Andrew
A disappointing follow-up to The Prisoner of Zenda, with a surprisingly bitter undercurrent to it all.
The true king, Rudolph Elphsburg, suffers PTSD from his captivity in the previous novel and paranoia that his wife and closest advisors all preferred his imposter, Rudolph Rassendyll...and he's 100% correct. His so-called friends despise and despair of his leadership and the central conflict of the plot involves trying to cover up the long-running emotional affair Queen Flavia and Rassendyll have been carrying on behind his back. When Elphsburg is murdered by the titular villain, everyone treats it as a win-win.
The novel suffers on three counts. First, that it is narrated by the stuffy and Germanic nobleman Fritz, who saps the story of energy and immediacy with his lengthy, florid, archaic language.
Second, that it overuses the impersonations, double-crosses, and misunderstandings until it becomes a confused mess: "we know that he knows that we know that he knows the King is in Zenda, but he doesn't know that we know that he knows we know that he knows!" and so forth...
And third, there's no escaping that the central conflict is an issue entirely of the protagonists' own making as they work to cover up the Queen's affair in the guise of "protecting her honor." Maybe that morality played better in 1896 but it has not held up at all.
A disappointing follow-up to The Prisoner of Zenda, with a surprisingly bitter undercurrent to it all.
The true king, Rudolph Elphsburg, suffers PTSD from his captivity in the previous novel and paranoia that his wife and closest advisors all preferred his imposter, Rudolph Rassendyll...and he's 100% correct. His so-called friends despise and despair of his leadership and the central conflict of the plot involves trying to cover up the long-running emotional affair Queen Flavia and Rassendyll have been carrying on behind his back. When Elphsburg is murdered by the titular villain, everyone treats it as a win-win.
The novel suffers on three counts. First, that it is narrated by the stuffy and Germanic nobleman Fritz, who saps the story of energy and immediacy with his lengthy, florid, archaic language.
Second, that it overuses the impersonations, double-crosses, and misunderstandings until it becomes a confused mess: "we know that he knows that we know that he knows the King is in Zenda, but he doesn't know that we know that he knows we know that he knows!" and so forth...
And third, there's no escaping that the central conflict is an issue entirely of the protagonists' own making as they work to cover up the Queen's affair in the guise of "protecting her honor." Maybe that morality played better in 1896 but it has not held up at all.