what is the historical information about the period of publitcation

The French Revolution ended in 1799 and the Scarlet Pimpernel was not published until 1905. It was originally a play but was made into a book soon afterwards. The revolutionary strife in France had long subsided and France was a Republic (The Third Republic). I'm not sure there was much of a relation between the French revolution, the famous vigilante and the time it was written. The state of affairs in both England and France had changed much over a hundred years.