The Prisoner of Zenda

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This article is about the 1894 novel by Anthony Hope Hawkins. For other uses, see The Prisoner of Zenda (disambiguation).

The Prisoner of Zenda
Cover to 2nd edition
Author	Anthony Hope
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical, Novel
Publisher	Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (January 1, 2000)
Publication date	1894
Media type	Print (Hardback &Paperback)
Pages	400 p. (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-14-043755-X(paperback edition)
OCLC Number	41674245
Dewey Decimal	823/.8 21
LC Classification	PR4762.P7 1999
Preceded by	The Heart of Princess Osra
Followed by	Rupert of Hentzau

Frontispiece to the 1898 Macmillan Publishersedition, illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson.

The Prisoner of Zenda is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is abducted on the eve of his coronation, and the protagonist, an English gentleman on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation. The villainous Rupert of Hentzau gave his name to the sequel published in 1898, which is included in some editions of this novel. The books were extremely popular and inspired a new genre of Ruritanian romance, including theGraustark novels by George Barr McCutcheon.

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[edit]Plot summary

When Michael has King Rudolf drugged, Rassendyll must impersonate the King at the coronation, and then when the King is abducted and imprisoned in his castle in the small town of Zenda, until he can be rescued. There are complications, plots, and counter-plots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress Antoinette de Mauban, and those of his dashing but villainous henchman Rupert of Hentzau, and Rassendyll falling in love with Princess Flavia, the King's betrothed. In the end, the King is restored to his throne—but the lovers, in duty bound, must part forever.

[edit]Adaptations

The novel has been adapted many times, mainly for film but also stage, musical, operetta, radio, and television. Probably the best-known version is the 1937 Hollywood movie. The dashingly villainous Rupert of Hentzau has been played by such matinee idols as Ramon Novarro (1922),Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1937), and James Mason (1952).

The Prisoner of Zenda (1895–96), was co-written by Hope and Edward Rose. It opened as a play in New York in 1895 starring E. H. Sothernand the next year on the West End in London, starring Evelyn Millard.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1913)—Starring James K. Hackett, Beatrice Beckley, David Torrence, Fraser Coalter, William R. Randall and Walter Hale. Adapted by Hugh Ford and directed by Ford and Edwin S. Porter, it was produced by Adolph Zukor and was the first production of theFamous Players Film Company.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1915)—Starring Henry Ainley, Gerald Ames, George Bellamy, Marie Anita Bozzi, Jane Gail, Arthur Holmes-Gore,Charles Rock and Norman Yates. It was adapted by W. Courtney Rowden and directed by George Loane Tucker.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)—Starring Ramon Novarro, Lewis Stone, Alice Terry, Robert Edeson, Stuart Holmes, Malcolm McGregor andBarbara La Marr. It was adapted by Mary O'Hara and directed by Rex Ingram.

Princess Flavia (1925), an operetta with the score by Sigmund Romberg.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)—Starring Ronald Colman as Rassendyll and Rudolph, Madeleine Carroll as Princess Flavia, Raymond Massey as Michael, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Rupert of Hentzau, C. Aubrey Smith as Colonel Zapt and David Niven as Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim. David O. Selznick decided to produce the film, partly as a comment on the Edward VIII abdication crisis,^[1] and it was directed by John Cromwell. Of the many film adaptations, this is considered by many to be the definitive version.^[2] Leslie Halliwellputs it at #590 of all the films ever made, saying that the "splendid schoolboy adventure story" of the late Victorian novel is "perfectly transferred to the screen",^[3] and quotes a 1971 comment by John Cutts that the film becomes more "fascinating and beguiling" as time goes by. Halliwell's Film Guide 2008 calls it "one of the most entertaining films to come out of Hollywood".^[4]

Colman, Smith and Fairbanks reprised their roles for a 1939 episode of Lux Radio Theatre, with Colman's wife Benita Hume playing Princess Flavia.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)—Starring Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Louis Calhern, Jane Greer, Lewis Stone, Robert Douglas,James Mason and Robert Coote. Stone, who played the lead in the 1922 version, had a minor role in this remake. It was adapted byEdward Rose, (dramatization) Wells Root, John L. Balderston, Noel Langley and Donald Ogden Stewart (additional dialogue, originally uncredited). It was directed by Richard Thorpe. It is a shot-for-shot copy of the 1937 film, the only difference being that it was made inTechnicolor. Halliwell judges it "no match for the happy inspiration of the original".^[4]

The Prisoner of Zenda (1961) U.S. television adaptation (DuPont Show of the Month), starring Christopher Plummer and Inger Stevens.

Zenda (1963), a musical that closed on the road prior to a scheduled opening on Broadway. Adapted from the 1925 Princess Flavia.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1979)—A comic version, starring Peter Sellers, Lynne Frederick, Lionel Jeffries, Elke Sommer, Gregory Sierra,Jeremy Kemp, Catherine Schell, Simon Williams and Stuart Wilson. It was adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and directed by Richard Quine. In this version Sellers plays the King, his father, and the other main character Syd Frewin, a London Hansom Cab driver, who finds himself employed as a double to the King and eventually changes places with him permanently. This comic version is not strictly true to the book but has been thought by many to capture its spirit very well.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1984)—BBC adaptation starring Malcolm Sinclair.

[edit]Homages

Of course, "The Prisoner of Zenda" could have been inspired by Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" (1881, first in Canada; the following year, 1882, in the U.S.) which in turn could have been inspired by Alexander Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask, the final installment of his Three Musketeers saga (late 1840s). All three literary works employ the same conceit of a reigning monarch-character having a lowly look-alike, double, although the Dumas work is probably the most sinister. However, all three are rife with court intrigue and all the possibilities of king-making that comes with such a plot.

Many subsequent, fictional works that feature a political decoy can be linked to The Prisoner of Zenda; indeed, this novel spawned the genre known as Ruritanian romance. What follows is a short list of those homages with a clear debt to Anthony Hope's book.

The 1902 short story "Rupert the Resembler" is one of the so-called New Burlesques, a comedy parody by Bret Harte, full text [1].

1926's The Mad King was Burroughs' version of the then popular Ruritanian romance set in Europe immediately before and during World War I, his story differs from the Hope books in a number of details, though sharing much of their basic plot.

Dornford Yates acknowledged Hope's influence in his two novels Blood Royal (1929) and Fire Below a.k.a. By Royal Command (1930) which were set in the Ruritania-like Principality of Riechtenburg.

The Magnificent Fraud (1939)—Starring Akim Tamiroff.

Robert A. Heinlein adapted the Zenda plot line to his science fiction novel Double Star (1956) with great success.

The 1965 comedy film The Great Race included an extended Zenda-like subplot, including a climactic fencing scene between Tony Curtis and Ross Martin. Curtis swims the moat, scales the wall, and despatches the guards, activities that Ronald Colman performs in the 1937 version of The Prisoner of Zenda.

Two episodes of the spoof spy television series Get Smart, "The King Lives?" and "To *Sire With Love, Parts 1 and 2", parodied the 1937 movie version, with Don Adams affecting aRonald Colman-esque voice.

The 1970 Flashman novel Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser, purports to explain the real story behind The Prisoner of Zenda, and indeed, in an extended literary conceit, claims to be the inspiration for Hope's novel—the narrator of the memoirs, in the framing story, tells his adventures to his lawyer, Hawkins, who can be assumed to be Anthony Hope (Hawkins). Otto von Bismarck and other real people such as Lola Montez are involved in the plot. It was released as a film of the same title in 1975, directed by Richard Lester, starring Malcolm McDowell as Flashman and Oliver Reed as Otto von Bismarck.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1974) by Nicholas Meyer is a non-canonical addition to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Holmes and Watson meet Rassendyll on a train to Vienna after he has left Ruritania.

Doctor Who episode "The Androids of Tara" (1978) had as a working title "The Androids of Zenda" and used a similar plot and setting. It featured Tom Baker as the Doctor and Mary Tamm in four roles: Romana and Princess Strella, and android doubles of each. The 1980 novelisation was by Terrance Dicks, who was script-editor on the 1984 BBC serialisation ofZenda.

The Zenda Vendetta (TimeWars Book 4) by Simon Hawke (1985) is a science fiction version, part of a series which pits 27th century terrorists the Timekeepers against the Time Commandos of the US Army Temporal Corps. The Timekeepers kill Rassendyll so that the Time Commando Finn Delaney is sent back to impersonate the impersonator, both to ensure that history follows its true path and to defeat the terrorists. In the finale the Time Commandos assault Zenda Castle with lasers and atomic grenades, both to rescue the king and to destroy the Timekeepers base.

Moon over Parador (1988), adapted by Leon Capetanos and directed by Paul Mazursky. More directly a remake of The Magnificent Fraud, the story is set in Latin America withRichard Dreyfus as the President and as the actor Jack Noah, Raúl Juliá as Roberto Strausmann (the "Black Michael" character), and Sonia Braga as Madonna Mendez (the Flavia character). It is a romantic comedy.

Dave, a 1993 film version adapted by Gary Ross and directed by Ivan Reitman that resets the story to contemporary Washington, DC, with Kevin Kline as the President and his double, Frank Langella in the "Black Michael" role, and Sigourney Weaver as the modern American Flavia. Like Moon Over Parador, it is a romantic comedy.

John Spurling's novel After Zenda (1995) is a tongue-in-cheek modern adventure in which Karl, the secret great-grandson of Rudolf Rassendyll and Queen Flavia, goes to post-Communist Ruritania, where he gets mixed up with various rebels and religious sects before ending up as constitutional monarch. The use of DNA fingerprinting comes into play, as it had recently done for the Romanovs.

The Prisoner of Zenda, Inc., a 1996 made-for-television version, is set in the contemporary United States and revolves around a high school boy who is the heir to a large corporation. The writer, Rodman Gregg, was inspired by the 1937 film version. It stars Jonathan Jackson, Richard Lee Jackson, William Shatner, Don S. Davis, Jay Brazeau and Katharine Isabelle.

De speelgoedzaaier, a Spike and Suzy comic by Willy Vandersteen, is loosely based on The Prisoner of Zenda.

Emma, a manga series released from 2002–2007, references The Prisoner of Zenda in chapter 37, which gives an overview of the plot as one character reads the novel.

Pale Fire, a 1962 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, includes Ruritanian elements in the (supposed?) life and events of the exiled king of "Zembla."

Not really The Prizoner of Zenda, the tenth novel (2003) in the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel C. Rosenberg refers to the novel within the title.

In The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, one of Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes short stories, Austrian Baron Adelbert Gruner is said to be about to trip to the USA on the ship Ruritania.

In The Prisoner of Benda, an episode of the animated TV series Futurama, Bender impersonates (or rather, switches bodies with) the Emperor of Robo-Hungary as part of a scheme to steal the crown jewels.

Michael Arram (possibly a pseudonym) has written a series of novels on the Web using the Zenda plot. These are intertwined with other Web novels containing some of the same characters; all of Arram's stories are thus related. In Arram's stories, Ruritantia has become Rothenia, whose inhabitants include both Germanic and Slavic factions. The Elphbergs and Rassendylls appear in several of the novels as do such locations as Hentzau and Strelsau with slight changes in their names to make them less Germanic. Making Arram's stories distinct is the significant number of gay characters surrounding the Elphbergs and Rassendylls. Also, some of the stories involve the supernatural. The stories are grouped under either "The Peacher Stories" (14 Web novels, all set in the current day) or "The Crown of Tassilo" (3 Web novels starting around 1880 and extending to the period between World War I and World War II); Arram continues to write new Web novels in these series. They may be found on such Web sites as CRVBoy (look there under "Authors") and It's

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The Prisoner of Zenda

Contents

[edit]Plot summary

[edit]Adaptations

[edit]Homages

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