The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope - Not really bad, but not overwhelming either

 The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

Not really bad, but not overwhelming either

I did not take this story too much at heart.

In fact, I was hesitating:

-          Is this a children’s or teenagers’?

-          I am still not sure, albeit there are arguments for all options…

There is a note on this tale that says that it gave the start to a type of novel or film where the action takes place in a fictional country:

-          The Ruritanian romance

The first film in this genre that comes to mind is The Prince and the Show Girl, with a couple of extraordinary leads:

-          Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, two greats that did not get along as we learn from other films and accounts of the production

-          The Prince and the Showgirl has Carpathia at its center, a country that is actually based on Romania

In the Prisoner of Zenda, the story line is rather simple and the course is predictable I would say, with one exception.

Ruritania is to have a new king, who happens to look exactly like a visitor to this country, who is actually a distant cousin.

There are sidelines, like the affair of two ancestors that lead to the apparition of red haired and long nosed Rudolf Rassendyll.

The two look alikes meet in a forest and Rudolf is invited to spend the night by the would-be king, very conveniently as it happens.

For the next morning, the king who was supposed to be crowned that very day- isn’t this a real series of coincidences? –is found drugged.

With the head of state incapacitated, the man who looks exactly like him is the obvious choice and the reader anticipates this

-          Doesn’t he?

So we have Rudolf playing king for the day.

At least that was the original plan that has to give way for the famous plan B, when they find no king at the lodge or small castle, I forgot what it was exactly.

Time off here:

-          The series of events that belong more to fairy or children’s tales did not agree with me

-          In fact, the very idea that I am supposed to buy the coincidences of the two meeting, then getting together exactly before coronation and all the rest of the cloak and dagger adventures sort of put me off

It is implausible to have a king that is so vulnerable and unprotected, ready to fall hostage to a bunch of bad fellas who number only six or ten.

It wasn’t the days of the Secret Service and motorcades, with sharp shooters on the roofs and helicopters in the air, but still I did not buy it.

-          Yes, a reader has to understand that this is “fiction” and if I want the “real thing” I need to move to the non-fiction section and start reading autobiographies, history and whatever.

-          But a plot needs to have some credibility, especially if the genre is not absurd, fantastic, surrealism, genres that I mistrust or outright dislike anyway

To cut a long story short, I did not find this thrilling, even in adapted form, which kept the tale within the time frame of one and a half hours.

I wonder though why I found The Prince and the Showgirl so much more entertaining than The Prisoner of Zenda…

The former has humor and a plot that is very believable, actually our King Carol may have inspired the character.

Whereas The Prisoner of Zenda seems to me to require the naiveté of a child, or an idealist adult to believe the storyline.

Cherry on top, I did not like the evolution of the love story…