The Prisoner of Zenda (1894)There are in existence a few books that can cure the sickness of cynicism. These books remind men of the glory and grandeur of man and the glories and grandeurs that give meaning to mankind. The Prisoner of Zenda, written in 1894 by Anthony Hope, is one of these. This “spirited and gallant little book,” as Robert Louis Stevenson described it, is a remedy to the heavy seriousness of cynicism because it is lighthearted. It is a fairy tale infused with the optimism of escapism, the thrill of romance, and the charm of the dashing, debonair, gentleman hero. Even the gravest of cynics must smile, chuckle, and inch to the edge of his seat in appreciation of men bristling with weapons, women swooning in their lovers’ arms, guns firing and combatants laughing, swords flashing and soldiers of fortune. The Prisoner of Zenda is quite simply irresistible, making it a balm for this dour day and age, and worthy of its reputation for being the finest adventure story ever written, in which the struggle between good and evil is a great game and nothing seems so serious as keeping the serious at bay.Few plot devices are more familiar to us now than the old mistaken identity/body double trope. I assume the first novel to exploit it was Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, followed by Twain’s Prince and the Pauper, and then this classic by Anthony Hope. Herein, the dissolute Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll visits the Kingdom of Ruritania for the coronation of its new king, Rudolf the V. A prior king had fathered a bastard upon the Rassendyll’s, giving the two lines shared features including red hair. As it happens, the two Rudolfs are the spitting image of one another. When Michael, Duke of Strelsau, determines to prevent the coronation by kidnapping his half-brother, loyal courtiers substitute Rassendyll as a stand-in. While Rassendyll and company be able to pull off the hoax and save the real king or will the Black Duke’s nefarious scheme succeed? Further complications arise because Michael is actually rather popular with the people, as opposed to Rudolf who has been off gallivanting for years. And they expect Rudolf to promptly marry his cousin, their beloved Princess Flavia. Rassendyll is thus forced to court her but lie to her about his true identity and avoid an actual marriage, which would be dishonorable. It’s all more fun than a bag of cats and a reminder of how much better the books we read when we kids are than the YA fiction you get nowadays. SPOILER: As you’ll have guessed, the real King is eventually freed and Rassendyll has to disappear, so no one suspects what has gone on. And that means parting from Flavia, who has learned his identity and realized that she has fallen in love with him, as he with her. This gives us the impossibly, joyously noble final scenes; “I must go tonight, before more people have seen me. And how would you have me stay, sweetheart, except--?”You’ll be hard-pressed to find a book these days that teaches that there are more important things than love, eh? (Reviewed:) Grade: (A-) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Anthony Hope -WIKIPEDIA: THe Prisoner of Zenda -ENTRY: Anthony Hope (Encyclopaedia Britannica) -ENTRY: The Prisoner of Zenda (Encyclopaedia Britannica) -ENTRY: Anthony Hope (Fantastic Fiction) - - -TRIBUTE SITE: The Ruritanian Resistance - - - - - - -INDEX: Hope, Anthony (Internet Archive) -VIDEO INDEX: “prisoner of zenda” (YouTube) -AUDIO INDEX: Anthony Hope (LibriVox) -ETEXTS: The Prisoner of Zenda (Project Gutenberg) -ETEXTS: Anthony Hope (Project Gutenberg) - -AUDIO: The Prisoner of Zenda (LibriVox) -RADIO: Episode 349: 10 More Great Adventure Stories: The Prisoner of Zenda: Lux Radio Theatre (june 4, 1939) with Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Bonita Hume ( The Good Old Days of Radio) -FILM: Classic Cartoons || Prisoner of Zenda -RADIO: Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda (1992) starring Douglas Hodge (Mystical Magpie) -RADIO: Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda (1973) starring Julian Glover and Martin Jarvis (Mystical Magpie) - - - - - -ESSAY: Nicholas Daly, “Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda (April, 1894) and the Rise of Ruritanian Fiction” (Nicholas Daly, Branch Collective) - - - - - - - -STUDY GUIDE: The Prisoner of Zenda (New Book Recommendations) -STUDY GUIDE: The Prisoner of Zenda (eNotes) -STUDY GUIDE: The Prisoner of Zenda (Study.com) -STUDY GUIDE: The Prisoner of Zenda (Farhaj Dawood, Academia.com) -STUDY GUIDE: The Prisoner of Zenda () -REVIEW: Ridiculously honourable: Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda (Jo Walton, September 16, 2010, Reactor) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda: “The Prisoner of Zenda” by Anthony Hope: Escape From Cynicism (Sean Fitzpatrick, CERC) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Movies Silently) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Diary of an Autodidact) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Reading to Know) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Good Books for Catholic kids) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Iliyana Benina, Nikola Benin, World Literature) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (ImoReads) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (booklearned) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Idle Woman) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Edoardo Albert) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Matt Paust's Crime Time) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (English Plus Language Blog) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Books and Boots) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Nicky the Biblophilian) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (RPG.net) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (My Reader’s Block) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Worldly Obsessions) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Leah E. Good) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Sue’s Trifles) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Luminous Libro) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (Times uk) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda (FictionFan’s Book Reviews) -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda ( -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda ( -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda ( -REVIEW: of Prisoner of Zenda ( FILM: -FILMOGRAPHY: Anthony Hope (IMDB) -PODCAST: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) w/ Philip Womack (You're Missing Out: A National Film Registry Show) - -WIKIPEDIA: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 film) -FILMOGRAPHY: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) (IMDB) -FILMOGRAPHY: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) (Rotten Tomatoes) - -SILENT FILM: The Prisoner Of Zenda (Rex Ingram) - 1922 -FILM REVIEW: -FILM REVIEW: Film in 1937: A Review and Christian Perspective of "The Prisoner of Zenda"--Action, Chivalry and Honor (Peter Veugelaers, hub Pages) -FILM REVIEW: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) (Kristin Battestella, I Think Therefoire I Review) -FILM REVIEW: Prisoner of Zenda (1937) (The Powell Blog)) -FILM REVIEW: ' Prisoner of Zenda' Reappears at the Capitol Theatre With Stewart Granger in Title Role (Bosley Crowther, Nov. 5, 1952, NY Times) Book-related and General Links: |
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