(no subject)

[skygiants]

rymenhild has been talking about Ruritanian romance recently, so it seemed like a good time to remember I had The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau hanging around my Kindle to be reread at some point.

The Prisoner of Zenda is the great-great-granddaddy of Ruritanian romance, seeing as it is set in, you know, Ruritania.

Our Hero, Rudolf Rassendyll, is one of those dashing-but-idle young sprigs of British nobility who decides to take a visit to Ruritania, mostly because his great-grandmother is well-known to have had an affair with a former king. The rest of his family is pretty embarrassed by this; Rudolf's attitude is essentially GET IT GRANDMA.

Rudolf then bumps into the Crown Prince and king-to-be, to whom he has a CONVENIENT RESEMBLANCE. The Crown Prince throws a party to celebrate his new cousin! . . . at which he proceeds to get a.) drunk and b.) drugged.

THE KING'S ADVISORS: Ohhhh shit the king is going to miss his own coronation. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD.
RUDOLF: Huh, awkward! Wish there was something I could do to help!
THE KING'S ADVISORS: . . .
RUDOLF: . . .
THE KING'S ADVISORS: . . .
RUDOLF: . . .
THE KING'S ADVISORS: :D?

So Rudolf is officially crowned king -- just for a day! -- except, of course, then the actual crown prince gets kidnapped in addition to being drugged. Meanwhile, everyone discovers to their chagrin that they like Rudolf better than the real king anyway, because Rudolf is super dashing, and also has a sense of humor. This gets especially awkward when 'everyone' includes the king's sort-of-fiancee.

You guessed it: HIJINKS ENSUE.

It's all very witty and swashbuckling and deeply enjoyable, and, in a weird way, kind of oddly subverts the entire idea of an inherited monarchy -- like, the plot is all about putting the rightful king on the throne, except by the end of the book everyone has pretty much acknowledged outright that the rightful king is not really very good at his anything and this completely random dude is in fact way better at filling the role, and nobody's really very sure at all why they are working so hard to get the king back except out of what is essentially force of habit.

(I should note that kinging, in this context, mostly appears to involve being a cheerful and charismatic figurehead, and very little in the way of actual politics. Possibly this is going to change when WWI hits. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT, RURITANIA. Although, actually, now I really want the fic about Queen Flavia steering Ruritania through WWI!)

Anyway, the fact that the king is not very good at his job and everyone likes this other random dude who turned up better comes back to bite them all in the ass in the sequel, Rupert of Hentzau. Rupert of Hentzau is much, much less fun than Prisoner of Zenda. Partly this is because Prisoner of Zenda is narrated by Rudolf, who has this witty, swashbuckling tone that is fun to read in all circumstances, and Rupert of Hentzau is narrated instead by Rudolf's Ruritanian BFF Fritz. I like Fritz -- and, in a sidenote, Flavia/Rudolf/Fritz/Helga would make for a perfect sedoretu -- but he is a much more serious person and his voice is far less entertaining than Rudolf's.

The bigger problem, though, is that Prisoner of Zenda is a book about a presumably incompetent person turning out to be unexpectedly competent, and Rupert of Hentzau is a book about a lot of competent people acting unexpectedly incompetent. Which is a shame.

If you have a favorite Ruritanian romance, by the way, please rec it in comments! I know Rym has the bug currently and she has infected me as well; a reread of A College of Magics is also on my list for the near future.

Comments

[raven]

Alas, Zenda itself is my favourite Ruritanian romance. But isn't it great, though? I think it's so great because Rudolf's sense of humour has a tendency to infuse everything, which is totally what you want in a book like this. I remember being genuinely touched when he finally comes clean to Flavia, and being surprised at myself, but in retrospect it's a book with a tonne of heart.

[skygiants]

It really is! I was so not expecting to have any feelings at all about Rudolf and Flavia, but somehow they really won me over. And it works especially well at the end of the book, when he's still got the same light tone even though it's very clear how deeply he's been affected by everything that's happened.

(Also, you know who I had a surprising number of feelings about? Rudolf's brother! HE COULD RECOGNIZE HIM FROM THE PORTRAIT. I was so sad he never had a chance to tell his brother everything that happened himself.)

[surexit]

I have been meaning to reread Prisoner of Zenda! :D It is so much fun.

[skygiants]

It was an excellent way to pass a subway ride or two! :D (PS: You and all your Lost Prince-ing have DEFINITELY been a factor also.)

[surexit]

:D:D:D:D

[antisoppist]

I'll recommend the Ruritanian Resistance website if you don't know it already.

And for fic, el_staplador's F/F sequel The Blood of the Hentzaus

[hafl]

I wanted to recommend The Blood of the Hentzaus, but I see you already did it, so I'll just second the recommendation.

(Also, your username amuses me way more than it should.)

[antisoppist]

your username amuses me way more than it should
I think that is precisely the amount it *should* amuse people who are amused by it :-)

[skygiants]

Ooh, no, I'm not familiar with that site -- thanks for the link! (Or with the sequel either. EXCELLENT.)

[the_rck]

I keep meaning to read these and getting distracted. Of course, I suspect that my reaction to them won't be fully enthusiastic-- My introduction to The Prisoner of Zenda was via the Peter Sellers movie. I was twelve, and I saw it two or three times in the theater. I'm likely to compare the two and to prefer the version I imprinted on as a tween.

[skygiants]

I can't remember whether I saw the Douglas Fairbanks movie before or after I read the book, but either way it was definitely a formative Zenda experience! I'm kind of curious about the other versions . . .

[hafl]

To this day, I maintain that my older brother went to a university in Ruritania. Ruritania lies on the railroad line between Dresden and Prague, Ústí nad Labem does as well: it is obvious.

[skygiants]

AMAZING. Who doesn't want to go to a university in Ruritania?

[mme_hardy]

Oh, my Ruritania kink, let me show you it. High and wide and deep is my Ruritania kink. Ruritania was sort of the Omegaverse of its day, in that a lot of people wrote imitations. There's an Edgar Rice Burroughs one called The Mad King that is very good; it borders on slashy except that the protagonist is young. George Barr McCutcheon wrote several "Graustark" novels that you might want to investigate, the first being (duh) Graustark.

You know there's a (very satisfying) sequel to A College of Magics, right? A Scholar of Magics features the inimitable Jane.

Sherwood Smith wrote some modern Ruritania, the Dobrenica series, that I loved the first two of. There are good plot reasons for the heroine to be good at fencing, and the Ruritania has points in common with Brigadoon. The first is Coronets and Steel, and gender-flips the dashing lost heir.

[rymenhild]

Does that mean you can't fully endorse Smith's third Dobrenica book? Pity. I hadn't gotten around to that one yet.

[mme_hardy]

It has an odd plot conceit that leads to the previous heroine being passive throughout the book.

[thistleingrey]

I find that it's compensated somewhat by a new/current heroine who isn't particularly passive, but I see your point. (Although it is difficult for me to see how that story could have been told with the prior heroine taking a more active role, given the way the prior worldbuilding works....)

[mme_hardy]

I'd have been happier without the prior heroine at all. There are other ways to transfer knowledge than the one used.

[skygiants]

I WISH RURITANIA WAS THE OMEGAVERSE OF THIS DAY TOO.

Thank you for the recs! I love A Scholar of Magics too, albeit for different reasons than I love A College of Magics. I have also read the first Dobrenica book and enjoyed it, despite a repeated urge to dive into the story and physically restrain the heroine from making poor life choices; have not yet gotten around to reading the others.

[mme_hardy]

Yes, well, Rudolph's life choices aren't anything to write home about, are they?

[skygiants]

I was actually trying to figure out why I have so much less of an urge to SCREAM AND DIVE IN with Rudolph than with Aurelia, and I think the answers are a.) Rudolph's impersonation is a clear and present need when he's actually met the dude in question; Aurelia on the other hand is being convinced to impersonate a person she's never met for a lengthy period of time by the person who had just finished kidnapping her and b.) Rudolph does not make a habit of going off into the middle of nowhere with his enemies and cheerfully informing them that nobody knows where he is or what he's up to. I mean, Rudolph does stupid and dangerous stuff, but at least he is always fully aware that it's stupid and dangerous . . .

[mme_hardy]

Um... Aurelia hasn't gotten any in way, way, too long?

Turns out there's a Goodreads tag for Ruritania

[mme_hardy]

and look what's there!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/593472.Iron_Butterflies

[rymenhild]

I've recced you almost all of the ones I know and love already, but here is A. J. Hall's Queen of Gondal series. Queen of Gondal is the series I told you about that's BBC Sherlock + Antonia Forest + Bronte juvenilia, and it's also one of the most delightful takes on Ruritania I've ever read.

Ankaret Wells - Firebrand is steampunk Ruritania with fabulous ladies. Again, one of the explicit inspirations here is Bronte juvenilia. I'm fairly sure that either Queen of Gondal is a direct response to Firebrand or the other way around.

[skygiants]

Oh, awesome! I've heard good things about Ankaret Wells in general, but I hadn't realized that her books were Ruritania.

[thistleingrey]

The others aren't--at least, I'm a short way into Maker's Mask, and it is SF on a space station.

[pedanther]

I think everything I was planning to recommend has been mentioned already (A College of Magics was one, and The Ruritanian Resistance was another).

Although I've read The Prisoner of Zenda since, my first exposure to the story was Simon Hawke's novel The Zenda Vendetta, in which a time-travelling criminal kills Rudolf on the train to Ruritania, so to preserve history one of the heroes (who coincidentally also has a CONVENIENT RESEMBLANCE - one of the themes of the novel is that weird coincidences are a side-effect of time travel) has to pretend to be Rudolf pretending to be the Crown Prince. This isn't a recommendation - it's one of those books that probably isn't as great as I thought it was when I was thirteen - but I figured you'd appreciate knowing such a thing exists.