Other editions of book The Mad King

ALL LUSTADT was in an uproar. The mad king had escaped. Little knots of excited men stood upon the street corners listening to each latest rumor concerning this most absorbing occurrence. Before the palace a great crowd surged to and fro, awaiting they knew not what. For ten years no man of them had set eyes upon the face of the boy-king who had been hastened to the grim castle of Blentz upon the death of the old king, his father. There had been murmurings then when the lad's uncle, Peter of Blentz, had announced to the people of Lutha the sudden mental affliction which had fallen upon his nephew, and more murmurings for a time after the announcement that Peter of Blentz had been appointed Regent during the lifetime of the young King Leopold, "or until God, in His infinite mercy, shall see fit to restore to us in full mental vigor our beloved monarch."

The Mad King is a Ruritanian romance by "Tarzan" creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, published in two parts as "The Mad King" and "Barney Custer of Beatrice". Set in the fictional European kingdom of Lutha, the protagonist is a young American named Barney Custer, of Beatrice, Nebraska, who is the son of an American farmer and a runaway Luthan princess, Victoria Rubinroth. Unaware of his royal blood, much less that he is a dead ringer for his relative Leopold, the current king of Lutha, Barney visits Lutha on the eve of the First World War to see for himself his mother's native land. As he arrives in Lutha, King Leopold has just escaped from his ten years' imprisonment at the hands of his scheming uncle, Prince Peter of Blentz. Much to his own and everyone else's confusion, Barney is naturally mistaken for the king, leading to numerous complications.

Earliest Grosset & Dunlap reprint. J. Allen St. John jacket illustration and frontispiece. Jacket is moderately worn at edges with chips at head and tail of spine. Part of 'The' is obscured in the title. Spidery closed tear, starting at spine fold and extending about half way across front panel. Tear is partially tape repaired on reverse. Portrait of ERB and list of 24 titles. Jacket is now protected by clear mylar cover. Bright red cloth with black titles on spine and front board. Light rubbing to head and tail of spine, points rubbed. Cloth is nice and clean. previous owners name and address written neatly in ink on ffep. Black and white frontispiece printed on glossy paper. Interior is clean and bright. 365p. + ads. Twenty-three titles listed for ERB.