I know they were trying to defend themselves from a libel suit but give me a break! Either make up something entirely, as Hope did, or pick out an older, extinct name and use that. T-–, must you speak in dashes? You sound like that common M- from E-–.” “He was the Count d’A- from the estate of G- in the county R-– which is just to the north of S -.” What do I mean? Well, Victorian novels that purported to be about actual people and places would often do this: To readers of Victorian literature, it wonderful to read actual names.
Ruritanian adventure, named for the fictional nation, is defined as “of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an imaginary place of high romance.” Influence: The book proved to be so popular that an entire sub-genre is named for it. Rudolf’s English friends and family are carefully introduced at the beginning only to disappear and never be heard from again in the book. Michael has six henchmen when only one or two would to the job just as well. Also, Hope has the habit of introducing too many characters. My least favorite part: The books has a bit of snobbish tone that gets trying very quickly. This comes in handy when the king is kidnapped by his evil brother and Rudolf must keep the conspirators at bay by occupying the throne. What is it?: A tale that has been told before and has been retold again but has rarely been told better: An Englishman named Rudolf visits a European kingdom and discovers (through an indiscretion on the part of his great great great great grandmother) that he is a dead ringer for the king. (Seriously, I’ve bought audiobooks that aren’t half as good.) I have to confess that I also covet the leatherbound edition and may splurge one day. And there is a splendid free public domain audiobook courtesy of LibriVox. The edition I found on has illustrations by Charles Dana Gibson. My copy of the book is a Penguin Classics edition, which also contains its direct sequel, Rupert of Hentzau. However, since the novel was written in 1894, it is in the public domain and may be downloaded for free. Let’s start with the quintessential swashbuckler, The Prisoner of Zenda. For a change, I am going to cover some books that inspired silent films. And now for something completely different! When I review silent movie books, I generally focus on books about silent films themselves and the men and women who made them.
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