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An Important Predecessor to Pulp, Fantasy, and Science Fiction: The Ruritanian Romance – castaliahouse.com

An Important Predecessor to Pulp, Fantasy, and Science Fiction: The Ruritanian Romance

Saturday , 3, February 2018 12 Comments

I first came across the Ruritanian romance, a genre featuring adventure in a small, fictional, usually European kingdom, in Nabokov’s Pale Fire.  While that version was decidedly un-heroic, as Nabokov’s tragicomic works tend to be, it still impressed me as a promising setting for a story.  Later, in Philip Jose Farmer’s Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke, it was extensively referenced and analyzed, evidence of the effect it had on Farmer.  It wasn’t until years later that I finally read Sir Anthony Hope’s work that introduced the genre, The Prisoner of Zenda.

And it didn’t disappoint!

Rudolf Rassendyl is a lazy, financially secure English nobleman who is a distant descendant of Rudolf III of Ruritania, possessing the red hair and looks of the Elphberg royal family. On a whim, he decides to visit Ruritania, and in the small town of Zenda, comes across distant relative Rudolf Elphberg, who is to be crowned king the following day. Elphberg remarks upon their uncanny resemblance and decides to celebrate the occasion, making the mistake of drinking a wine sent to him by his jealous brother Black Michael, the Duke of Streslau.

With him in a drugged sleep, and the coronation in only a few hours, the canny Colonel Sapt and loyal Fritz von Tarlenheim convince Rassendyl to shave his beard and assume the mantle of monarch.

Thus, a dangerous rivalry ensues between Rassendyl and Black Michael, with the beautiful Princess Flavia flung into the mix.

While there is a mild amount of romance, the book primarily concentrates on action. It has a furious pace, and every new chapter involves dastardly plots, gun shots, murder, and/or swordfights.

Hope creates a solid cast of characters for his tale. Rassendyl, unlike most idealistic heroes of the Victorian era, has no compunction about plunging his sword into the back of a murderer or thug simply because it doesn’t constitute “fair play”.

Nor is Rassendyl above temptation. Throughout the book, he struggles between his sense of honor and loyalty and his love of Princess Flavia and the throne, in that order.

And while Rassendyl is brave and kills several foes, he is far from superhuman. In fact, two enemies that are part of Black Michael’s minions, known as “The Six”, are clearly stated to be superior fighters.

All this made the central protagonist more relatable and interesting, as opposed to being the artificial, unnatural paragon traditionally found in Victorian adventure novels, and even some of the pulps of the 1910s and 20s.

Two other characters are also noteworthy.

Colonel Sapt is a cagey, roguish adviser who is not above certain unethical suggestions in his role as Rassendyl’s primary minister. At the beginning of the work, he encourages Rassendyl to assume the throne solely because he hates Black Michael, and fears what will happen to him if the latter becomes king. But as the work progresses, he gains a growing admiration, and eventual love and devotion for Rassendyl. He laments that Rassendyl is not the legitimate king, and notes that he is the “truest Elphberg”.

The other character is one of Black Michael’s The Six, who was popular enough for Hope to adorn the sequel with his name, Rupert of Hentzau.

Rupert is a beautiful, dashing villain whose bravery and sword-fighting is utterly unmatched. He attacks his enemies in broad daylight with nothing more than a sword, even when a dozen servants surround his target, bearing firearms. All the while, he is supremely confident, with a smile and joke always ready on his lips.

His boldness and humor can be seen in many of Sabatini’s protagonists, albeit employed in nobler pursuits. In 1894, I can well imagine that such a character, even as an antagonist, was unique.

This fine adventure, with its fantasy-like setting, imperfect protagonist, and colorful cast of characters, was an obvious inspiration for Farmer, Sabatini, Sax Rohmer, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, the last of which even wrote his own Ruritanian romance in 1914, The Mad King.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must note that the sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, published 4 years after the original, is a disappointment.  While not altogether bad, it suffers from a dearth of ideas that were so plentiful in the original.  Moreover, the titular antagonist is less interesting, in part because despite moving into a main role, nothing is added to his character.  And the climactic duel between Rassendyl and Rupert ends with a whimper, instead of a bang, opting for a simple, unimaginative solution.

Nevertheless, the original is a classic tale of derring-do with considerable influence on later genres.  I highly recommend reading it if one hasn’t.

12 Comments
  • deuce says:

    Burroughs’ THE MAD KING is a direct homage to “Zenda”. Stands up pretty well. His novel THE RIDER is in a similar vein and is also fun.

  • deuce says:

    Oops. How did I miss your reference to THE MAD KING the first time I read through? Anyway, THE RIDER is also worth reading. Thanks for highlighting Hope’s classic novel and the genre it spawned!

  • JD Cowan says:

    If you are in the Pulp Revolution you really should pick up the Zenda books. They are what you’re looking for.

  • Mary says:

    The sad thing is that the entire genre never, to the best of my knowledge, matched the original.

    Andre Norton’s first published work, The Prince Commands, is one, and it has its charms, but still, not up to the mark.

    • Terry Sanders says:

      Pretty good, though–for a Ruritanian written for pre-adolescent boys in the Thirties (and the school librarians that were their gatekeepers).

      No sex (not even a love interest), no personal violence, minimal battle scenes, and she *still* got that close. I was impressed.

      • Aaron says:

        Yes, Andre Norton is to be admired for her early work in particular. I grew up looking at the covers of many of her books then, later on, reading them. As an introduction to SF/Fantasy they were excellent.

  • questing_vole says:

    Also George McDonald Fraser’s “Royal Flash” is a superb homage to Prisoner of Zenda, with Victorian cad and coward Harry Flashman an unwilling Rudolf Rassendyl manipulated into playing king by Otto von Bismarck.

  • John E. Boyle says:

    I second your recommendation! Anthony Hope Hawkins’ Prisoner of Zenda was a major influence not just on Sabatini, Burroughs, Norton, Rohmer and Farmer, but also on writers such as the Baroness Orczy (wrote the Scarlet Pimpernel) and P.C. Wren (who wrote Beau Geste and its sequels) as well as Kenneth Roberts and Samuel Shellabarger. Roberts and Shellabarger were popular in the mid-20th century and had books that made it to the silver screen as well.

    All of them could trace some part of their inspiration to Hope’s book. Thanks for drawing attention to a great book that deserves to be better known.

  • Carrington Dixon says:

    George Barr McCutcheon wrote series of Ruritanian romances beginning with Graustark. They must have been popular in the day as the series extended to five sequels. I thought the first one inferior to both Hope and Burroughs but not too bad a read.

    • Vlad James says:

      Interesting. I have actually read a work by McCutcheon before, “Brewster’s Millions”. It was terrible, especially disappointing given how good the 1985 Walter Hill/Richard Pryor adaptation was.

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