"Rupert of Hentzau" by Anthony Hope

Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh.

I thought the ending to The Prisoner of Zenda was frustrating and melancholy?  Well, Anthony Hope doubled down on that with this book.  

Argh.

Rudolf Rassendyl comes back to Ruritania to stop Rupert of Hentzau from ruining Queen Flavia's reputation by making public a letter she has written to Rudolf, bidding him goodbye because she's now married to King Rudolf, his distant relation that he's a dead ringer for and impersonated in The Prisoner of Zenda.  She's not being untrue to the king, but Rupert of Hentzau is going to make it appear that she is, and so all kinds of intrigue gets set in motion.  Rudolf tries to stop that with the help of his old buddies Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, plus a couple of new friends.  And they succeed, but at great cost.

Argh.

I mean, the ending makes sense, and it's really quite fitting, but I am still greatly displeased by it.  So there.

(Mine from my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

"Pooh!" said Sapt.  "Nothing is wonderful: some things are unusual" (p. 65).

I think that the queen told my wife more, but women will sometimes keep women's secrets even from their husbands; though they love us, yet we are always in some sort the common enemy, against whom they join hands (p. 104).

I lay small store by such matters, believing that we ourselves make our dreams, fashioning out of the fears and hopes of to-day what seems to come by night in the guise of a mysterious revelation (p. 163).

Helga will never admit that she is clever, yet I find she discovers from me what she wants to know, and I suspect hides successfully the small matters of which she in her wifely discretion deems I had best remain ignorant (p. 170).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for insinuation that a wife has been unfaithful to her husband, some swashbuckling violence, and possibly a couple of mild curse words.

This has been my 41st book read and reviewed for my third Classics Club list, as well as my 21st book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.