The Scarlet Pimpernel

Citizen Armand Chauvelin is the villain in Baroness Emmuska Orczy's classic novel The Scarlet Pimpernel and the various plays and movies derived... from the work. He is cast as Sir Percy Blakeney's arch-enemy throughout the novel's many sequels and appears in almost all of them. The former ambassador to England , Chauvelin is both a representative in the National Assembly and the chief agent of the Committee of Public Safety. Chauvelin is a ruthless, amoral patriot who firmly believes that the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel is a threat and a mockery to the French Republic, and uses his position incessantly to attempt to destroy or discredit the Pimpernel and his associates. He is described as dressing always in black. While he is depicted as being a small and physically weak man, he is extremely intelligent and cunning, able to manipulate those around him and devise elaborate plots. He is fearless concerning his own safety, except so far as his own incapacity or death might foil his plans.
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According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th... century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture. The historical novel was further popularized in the 19th century by writers classified as Romantics. Many regard Sir Walter Scott as the first to write historical novels. György Lukács, in his The Historical Novel, argues that Scott is the first fiction writer who saw history not just as a convenient frame in which to stage a contemporary narrative, but rather as a distinct social and cultural setting. His novels of Scottish history such as Waverley and Rob Roy focus upon a middling character who sits at the intersection of various social groups in order to explore the development of society through conflict. His Ivanhoe gains credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame furnishes another 19th century example of the romantic-historical novel as does Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
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