The Prisoner of Zenda
- Downloads
- Under 100
- First published
- 1894
- Pages
- 143
Listen to The Prisoner of Zenda Audiobook Free
-
The Rassendylls with a Word on the Elphbergs
13:41 -
Concerning the Colour of Men's Hair
14:33 -
A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative
17:24 -
The King Keeps his Appointment
13:34 -
The Adventures of an Understudy
15:29 -
The Secret of a Cellar
14:25 -
His Majesty Sleeps in Strelsau
14:06 -
A Fair Cousin and a Dark Brother
17:23 -
A New Use for a Tea-Table
17:10 -
A Great Chance for a Villain
16:30 -
Hunting a Very Big Boar
17:27 -
I Receive a Visitor and Bait a Hook
15:13 -
An Improvement on Jacob's Ladder
16:07 -
A Night Outside the Castle
15:18 -
I Talk with a Tempter
16:37 -
A Desperate Plan
15:17 -
Young Rupert's Midnight Diversions
14:54 -
The Forcing of the Trap
13:12 -
Face to Face in the Forest
14:25 -
The Prisoner and the King
17:11 -
If Love Were All!
16:44 -
Present, Past--and Future?
15:49
The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) is a public domain work.
The audio edition streams in the page. There is no audio file to download.
About this book
On the eve of his coronation, the King of Ruritania is drugged into a stupor, and the plotters have him where they want him. His only hope is Rudolf Rassendyll, an idle English gentleman who happens to be a distant cousin and a near-perfect double. Pressed into a royal masquerade, Rassendyll must hold the throne, outwit the scheming Black Michael and the dashing villain Rupert of Hentzau, and try not to fall for the Princess Flavia he has no right to court. Anthony Hope's 1894 adventure proved so popular it named a whole genre, the Ruritanian romance, and its blend of swordplay, disguise, and reluctant honor has been filmed again and again.
From the opening pages
The Rassendylls—with a Word on the Elphbergs
“I wonder when in the world you’re going to do anything, Rudolf?” said my brother’s wife.
“My dear Rose,” I answered, laying down my egg-spoon, “why in the world should I do anything? My position is a comfortable one. I have an income nearly sufficient for my wants (no one’s income is ever quite sufficient, you know), I enjoy an enviable social position: I am brother to Lord Burlesdon, and brother-in-law to that charming lady, his countess. Behold, it is enough!”
“You are nine-and-twenty,” she observed, “and you’ve done nothing but—”
“Knock about? It is true. Our family doesn’t need to do things.”
This remark of mine rather annoyed Rose, for everybody knows (and therefore there can be no harm in referring to the fact) that, pretty and accomplished as she herself is, her family is hardly of the same standing as the Rassendylls. Besides her attractions, she possessed a large fortune, and my brother Robert was wise enough not to mind about her ancestry. Ancestry is, in fact, a matter concerning which the next observation of Rose’s has some truth.
“Good families are generally worse than any others,” she said.
Upon this I stroked my hair: I knew quite well what she meant.
“I’m so glad Robert’s is black!” she cried.
At this moment Robert (who rises at seven and works before breakfast) came in. He glanced at his wife: her cheek was slightly flushed; he patted it caressingly.
“What’s the matter, my dear?” he asked.
“She objects to my doing nothing and having red hair,” said I, in an injured tone.
“Oh! of course he can’t help his hair,” admitted Rose.
“It generally crops out once in a generation,” said my brother. “So does the nose. Rudolf has got them both.”
Contents
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Public domain book This work is in the public domain and free of copyright. Anyone may read, download and share it.
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Book facts
- Author
- Anthony Hope
- First published
- 1894
- Reading time
- About 4 hours
- Pages
- 143
- Language
- English
- Genre
- British Classics
- Formats
- PDF, EPUB, Read online, Audiobook
- Audio read by
- Andy Minter (1934-2017)