The king is poisoned and replaced by an imposter! You know the story because you've seen it everywhere from the movie Dave to the Robert A. Heinlein novel Double Star, but that plot started right here with the Anthony Hope classic, The Prisoner of Zenda! This Large Print Edition is presented in easy-to-read 16 point type.

Reproduction of the original.

Together in the same volume: The Prisoner of Zenda and the sequel, Rupert of Hentzau! The king is poisoned and replaced by an imposter! You know the story because you've seen it everywhere from the movie Dave to the Robert A. Heinlein novel Double Star, but that plot started right here with the Anthony Hope classic, The Prisoner of Zenda! The sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda and picks up three years after the end of the first book. Queen Flavia writes to her love, Rudolf Rassendyll, and the letter is to be hand delivered by Fritz von Tarlenheim, but Rupert of Hentzau steals it because it's his best chance of getting back in with the king. Rassendyll goes back to Ruritania, and is once again put in the position of impersonating the king. Violence and adventure ensue as Rupert and Rassendyll face off. This Large Print Edition is presented in easy-to-read 16 point type.

Five times made into film versions since its original publication in 1894, The Prisoner of Zenda is a perennially popular adventure and romance story. Hope's swashbuckling romance transports his English gentleman hero, Rudolf Rassendyll, from a comfortable life in London to fast-paced adventures in Ruritania, a mythical land steeped in political intrigue. Rassendyll must impersonate the rightful king in order to rescue him from the castle Zenda, all the while facing tests of honor with the beautiful Princess Flavia, and enduring tests of strength in his encounters with the villainous Black Michael and his handsome, debonair bodyguard, Rupert of Hentzau.

This premium quality large print edition includes the complete, unabridged text of Anthony Hope's classic tale in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition. With a generous 6" x 9" page size, this large print edition is printed on heavyweight 60# bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design, and includes footnoted annotations, added sparingly, to aid the modern reader with particularly obscure terms and usages. The Prisoner of Zenda follows the adventures of Rudolf Rassendyll, an honorable but idle descendant of a rumored "wrong side of the blanket" lineage resulting from a dalliance between a visiting King of Ruritania and a very married English countess. Faced with the prospect of actually commencing employment as a diplomatic attache, Rudolf plans to spend time vacationing on the continent, and decides on a visit to Ruritania. A chance encounter with the Crown Prince on the eve of his coronation as king reveals that the two, while not identical, are enough alike to fool most people. A fortunate coincidence, because political intrigue waylays the Prince, the situation demands that the coronation take place as scheduled, and Rassendyll is persuaded by the Prince's aides to stand in for the ceremony. But the deception is immediately complicated by the kidnapping of the real king by his enemies, led by his half-brother, Prince Michael, and the romantic attachment which springs up between Rassendyll and Princess Flavia, the real king's intended bride. Written with a broad, but dry, sense of humor, the story twists and turns through the maneuverings of the opposing factions, a fast-paced adventure story and poignant romance with chases, narrow escapes, duels, deceptions, and unexpected complications. Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863-1933), who published during his lifetime as "Anthony Hope," was an English novelist and playwright. Called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1887, he gave up what was by all accounts a very promising legal career to pursue writing. The author of over thirty novels and several plays, he enjoyed a wide popular following in his time, but is known today primarily for only two of his books: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and Rupert of Hentzau (1898), a true sequel. Sometimes identified as a "minor classic" of English literature, "The Prisoner of Zenda" received high praise from other writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson and A.E.W. Mason and was a phenomenal success when published, inspiring an entire genre in adventure fiction, the "Ruritanian Romance." The high-water mark of Hope's career, the novel has been adapted for film many times, and has also been produced on the stage.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), by Anthony Hope, is an adventure novel in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in order for the king to retain the crown, his coronation must proceed. Fortuitously, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania who resembles the monarch is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an effort to save the unstable political situation of the interregnum.

This premium quality large print edition includes the complete, unabridged text of Anthony Hope's classic tale in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition. With a generous 6" x 9" page size, this large print edition is printed on heavyweight 60# bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design, and includes footnoted annotations, added sparingly, to aid the modern reader with particularly obscure terms and usages. The Prisoner of Zenda follows the adventures of Rudolf Rassendyll, an honorable but idle descendant of a rumored "wrong side of the blanket" lineage resulting from a dalliance between a visiting King of Ruritania and a very married English countess. Faced with the prospect of actually commencing employment as a diplomatic attache, Rudolf plans to spend time vacationing on the continent, and decides on a visit to Ruritania. A chance encounter with the Crown Prince on the eve of his coronation as king reveals that the two, while not identical, are enough alike to fool most people. A fortunate coincidence, because political intrigue waylays the Prince, the situation demands that the coronation take place as scheduled, and Rassendyll is persuaded by the Prince's aides to stand in for the ceremony. But the deception is immediately complicated by the kidnapping of the real king by his enemies, led by his half-brother, Prince Michael, and the romantic attachment which springs up between Rassendyll and Princess Flavia, the real king's intended bride. Written with a broad, but dry, sense of humor, the story twists and turns through the maneuverings of the opposing factions, a fast-paced adventure story and poignant romance with chases, narrow escapes, duels, deceptions, and unexpected complications. Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863-1933), who published during his lifetime as "Anthony Hope," was an English novelist and playwright. Called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1887, he gave up what was by all accounts a very promising legal career to pursue writing. The author of over thirty novels and several plays, he enjoyed a wide popular following in his time, but is known today primarily for only two of his books: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and Rupert of Hentzau (1898), a true sequel. Sometimes identified as a "minor classic" of English literature, "The Prisoner of Zenda" received high praise from other writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson and A.E.W. Mason and was a phenomenal success when published, inspiring an entire genre in adventure fiction, the "Ruritanian Romance." The high-water mark of Hope's career, the novel has been adapted for film many times, and has also been produced on the stage.