:15:27.740 the bat signal. It's the mark of Zorro. It tells 00:15:27.740 --> 00:15:30.279 the villain, I was here, I beat you, and you 00:15:30.279 --> 00:15:32.980 didn't even see me. And he also has the support 00:15:32.980 --> 00:15:35.419 network, the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:38.340 Right. 19 devoted aristocratic followers who 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:41.120 aid his endeavors. It's the Justice League. It's 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:43.600 the Avengers. It's the whole idea that the hero 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:46.139 is so compelling that he inspires a movement 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:48.620 of people to back him up. And there is one more 00:15:48.620 --> 00:15:50.179 point the research makes that I think is crucial. 00:15:50.580 --> 00:15:52.899 His superpower isn't brute strength. He's good 00:15:52.899 --> 00:15:55.820 with a sword, of course, but he wins his battles 00:15:55.820 --> 00:15:58.080 because he is smarter than everyone else. He 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:02.039 has superior intellect. Yes. The ability to outthink 00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:05.039 and outwit his adversaries. This was a completely 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:09.000 new kind of hero for a new century. A hero who 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:12.879 wins through cleverness, misdirection, and mastery 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.139 of disguise rather than just punching his way 00:16:15.139 --> 00:16:17.460 out of a problem. And Orsi didn't just write 00:16:17.460 --> 00:16:19.620 this one book, count her money, and walk away. 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.139 She realized what she had, and she turned this 00:16:22.139 --> 00:16:24.539 into a massive franchise. Oh, she built an empire. 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:27.159 She wrote over a dozen sequels. I think the most 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:30.070 popular one noted in the sources was which came 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:32.490 out in 1906. That's right, and she kept writing 00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:35.009 them for decades. The final book in the series, 00:16:35.230 --> 00:16:37.529 Mam's El Guillotine, didn't come out until 1940. 00:16:37.970 --> 00:16:40.889 That is a 35 -year run for a single -character 00:16:40.889 --> 00:16:43.529 universe. And it crossed into other media almost 00:16:43.529 --> 00:16:45.470 immediately, which is another hallmark of the 00:16:45.470 --> 00:16:47.850 modern superhero. The story was translated into 00:16:47.850 --> 00:16:50.450 multiple languages, constantly revived on stage, 00:16:50.769 --> 00:16:52.950 and adapted into films. From the early silent 00:16:52.950 --> 00:16:56.350 films in 1917 all the way to the classic 1934 00:16:56.350 --> 00:16:58.929 version with Leslie Howard and even the 1982 00:16:58.929 --> 00:17:02.210 film version, the cross media success was staggering. 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:04.450 But here's where we need to broaden the scope 00:17:04.450 --> 00:17:06.970 of our deep dive. Because while the Pimpernel 00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:09.730 was obviously her cash cow, she was also doing 00:17:09.730 --> 00:17:11.849 some really innovative pioneering stuff in the 00:17:11.849 --> 00:17:14.730 world of mystery and detective fiction. I actually 00:17:14.730 --> 00:17:16.349 didn't know this until we pulled the sources 00:17:16.349 --> 00:17:19.170 for today, but she was a founding member of the 00:17:19.170 --> 00:17:21.960 Detection Club. Which is a very big deal in literary 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:25.019 history. The Detection Club was formed in 1930 00:17:25.019 --> 00:17:27.940 and it was the elite inner circle of British 00:17:27.940 --> 00:17:30.200 mystery writers. We are talking about heavy hitters 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.799 here. TK Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Dorothea 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:35.799 Sayers. Exactly. Being a founding member alongside 00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:38.720 Christine Sayers puts Orksy right at the high 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:40.859 table of the golden age of detective fiction. 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:43.819 She wasn't just seen as a romance or adventure 00:17:43.819 --> 00:17:46.700 novelist by her peers. She was a master of the 00:17:46.700 --> 00:17:48.769 puzzle. So tell us about her detective characters, 00:17:48.910 --> 00:17:50.910 because she broke some serious ground here. What 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:53.930 about Lady Molly of Scotland Yard? Lady Molly 00:17:53.930 --> 00:17:56.769 is one of her most significant yet overlooked 00:17:56.769 --> 00:17:59.390 contributions to the genre. Published around 00:17:59.390 --> 00:18:02.549 1910, it's a very early example of a female detective 00:18:02.549 --> 00:18:05.549 serving as the main character. Which feels incredibly 00:18:05.549 --> 00:18:09.329 progressive for that era. It was. In a literary 00:18:09.329 --> 00:18:11.289 world that was completely dominated by Sherlock 00:18:11.289 --> 00:18:14.829 Holmes, this hyper -rational, cold, male figure 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:18.339 Or C, introduced a woman who was a recognized 00:18:18.339 --> 00:18:21.690 professional police officer. Lady Molly used 00:18:21.690 --> 00:18:24.309 female intuition and psychology, but she was 00:18:24.309 --> 00:18:27.009 an active, clever agent solving complex crimes. 00:18:27.410 --> 00:18:29.829 She wasn't just a sidekick or a victim. And she 00:18:29.829 --> 00:18:31.829 also created another distinct archetype with 00:18:31.829 --> 00:18:34.930 the old man in the corner. Yes. The old man is 00:18:34.930 --> 00:18:37.849 the ultimate archetype of the armchair detective. 00:18:38.109 --> 00:18:40.450 The guy who solves the crime without ever actually 00:18:40.450 --> 00:18:42.910 leaving his seat. Literally. He sits in the corner 00:18:42.910 --> 00:18:45.950 of an ABC tea shop in London sipping milk and 00:18:45.950 --> 00:18:49.059 tying intricate knots in a piece of string. People 00:18:49.059 --> 00:18:51.619 bring him the details of baffling crimes, and 00:18:51.619 --> 00:18:53.500 he solves them just by listening to the evidence 00:18:53.500 --> 00:18:55.640 and applying pure logic. He doesn't go to the 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:58.039 crime scene. He doesn't chase bad guys down dark 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:00.640 alleys. Never. He out thinks them from his chair. 00:19:00.900 --> 00:19:03.279 Again, we see her emphasizing superior intellect 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:05.400 over physical action, just like she did with 00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:07.500 the Pimpernel. It really seems like she had this 00:19:07.500 --> 00:19:10.440 fascinating duality in her writing. On one hand, 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:12.819 you have the high melodrama, the sword fights, 00:19:12.940 --> 00:19:15.579 the passionate rescues, and on the other, You 00:19:15.579 --> 00:19:18.660 have this cold, hard logic and intricate puzzle 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:21.380 solving. Critics at the time described her overall 00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:24.759 style as highly wrought and intensely atmospheric. 00:19:25.380 --> 00:19:27.539 She knew exactly how to manipulate the reader's 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:30.240 emotions. Even when she wrote standalone historical 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.420 melodramas, she went all in. Oh, like The Nest 00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:36.000 of the Sparrowhawk. Yes, from 1909. The plot 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.319 of that book is absolutely bonkers. Break it 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:40.500 down for us. Give me the elevator pitch based 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:42.480 on the plot breakdown in our source. OK, here 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:45.589 we go. The setting is Puritan Kent. You have 00:19:45.589 --> 00:19:48.650 a malicious, greedy guardian who wants his wealthy 00:19:48.650 --> 00:19:51.950 ward's fortune. So he disguises himself as an 00:19:51.950 --> 00:19:55.069 exiled French prince to trick this young heiress 00:19:55.069 --> 00:19:57.289 into marrying him so he can legally steal all 00:19:57.289 --> 00:19:59.750 her money. Disguises again. It's literally always 00:19:59.750 --> 00:20:02.390 disguises with her. Always. But it gets crazier. 00:20:02.730 --> 00:20:04.849 He ropes in his widowed sister -in -law to help 00:20:04.849 --> 00:20:07.309 him with the con. And during this elaborate plot, 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:10.109 she accidentally disgraces one of her sons and 00:20:10.109 --> 00:20:12.210 then discovers her other son has been murdered 00:20:12.210 --> 00:20:14.930 by the villain. That is soap opera level drama. 00:20:15.009 --> 00:20:17.750 It is so dark. It's incredibly dark and convoluted. 00:20:18.049 --> 00:20:20.549 And here is a really fun kind of cynical fact 00:20:20.549 --> 00:20:23.569 about the marketing of that book. The publishers 00:20:23.569 --> 00:20:26.009 knew the Scarlet Pimpernel was their massive 00:20:26.009 --> 00:20:29.130 moneymaker. So even though the Nest of the Sparrowhawk 00:20:29.130 --> 00:20:31.650 had absolutely zero connection to the Pimpernel 00:20:31.650 --> 00:20:34.390 universe, different era, different characters, 00:20:34.769 --> 00:20:37.710 they blatantly advertised it as part of the Scarlet 00:20:37.710 --> 00:20:40.269 Pimpernel series. Just to trick people into buying 00:20:40.269 --> 00:20:42.650 it. Just to drive sales. The classic bait and 00:20:42.650 --> 00:20:45.369 switch. I guess the ethics of publishing marketing 00:20:45.369 --> 00:20:47.029 haven't changed that much in a hundred years? 00:20:47.150 --> 00:20:49.869 Not at all. Okay, so we had to pivot now. We've 00:20:49.869 --> 00:20:51.890 covered the massive hits, the detective stories, 00:20:52.289 --> 00:20:55.349 the literary innovations, but the mission... 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:58.099 of this deep dive is to look at the whole picture. 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:00.779 We cannot talk about Baroness Orzee without looking 00:21:00.779 --> 00:21:03.599 closely at her politics, her activism, and the 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:05.660 controversy that followed her, because there 00:21:05.660 --> 00:21:08.779 is a very sharp, very real edge to this story. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:11.400 There is. And this brings us right back to the 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:14.700 why of her worldview. We have to remember the 00:21:14.700 --> 00:21:17.319 trauma of her childhood. the flight from the 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:20.019 peasant revolution. That deep fear eventually 00:21:20.019 --> 00:21:23.740 solidified into a very rigid, extremely conservative 00:21:23.740 --> 00:21:26.779 worldview as an adult. She firmly believed in 00:21:26.779 --> 00:21:29.180 the absolute superiority of the aristocracy. 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:32.670 Yes. The sources, including her own biographers 00:21:32.670 --> 00:21:35.509 and critics, note that her attitude toward what 00:21:35.509 --> 00:21:39.309 she called the lower orders was incredibly patronizing. 00:21:39.490 --> 00:21:42.250 It was condescending, especially if anyone from 00:21:42.250 --> 00:21:44.250 the working class stepped out of line or demanded 00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:46.670 rights. She was a staunch supporter of British 00:21:46.670 --> 00:21:49.690 imperialism. She supported militarism. And obviously, 00:21:49.849 --> 00:21:52.569 given her background, she was vehemently opposed 00:21:52.569 --> 00:21:54.829 to the Soviet Union and any form of communism. 00:21:54.930 --> 00:21:57.049 She hated anything that smelled of socialism. 00:21:57.130 --> 00:21:59.130 And this wasn't just idle talk at fancy dinner 00:21:59.130 --> 00:22:01.079 parties. She didn't just write about these ideals 00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:03.579 in fiction. When World War I broke out, she got 00:22:03.579 --> 00:22:06.319 active, she mobilized, and this is the part of 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:08.579 the historical record that is genuinely difficult 00:22:08.579 --> 00:22:11.039 to read about. She established an organization 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:13.420 called the Women of England's Active Service 00:22:13.420 --> 00:22:16.140 League. This is where the romantic writer clashes 00:22:16.140 --> 00:22:19.180 violently with the harsh, ugly reality of war. 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:22.720 Her goal with the League was to empower and mobilize 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:25.420 women to convince men to enlist in the military. 00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:27.720 And the pledge they had to take was intense. 00:22:28.509 --> 00:22:31.309 To join, a woman had to sign a pledge that stated 00:22:31.309 --> 00:22:33.789 her intention to persuade every man she knew 00:22:33.789 --> 00:22:36.269 to offer his service to the country. Orzi was 00:22:36.269 --> 00:22:40.059 ambitious too. She aimed to recruit 100 ,000 00:22:40.059 --> 00:22:41.960 women for this league. Did she hit that number? 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:44.660 She recruited about 20 ,000, according to the 00:22:44.660 --> 00:22:47.259 numbers we have. But the controversy stems from 00:22:47.259 --> 00:22:49.640 how they actually went about this persuasion, 00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:52.160 because she was a founding member and a major 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:54.700 proponent of the White Feather movement. We really 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:56.519 need to unpack this carefully for you listening, 00:22:56.619 --> 00:22:58.539 because you might not know the historical context. 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:01.059 The White Feather wasn't a badge of honor. It 00:23:01.059 --> 00:23:03.420 wasn't a ribbon of support. It was a weapon. 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:07.190 It was weaponized public shame. The white feather 00:23:07.190 --> 00:23:09.549 has been a traditional symbol of cowardice in 00:23:09.549 --> 00:23:11.970 British culture for a long time. It actually 00:23:11.970 --> 00:23:14.490 comes from cock fighting, where a bird that had 00:23:14.490 --> 00:23:16.829 a white feather in its tail was considered a 00:23:16.829 --> 00:23:19.569 poor, cowardly fighter. Right. So the movement, 00:23:19.690 --> 00:23:22.029 which Orsi championed, encouraged these women 00:23:22.029 --> 00:23:24.930 to carry white feathers, walk up to men in civilian 00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:27.470 clothes on the street, men who were not in military 00:23:27.470 --> 00:23:30.289 uniform, and pin the feather on them in public. 00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:33.549 It was a direct, aggressive confrontation. The 00:23:33.549 --> 00:23:36.470 entire symbolism was intended to publicly brand 00:23:36.470 --> 00:23:39.730 the man a coward, to humiliate him so deeply 00:23:39.730 --> 00:23:41.990 that he would be shamed into signing up for the 00:23:41.990 --> 00:23:45.000 army just to prove his manhood. You are walking 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:47.200 up to a stranger in the middle of a busy high 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:49.099 street and calling him a coward to his face. 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:51.960 It's incredibly aggressive. It was a blunt instrument 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:54.539 of social pressure, and Orsi was right at the 00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:57.000 forefront of it. She truly believed it was a 00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:59.680 British woman's patriotic duty to shame men into 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.259 fighting and dying for the empire. But the massive 00:24:02.259 --> 00:24:04.559 problem with this movement, as the historical 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:06.740 accounts show us over and over, is that these 00:24:06.740 --> 00:24:08.920 women didn't vet the men they were targeting. 00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:11.279 No, not at all. It was completely indiscriminate. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:14.450 They handed feathers. to teenage boys who were 00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:16.990 legally too young to enlist. They handed them 00:24:16.990 --> 00:24:19.609 to men working in vital essential industries 00:24:19.609 --> 00:24:23.490 like engineering or munitions who were explicitly 00:24:23.490 --> 00:24:26.210 forbidden by the government from enlisting because 00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:28.710 they were needed at home. And most tragically, 00:24:28.789 --> 00:24:31.029 the records show they handed white feathers to 00:24:31.029 --> 00:24:33.769 soldiers who were home on leave or men who had 00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:36.109 been severely wounded in the trenches, honorably 00:24:36.109 --> 00:24:38.589 discharged and were simply wearing civilian clothes 00:24:38.589 --> 00:24:41.440 while they recovered. Just try to imagine that. 00:24:41.900 --> 00:24:43.519 You've just come back from the horrors of the 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:46.339 trenches. Maybe you're suffering from shell shock. 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:49.019 Maybe you've lost a lung to mustard gas. And 00:24:49.019 --> 00:24:51.220 a wealthy woman walks up to you in your hometown 00:24:51.220 --> 00:24:53.839 and hands you a feather, publicly calling you 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:56.559 a coward. It was devastating. There are documented 00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:59.400 historical cases of men committing suicide shortly 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:01.980 after receiving white feathers. It was a cruel, 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:04.819 deeply damaging campaign. So as we look at all 00:25:04.819 --> 00:25:07.480 the sources, how do we reconcile this? The woman 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:09.940 who wrote these incredibly fun swashbuckling 00:25:09.940 --> 00:25:12.400 adventures that bring us joy is the exact same 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:15.359 woman who is ruining real people's lives with 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:17.319 feathers in the street. I think it all goes back 00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:20.640 to her absolutism. In her mind, the aristocratic 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:23.400 ideal she worshipped required a blood sacrifice 00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:26.359 to maintain. Duty to the empire was everything. 00:25:26.900 --> 00:25:28.980 If you weren't actively fighting to protect the 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:31.410 social order, You were part of the chaos. She 00:25:31.410 --> 00:25:33.509 just couldn't see the nuance. She only saw the 00:25:33.509 --> 00:25:36.170 cause. Exactly. It's a stark reminder that authors 00:25:36.170 --> 00:25:39.130 are complex people of their time, often holding 00:25:39.130 --> 00:25:41.549 prejudices and executing actions that we find 00:25:41.549 --> 00:25:44.569 deeply abhorrent today. It creates a very complicated, 00:25:44.710 --> 00:25:47.890 very messy legacy. She creates a fictional hero 00:25:47.890 --> 00:25:51.549 who uses a disguise to save innocent lives, while 00:25:51.549 --> 00:25:54.279 in reality, She uses her own fame and influence 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:57.140 to mercilessly shame real people into risking 00:25:57.140 --> 00:25:59.519 theirs. She was both a pioneer of pop culture 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:01.980 and a wartime propagandist. You can't separate 00:26:01.980 --> 00:26:04.380 the two. So let's move to the final chapter of 00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:06.359 her life as we start to bring this deep dive 00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:09.900 to a close. The First World War ends. The world 00:26:09.900 --> 00:26:12.400 changes drastically again. Where does she end 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:14.539 up? Well, the massive wealth generated by the 00:26:14.539 --> 00:26:16.400 Scarlett Pimpernel franchise allowed her to live 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:18.960 very comfortably. She bought a beautiful estate 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:21.480 in Monte Carlo on the Riviera. Villa Bijoux. 00:26:21.819 --> 00:26:25.380 Yes, Villa Bijoux, which translates to the Jewel 00:26:25.380 --> 00:26:27.539 Villa. Sounds like a nice place to retire. It 00:26:27.539 --> 00:26:31.059 was idyllic, but history has a dark way of repeating 00:26:31.059 --> 00:26:33.259 itself for her. She was living in Monte Carlo 00:26:33.259 --> 00:26:35.880 when World War II broke out. And once again, 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:38.640 she was trapped by a massive violent conflict. 00:26:38.759 --> 00:26:41.569 She was unable to return to London. And during 00:26:41.569 --> 00:26:44.549 this time, she faced a profound personal tragedy. 00:26:45.130 --> 00:26:47.829 One that she couldn't write a clever escape from. 00:26:48.250 --> 00:26:51.970 Yes. In 1942, her husband, Montague Barstow, 00:26:52.230 --> 00:26:54.569 died in Monte Carlo. And that just hits hard 00:26:54.569 --> 00:26:57.190 when you read the biography. They had been together, 00:26:57.369 --> 00:27:00.150 working side by side for almost 50 years. He 00:27:00.150 --> 00:27:02.369 was her co -writer, her illustrator, her best 00:27:02.369 --> 00:27:05.009 friend. His death completely broke her. She was 00:27:05.009 --> 00:27:07.369 isolated, she was widowed, and she was living 00:27:07.369 --> 00:27:09.829 out her final years in a Europe that was once 00:27:09.829 --> 00:27:11.890 again tearing itself apart and destroying the 00:27:11.890 --> 00:27:13.670 old order she loved so much. She spent those 00:27:13.670 --> 00:27:15.650 isolated years writing her memoir, right? She 00:27:15.650 --> 00:27:17.549 did. It's called Links in the Chain of Life, 00:27:17.670 --> 00:27:19.950 and it was eventually published in 1947. Did 00:27:19.950 --> 00:27:21.529 she ever manage to get back home to England? 00:27:21.710 --> 00:27:24.750 She did, finally, after the war ended. She returned 00:27:24.750 --> 00:27:26.930 to England, but she passed away shortly after, 00:27:27.069 --> 00:27:29.710 on November 12, 1947, in Henley -on -Thames. 00:27:30.009 --> 00:27:34.430 She was 82 years old. 82. Think about the sheer 00:27:34.430 --> 00:27:36.970 scope of that life. She saw the horse -drawn 00:27:36.970 --> 00:27:39.410 carriages of feudal Hungary. She survived the 00:27:39.410 --> 00:27:41.630 Industrial Revolution of Victorian London. She 00:27:41.630 --> 00:27:44.069 lived through two devastating world wars. And 00:27:44.069 --> 00:27:45.990 she died right at the dawn of the Atomic Age. 00:27:46.230 --> 00:27:49.390 It was a life defined by massive, sweeping historical 00:27:49.390 --> 00:27:52.150 changes. So as we wrap up this deep dive, I want 00:27:52.150 --> 00:27:54.230 to try to synthesize all of this information 00:27:54.230 --> 00:27:56.690 for you. When we look at all the sources, the 00:27:56.690 --> 00:27:59.369 books, the plays, the political activism, what 00:27:59.369 --> 00:28:01.630 is the ultimate takeaway from the life of Baroness 00:28:01.630 --> 00:28:03.819 Orsi? I think the core takeaway is the sheer 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:06.460 power of transformation and adaptation. You have 00:28:06.460 --> 00:28:08.900 a terrified refugee who completely reinvents 00:28:08.900 --> 00:28:11.519 herself as a wealthy British icon. You have an 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:14.079 artist who fails at music and painting, but somehow 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:16.000 becomes one of the best -selling authors of her 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.279 century. But mostly you have someone who took 00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:21.380 her deepest, most profound trauma, that absolute 00:28:21.380 --> 00:28:24.180 terror of the angry mob, and transmuted it into 00:28:24.180 --> 00:28:26.619 a story that literally changed pop culture forever. 00:28:26.829 --> 00:28:29.210 And we have to acknowledge that without her specific 00:28:29.210 --> 00:28:32.630 anxieties, we might not have the modern superhero 00:28:32.630 --> 00:28:35.430 archetype of the secret identity. It is genuinely 00:28:35.430 --> 00:28:39.930 hard to imagine Batman or Superman or Zorro existing 00:28:39.930 --> 00:28:42.329 without the template that Sir Percy Blakeney 00:28:42.329 --> 00:28:45.630 provided. That highly specific combination of 00:28:45.630 --> 00:28:49.289 the useless, foppish alter ego hiding the hyper 00:28:49.289 --> 00:28:52.309 competent hero, that starts with Ahuska. It absolutely 00:28:52.309 --> 00:28:54.549 does. And here's the final provocative thought 00:28:54.549 --> 00:28:56.509 I want to leave you, the listener, with today. 00:28:56.950 --> 00:28:59.589 Something to mull over. I want you to think about 00:28:59.589 --> 00:29:01.930 the ultimate irony of the paradox we started 00:29:01.930 --> 00:29:04.690 this show with. The inversion of her hero. Exactly. 00:29:04.930 --> 00:29:07.089 Right. Or has he explicitly created the Scarlet 00:29:07.089 --> 00:29:09.589 Pipernel to be a counter -revolutionary? He was 00:29:09.589 --> 00:29:12.549 fundamentally a hero for the 1%. His entire purpose 00:29:12.549 --> 00:29:14.650 was to fight the masses to keep the aristocracy 00:29:14.650 --> 00:29:16.690 on top. Correct. He was a conservative icon. 00:29:16.829 --> 00:29:19.349 But the trope she invented, the masked hero with 00:29:19.349 --> 00:29:22.009 a secret identity, it evolved over the decades. 00:29:22.269 --> 00:29:25.569 It got democratized by later writers. Now, when 00:29:25.569 --> 00:29:28.410 we see a superhero in a movie or a comic, they're 00:29:28.410 --> 00:29:30.990 almost always fighting for the common man. They're 00:29:30.990 --> 00:29:32.470 the ones fighting against corruption. They're 00:29:32.470 --> 00:29:35.269 fighting the elites. That is the ultimate historical 00:29:35.269 --> 00:29:38.630 twist. The precise literary tool she invented 00:29:38.630 --> 00:29:41.730 to protect the aristocracy is now used globally 00:29:41.730 --> 00:29:43.970 in fiction to protect the vulnerable masses. 00:29:44.670 --> 00:29:47.410 The creator's original deeply conservative intent 00:29:47.410 --> 00:29:50.190 has been completely flipped and rewritten by 00:29:50.190 --> 00:29:52.480 the legacy of her own creation. It just goes 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:54.660 to show that once you put a story out into the 00:29:54.660 --> 00:29:56.940 world, it really doesn't belong to you anymore. 00:29:57.299 --> 00:29:59.519 It takes on a life of its own. It belongs to 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:02.539 us. Precisely. The culture decides what the symbol 00:30:02.539 --> 00:30:05.420 means. So the next time you're sitting in a theater 00:30:05.420 --> 00:30:07.460 watching a Marvel movie or you see a trailer 00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:10.039 for the newest Batman reboot, look closely for 00:30:10.039 --> 00:30:12.740 the Pimpernel DNA. Look for the deliberate fop, 00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:15.640 the clever disguise, the calling card. It is 00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:18.380 all there. and it's all thanks to Imuska. And 00:30:18.380 --> 00:30:21.000 maybe, if you're a fan of mysteries, give Lady 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:23.400 Molly of Scotland Yard a read. You might be surprised 00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:26.019 by how modern and engaging her detective work 00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:28.279 still feels today. Absolutely. Thank you for 00:30:28.279 --> 00:30:30.500 going on this incredibly deep complex journey 00:30:30.500 --> 00:30:33.039 with us today. It has been a wild ride through 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:35.500 history. It certainly has. We will see you in 00:30:35.500 --> 00:30:36.319 the next Deep Dive.