History Literature / ThePrisonerOfZenda

''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of {{Ruritania}} is abducted on the eve of his coronation, and the hero, an [[MightyWhitey English gentleman]] on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch due to being his distant cousin, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation.

* The second Literature/{{Flashman}} novel (''Royal Flash'') is a Zenda homage. Given the [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis series' setup]], Flashman claims Hope plagiarized the story from him.

* ''The Prisoner of Zenda'', a 2000 musical by Japan's all-female Theatre/TakarazukaRevue. It stays relatively close to the book, though it added some new characters, [[DemotedToExtra removed most of King Rudolf's appearances]], and [[DeathByAdaptation killed Rupert]].

* The 1932 Czech comedy Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese (Lelíček in the service of Sherlock Homes) combines the Prisoner of Zenda with, obviously, Franchise/SherlockHolmes. Holmes is hired by the Prime Minister of Portorico to find a double for their weak and cowardly king Fernando XXIII. Holmes finds Lelíček, a streetwise dept-plagued man from Prague (played by Czech comedy legend Vlasta Burian). Then, while Holmes dismatles a conspiracy against the king, Lelíček manages to survive several attempts at "king's" live and falls in love with the queen.

Adaptations of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'':

* the 1932 Czech comedy Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese (Lelíček in the service of Sherlock Homes) combines the Prisoner of Zenda with, obviously, Franchise/SherlockHolmes. Holmes is hired by the Prime Minister of Portorico to find a double for their weak and cowardly king Fernando XXIII. Holmes finds Lelíček, a streetwise dept-plagued man from Prague (played by Czech comedy legend Vlasta Burian). Then, while Holmes dismatles a conspiracy against the king, Lelíček manages to survive several attempts at "King's" live and falls in love with the Queen.

-->'''Sapt:''' "And the King."
-->'''Rudolf:''' "And, hang me if Michael won't expose himself, if he tries to expose me!"

* PragmaticAdaptation: The 1937 Creator/RonaldColman [[Film/ThePrisonerOfZenda film version]] is generally considered to be the best of the cinematic versions and one of the best [[{{Swashbuckler}} swashbucklers]] ever made, though it changes some details, as in introducing Hentzau near the beginning and making Flavia a blonde. It launched the career of Creator/DavidNiven (von Tarlenheim) and proved that Creator/DouglasFairbanksJr (Hentzau) could play a convincing villain.

* [[LastOfHisKind Last Of Her Kind]]: By the final chapter, Flavia is the last Elphberg living.
* PoorCommunicationKills: The events leading to King Rudolf's death require some near-''Romeo and Juliet'' levels of people getting the wrong message at the wrong time.

* DownerEnding: Rupert and both Rudolfs are dead by the end.

* DefiantToTheEnd [=/=] GoOutWithASmile: Rupert doesn't flinch even when Rassendyll points a gun at his head.

* SureLetsGoWithThat: Upon Rudolf's return from, allegedly, the Tyrol, his friend Featherly assumes that he met some woman there and carried on a dalliance with her, which is why he didn't let anyone know where he was going. Rudolf decides that this is as good an explanation as any and drops hints to reinforce the notion.

* ''The Henchmen of Zenda'', a 2018 PerspectiveFlip by romance author KJ Charles. The premise is that ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' was published in-universe and is less than truthful, prompting Detchard to write his own book. In this, Detchard and Hentzau are a couple, and Antoinette and Flavia have larger roles and their own agendas. It also changes the ending [[spoiler: so that Rudolf R is ''not'' the honorable type; he does indeed make sure Rudolf E bites the dust and then keep throne and princess for himself. Much good though it does him, as Flavia, fully aware he's a fake, turns him into her PuppetKing and then gets rid of him once she's sufficiently established as Queen.]]

The book is responsible for many tropes on this site that are listed below. Likewise, it has been remade into several films, books and episodes of series since. It has an oft-forgotten sequel, ''Rupert of Hentzau'', published in 1898, which has also (though more rarely) been adapted.

* ''The Prisoner of Zenda'', a 2000 musical by the Japanese, all-female Theatre/{{Takarazuka}} Revue. It stays relatively close to the book, though it added some new characters, [[DemotedToExtra removed most of King Rudolf's appearances]], and [[DeathByAdaptation killed Rupert]].

* The 1988 AnimatedAdaptation by Creator/BurbankFilmsAustralia.

* BleedEmAndWeep: Antoinette. Somewhat subverted in that after she misses the first shot, she pauses and visibly forces herself to calm down. [[spoiler: Rudolf doesn't wait for her to aim properly.]]

* TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone: While the heroes definitely think that Michael is the wrong man for the throne (Sapt would rather have the imposter Rudolf stay there than give the throne over to Black Michael), by the end of their adventures together, they wistfully reflect that they wouldn't mind having Rassendyll remain on the throne. As Fritz puts it, "Heaven doesn't always make the right men kings!"

* AntiVillain: Michael
* AristocratsAreEvil: Michael is a double subversion. He is an aristocrat (Duke of Strelsau and a Prince, if not in line to the throne because his parents' marriage was morganatic). He subverts it by being an evil Duke, since Dukes tend to be good. He then subverts that when it's pointed out that his father specifically gave him a freshly created duchy (which is ruled from the capital city, no less) in the hopes that being the second-most powerful noble in the kingdom would be enough to sate his ambition (it wasn't).

* BecomingTheMask
* BittersweetEnding

* DidNotGetTheGirl

* TheEvilPrince
* FakeKing

* LostInImitation

** The early imitation Ruritanias also tended to be pretty idyllic places, whereas Stephenson's Ruritania is not. Socio-economic divides are huge, banditry is rife, the king is not particularly competent and so unpopular he needs to marry a well-liked noblewoman to gain popularity by proxy, but still an absolute monarch, and infighting in the royal family has pushed the nation to the brink of civil war.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: TheEvilPrince, Black Michael, is beloved the people in the "Old Town" of Streslau and in his seat of Zenda, at least. The rest of the city's people are for King Rudolf, and we're never given much insight on how the people of the rest of the country feel.

The book is responsible for many tropes on this site that are listed below. Likewise, it has been remade into several films, books and episodes of series since.

!!This work features examples of:

** The early imitation Ruritanias also tended to be pretty idyllic places, whereas Stephenson's Ruritania is not. Socio-economic divides are huge, banditry is rife, the king is not particularly competent and so impopular he needs to marry a well-liked noblewoman to gain popularity by proxy, but still an absolute monarch, and infighting in the royal family has pushed the nation to the brink of civil war.

* TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone: While the heroes definitely think that Michael is the wrong man for the throne (Sapt would rather have the imposter Rudolf stay there than give the throne over to Black Michael), by the end of their adventures together, they wistfully reflect that they wouldn't mind having Rassendyl remain on the throne. As Fritz puts it, "Heaven doesn't always make the right men kings!"

* SecondaryCharacterTitle: The Prisoner of Zenda barely appears in the book itself as he is, well, imprisoned. The lead character is his distant relative and relative.

* SureLetsGoWithThat: Upon Rupert's return from, allegedly, the Tyrol, his friend Featherly assumes that he met some woman there and carried on a dalliance with her, which is why he didn't let anyone know where he was going. Rupert decides that this is as good an explanation as any and drops hints to reinforce the notion.

[[IReadThatAs Not to be confused with]] ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''.

* The film ''Moon Over Parador''

* ReliableTraitor: Rupert of Hentzau.

* PragmaticAdaptation: The 1937 Creator/RonaldColman [[Film/ThePrisonerOfZenda film version]] is generally considered to be the best of the cinematic versions and one of the best [[{{Swashbuckler}} swashbucklers]] ever made, though it changes some details, as in introducing Hentzau near the beginning and making Flavia a blonde. It launched the career of Creator/DavidNiven (von Tarlenheim) and proved that Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Hentzau) could play a convincing villain.

* MagnificentBastard: Rupert of Hentzau.

* An episode of ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'', where Iolaus was the king's cousin, although the king, once rescued, actually acknowledged Iolaus was doing a better job and vowed to learn to be like that.

* The Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs novel ''The Mad King'' draws heavily on ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (although moves the setting to UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne).

* RedHeadedHero: Rudolf, and this trait is associated with the royal family of Ruritania.