Other editions of book Rupert of Hentzau

Hope was a British novelist and playwright in the early 20th century. His best-known work was The Prisoner of Zenda. Four years later he wrote the sequel Rupert of Hentzau, which was set in the fictional kingdom of Ruritania. A letter from the unhappy Queen is stolen and this gives Rudolf a chance to return a favor by informing the jealous King. Rudolf returns to help the Queen and is again forced to play the part of the king. Deceptions and murders follow in this action packed fantasy.

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Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope, (1863-1933) was a British novelist and playwright best remembered today for his short novel The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), a prequel The Heart of Princess Osra (a collection of short stories) (1896), and a sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These works were all set in the contemporaneous fictional kingdom of Ruritania. His first novel was A Man of Mark (1890), and one of his most well-known works during his lifetime was The Dolly Dialogues (1894), published in the Westminster Gazette. He started writing full time after Zenda's success, completing many other novels and plays, including English Nell (based on the life of actress Nell Gwyn), and Sophy of Kravonia (1906), in a similar vein as the Zenda story. He was knighted in recognition of his contribution to British propaganda efforts during World War I. He also published an autobiographical book, Memories and Notes, in 1927. His other works include: Father Stafford (1891), Half a Hero (1893), The Indiscretion of the Duchess (1894), Frivolous Cupid (1895), The King's Mirror (1899), and Quisanté (1900).

Rupert of Hentzau is a sequel by Anthony Hope to The Prisoner of Zenda, written in 1895, but not published until 1898. The story is set within a framing narrative told by a supporting character from The Prisoner of Zenda. The frame implies that the events related in both books took place in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Queen Flavia, dutifully but unhappily married to her cousin Rudolf V, writes to her true love Rudolf Rassendyll. The letter is carried by von Tarlenheim to be delivered by hand, but it is stolen by the exiled Rupert of Hentzau, who sees in it a chance to return to favour by informing the pathologically jealous and paranoid King...