Castles in the Air by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Baroness Emma Orczy (full name: Emma (”Emmuska”) Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orczi) (September 23, 1865 – November 12, 1947) was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel. Castles in the Air, a short novel or perhaps more like a collection of short stories with memories of a French rogue in the early 19th century Paris, was published in 1921 and about it I quote from the foreword: In very truth my good friend Ratichon is an unblushing liar, thief, a forger–anything you will; his vanity is past belief, his scruples are non-existent. How he escaped a convict settlement it is difficult to imagine, and hard to realize that he died–presumably some years after the event recorded in the last chapter of his autobiography–a respected member of the community, honoured by that same society which should have raised a punitive hand against him. (Summary by Wkipedia, Lars Rolander and Emma Orczy)