Audiobook · read by volunteers
Prisoner of Zenda
Anthony Hope (1863–1933)
Read by Andy Minter (1934-2017) · 22 chapters · 5 h 42
About the book
Rudolf Rassendyll is an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania, a small kingdom not a thousand miles from Bavaria. By a remarkable accident he turns out to be the double of the king, and when the king is kidnapped on the eve of his coronation, Rassendyll is asked to take his place. What follows is a headlong adventure of woods, moated castles, secret plots, sword fights and a dangerously growing love for a princess. Anthony Hope's novel launched a whole genre of romantic adventure set in imaginary European realms, and it remains a model of the form. Andy Minter reads the twenty-two chapters in about five and three-quarter hours. Swords, secrets, a stolen king and a rival who will stop at nothing: it is a story that never loses its pace.
Introduction
Anthony Hope was the pen name of Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863-1933), an English novelist who trained as a barrister before turning to writing. The Prisoner of Zenda, published in 1894, was his greatest success, and it made him famous almost overnight. A sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, followed in 1898.
The book is set in Ruritania, an invented central European kingdom, and it uses the classic device of mistaken identity. Hope's plot is fast and elegantly constructed, and its blend of humour, chivalry and romance struck a chord with the readers of the 1890s. The novel was dramatised for the stage in 1896 and has been adapted many times for the cinema and television. It gave rise to a whole tradition of stories set in imaginary kingdoms, sometimes called Ruritanian romance, and its influence can be seen in later adventure fiction.
The recording has twenty-two chapters and lasts roughly five hours and forty minutes. It is read by one LibriVox volunteer, Andy Minter. This is a book for pure enjoyment, and it carries a pleasant sense of period without losing speed. Listeners who like their adventures with a touch of irony and a gallant hero will find it hard to stop, and those new to the genre will see why it has lasted so well. Hope keeps the plot moving with courtesy, humour and a fine sense of danger, and the hero's dilemma between love and honour gives the book a surprising emotional depth.
Public domain
Anthony Hope died in 1933: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text