Tres años después de los sucesos contados en El prisionero de Zenda, Fritz von Tarlenheim, un personaje secundario de aquella historia, comienza a narrar nuevos episodios sobre los mismos escenarios de Ruritania, en los que se ven involucrados varios de los personajes anteriores, entre ellos el malvado Ruperto de Hentzau, quien, exiliado, logra hacerse con una carta comprometedora de la reina Flavia de Ruritania.

This sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda is more of the same, really - with a strong whiff of Three Musketeers in terms of general plot motivation and being a ripping yarn, at least. The sly wit is absent and this makes our hero a little bit of a Gary Stu, but nevermind. If you liked the former book, you'll like this one, too, I would think. ( )

Could have been written for the screen. A perfect sequel to Prisoner of Zenda. Melodramatic as only a novel of this era could be. ( )

I really enjoyed this book's predecessor, The Prisoner of Zenda, and this book was almost as good. It kept my interest to the end. Lots of plot twists, swash buckling, etc. I could do without some of the cloying melodrama, but a bit of that is pretty much an inevitable feature of books written around the turn of the 20th century. ( )

This might deserve 3.5 stars, and yet I also feel like giving it 5 because of my ridiculous, guilty love of [b:The Prisoner of Zenda|2636473|The Prisoner of Zenda|Anthony Hope|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348049620s/2636473.jpg|2661176] and the fact that it was such a nice retreat from the otherwise rather heavy stuff I'd been reading while travelling (see: homosexual sociopaths and thesis readings. Though now I mention it pretty much all of my thesis readings involve homosexual sociopaths, so). The adventure in this one is not quite as brisk as in The Prisoner of Zenda, but the too-brilliant, too-charming hero and villain of the novel remain irresistible and you really can't help being fond of these fellows. My further bias towards the book includes having bought it at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, so it's got a lovely stamp inside and very warm, pleasant memories attached. ( )