Under the Red Robe is an 1894 historical novel by Stanley J. Weyman, described as his best known book and greatest success.It is set in seventeenth-century France during the ascendency of Cardinal Richelieu, who appears as a character in the novel. In particular it portrays the events of the Day of the Dupes. The novel was adapted into a 1923 American silent film Under the Red Robe directed by Alan Crosland, and was later made into a 1937 British swashbuckler film, Under the Red Robe, directed by Victor Sj str m. The novel was well received by contemporary historical novelists. Conan Doyle wrote that Under the Red Robe had "the most dramatic opening of any historical novel I know", and Robert Louis Stevenson commented favourably both on the first chapter and on the surprise which the author keeps to the very end. Siegfried Sassoon in his autobiography described his excitement as a schoolboy on first reading a copy. 4] Half a century after its publication, Roger Lancelyn Green characterized the novel as having no dull moment.