Returning to Ruritania

Rupert of Hentzau, Anthony Hope

I enjoyed The Prisoner of Zenda from start to finish, so when I learned there was a sequel, I immediately added it to my reading list.  Where the first book is narrated by Rudolf Rassendyll, this book is "From the Memoirs of Fritz von Tarlenheim."  Fritz, a count and an army officer, together with Colonel Sapt, helped Rassendyll impersonate the King of Ruritania while the real king was held prisoner by his wicked cousin, Duke Michael of Streslau.  In the course of their adventures, Rassendyll fell in love with the king's beautiful fiancée Flavia, and she with him, but they nobly renounced their love for the country's good.

I was very frustrated when the introduction to my Oxford World's Classic edition of The Prisoner included a major spoiler about this book - though as it turns out, the information wasn't quite accurate.  This post will also have some spoilers, but at least I am warning you ahead of time!

Michael's right-hand man in all his schemes was Rupert of Hentzau, young, handsome, wicked and impudent. In one of my favorite lines, Rassendyll told him at one point, "Surely, while you're above ground, hell wants its master!" Rupert escaped the failure of Michael's plots, fleeing Ruritania.  For the past three years, he has been roaming Europe, his lands and income attainted, "making a living by his wits."  But now he wants to return home.  Thanks to Queen Flavia, he thinks he has found the means.  Every year, the Queen sends Rudolf Rassendyll a single red rose and a message of three words.  Fritz von Tarlenheim carries these to him, and carries back his three-word response.  If Rupert can intercept the messenger and seize the evidence, he can use the Queen's indiscretion to force the King to allow his return.  Unbeknownst to him, this year Fritz is carrying something even more dangerous: a love letter from the Queen, which also tells her lover that this is the last message she will send.

On the way to meet Rassendyll at Wintenberg, Fritz is decoyed and attacked.  Rupert robs him of the letter and the rose, and then sets off for Ruritania.  Rassendyll, who was waiting for Fritz in Wintenberg, learns of this and sets off himself, in pursuit.  He arrives at Zenda, where the King and Queen are staying, to ask wise old Colonel Sapt for help.  Meanwhile, Rupert goes to ground in the capital city of Streslau, waiting for his chance.

I have to say, I did not enjoy this book as much as The Prisoner.  I know I was supposed to sympathize with Queen Flavia, trapped in marriage to a weak and petulant King, consoling herself with her love for Rudolf Rassendyll.  Everyone around her who is in on her secret indulges her in this emotional wallowing, even though, as she admits more than once, she knows it is wrong.  She also has to know how dangerous it is to write that letter, but she does it anyway, and all the trouble flows from that.  I thought she was a much stronger character in the first book.  Here she is a weak woman, at the mercy of feelings she cannot control, who has to be rescued from the consequences of her actions, at considerable cost.**  And she weeps, a lot.

On the other hand, for a book called Rupert of Hentzau, we don't see much of the villain.  People talk about him constantly, and his actions are reported in detail, but he is absent for much of the book.  I think the story could have used more of his wicked energy.  And I must say that the Rudolf Rassendyll of this book, as seen through Fritz's eyes, while noble and heroic and manly, is a bit flat compared to the Rudolf who tells his own story in The Prisoner.  He has become The Hero, but he has a lot less fun doing it - probably because he has to keep consoling Queen Flavia.

I was lucky enough to find a 1916 edition of this book on-line.  It has the original Charles Dana Gibson illustrations, which are charming.  He certainly makes Rudolf Rassendyll look the hero!  I have also downloaded two of Anthony Hope's other books, not set in Ruritania: The Heart of Princess Osra, and Sophy of Kravonia.  From the titles alone, I am anticipating more High Romance - hopefully with less weeping.


**Final, major spoilers:
The death toll includes the King, Rudolf Rassendyll, Rupert, and a servant.  With the King's death, Flavia becomes Queen in her own right, as the King's cousin and next heir (they had no children).  She then apparently turns into Queen Victoria after Prince Albert's death: "[Her] only joy is to talk of Mr. Rassendyll with those few who knew him, her only hope that she may some day be with him again."  At that point I really wanted to Cher-smack her.

A tale of two Rudolfs

The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope

I have lost my heart to Rudolf Rassendyll.

Ever since I saw part of the 1937 film on TV some months ago, the one starring Ronald Colman, I've been wanting to read this book. I guess I was just in the mood for swashbuckling adventure and High Romance, and nothing could be better for that than The Prisoner of Zenda. Originally published in 1894, according to my Oxford World's Classics edition, it put the fictional Central European country of Ruritania on our collective cultural map, and "It set the style of romantic adventure novels for at least thirty years after its publication." Or perhaps even longer; Wesley and Buttercup, Prince Humperdinck and Count Rugen, and of course Inigo Montoya would have felt right at home in Ruritania.

I won't go into too much detail about the plot, which I'm sure is familiar to many people either from the book or the various film versions (there was also apparently a musical version at one point). Unlike the version I saw, though, the book introduces us to Rudolf in his family circle, at breakfast with his sister-in-law Rose, Lady Burlesdon. She objects to his idle life as a younger son with an independent income, alluding to an undesirable strain in the family. Rudolf then explains to us that both his red hair and prominent nose are reminders of a family scandal. In the reign of King George II, a prince of Ruritania named Rudolf, whose red hair and prominent nose marked him as an Elphberg of the Royal House of Ruritania, spent several months in England. His visit ended rather abruptly after he fought a duel with the 5th Lord Burleson, whose countess later bore a son with red hair and a prominent nose. Ever since then, the hair and the nose show themselves regularly in the Rassendyll family. But our Rudolf doesn't yet know how much he resembles the Elphberg who now holds the throne, who also shares his name.

On a whim, our Rudolf decides to visit Ruritania, where preparations for the coronation of the king are being rushed to completion. There are rumblings against His Majesty, from those who would prefer to see his half-brother Michael crowned in his place. Michael, the Duke of Streslau, is the son of a morganatic marriage, and thus not of the Blood Royal, a point underlined by his black hair. Yet his popularity - or his intrigues - could carry him to the throne, and marriage with their cousin the Princess Flavia would strengthen his hold on it. Our Rudolf, wandering around the countryside around the Duke's demesne of Zenda the day before the coronation, tumbles headlong into the intrigues. He finds himself constrained to play a part in them, in the course of which he proves himself a perfect knight and "the finest Elphberg of them all." Along the way, we get "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge . . . chases, escapes, true love, miracles," though sadly no Rodents of Unusual Size (unless you count Michael and his henchmen).

I do have a soft spot for one of those henchman, the wickedly impudent Rupert of Hentzau. At one point our Rudolf tells him, "Surely, while you're above ground, hell wants its master!" I am already looking forward to the sequel, named after this hellion. However, I am thinking of writing a strongly-worded letter of complaint to Tony Watkins, who edited my OWC version, for giving away the entire plot of Rupert of Hentzau in his introduction - without even a spoiler warning. (He could take a lesson from the editor of my Penguin Vanity Fair, who suggested reading his introduction as an afterword, to avoid learning too much about the story.) In addition to Rupert, I've found The Heart of Princess Osra via Google Books, and I'm looking forward to spending more time in Ruritania.