Anthony Hope, página 2 de 8

Here is a rattling good story. Mr. Hope has often furnished us with tales answering that description before, but they were performances of a different order. Whereas his previous successes have been stories of incident, this is a novel of character. The vein of Zenda can easily be worked out, but the success of "Tristram of Blent" can be repeated indefinitely to a satisfied audience. It is the kind of story Anthony Trollope might write if he were abridged, reincarnated, brought up to date, and given a touch of the divine fire to vivify the carefully shaped clay of his puppets. Both in plot and workmanship the story is much better than any of Mr. Hopes former attempts in the same line. It seems to mark his achievement of mastery in this kind, and holds out the promise of an indefinite number of clever novels of social life to accompany the present generation on its way down the shady side of life.

The Hon. Gerald Neston, the on of Lord Tottlebuiy, agrees with his noble father, that the dignity of the title as well as his own comfort, make a rich marriage incumbent upon him. So he seeks out Mr. Witts widow, a lady of great wealth and no family, and is accepted by her. But at the dinner given in honor of the lady by Lord Tottlebury, a young lawyer, who belongs also to the house of Neston, recognizes in Mrs. Witte the young thief who had been his first "case."The fascinations of Mr. Witts widow are "harmonious contrasts." chief among which are dark eyes and golden hair. She is about to take as second husband Gerald Neston, an Englishman of good position, when his cousin, a young lawyer. Is struck with the resemblance of Neaera Witt to Nelly Gale, a girl he had defended seven years before on a charge of theft. The story relates his efforts to trace her identity, and leaves the readers mind in suspense until the unexpected denouement.

"The Indiscretion of the Duchess" may be classed with "The Prisoner of Zenda," and shares with that story the unabated interest from first page to last, and the superb handling of the romantic and adventurous. Even if this book had been published anonymously, a mistake as to its authors identity would have been impossible: Mr. Hopes touch as we have learned to know it is here on every page, almost in every line, and a successful touch it is, indeed. The book furnishes pleasant reading; it is one of those rare boonsa story that will rest and refresh the brain of any person whose occupation involves continuous and serious mental work.

On the Greek island of Phrosos, Count Antonio has forsaken his rank and his Prince for what he thinks is Right. He now lives as an outlaw in the hill yet he is still remembered fondly by those who knew him. Ambrose the Franciscan goes through archives and to meet people who met him to learn more, and even the Prince would do well to listen to what he comes to discover.

Tras la muerte en duelo de su hermano, la joven baronesa Fastrade von der Warthe vuelve a casa para cuidar de su padre y de su tía. En la mansión se verá confrontada con el silencio, el tedio, el dolor y la rigidez moral, pero he aquí que aparece el barón Dietz von Egloff, un joven conocido en la región por su afición al juego y a la vida disipada. Egloff, al igual que los otros jóvenes aristócratas de la región, intenta encontrar su lugar en un mundo que dista mucho del de sus padres, que considera decadente. Una narrativa representativa de la Belle Époque, que se deja traslucir en la forma amanerada en que los personajes se comportan como víctimas de la ociosidad y el tedio. Pero la empresa de huir de algo que se desmorona resulta siempre tremendamente difícil.

?El diablo embotellado: La historia de amor se salva por la codicia de los hombres. Aquel que posea la botella tendrá cuanto desee, pero no podrá morir en su posesión, pues perdería el alma. Para deshacerse de la diabolica botella tendra que venderla por un precio inferior al que pago por ella.

Un collar valiosísimo, propiedad de una familia aristócrata da origen a una ingeniosa trama que se inicia con una osada invitación a dos jóvenes amigos por parte de una duquesa casada, en ausencia del marido; invitacion que se vera truculentamente alterada por el repentino regreso del esposo y por un misterioso intento de robo de la valiosa gema por parte de unos malhechores; todo ello mediante una trama llena de ingeniosas vueltas y revueltas, y cuyas convenciones victorianas resultan sublimadas por la sutileza analitica de la prosa de este gran novelista.

COMMON opinion said that Lord Lynborough ought never to have had a peerage and forty thousand a year; he ought to have had a pound a week and a back bedroom in Bloomsbury. Then he would have become an eminent man; as it was, he turned out only a singularly erratic individual.

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in order for the king to retain the crown, his coronation must proceed.Fortuitously, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania who resembles the monarch is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an effort to save the unstable political situation of the interregnum.A sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, was published in 1898 and is included in some editions of The Prisoner of Zenda.The popularity of the novels inspired the Ruritanian romance genre of literature, film, and theatre that features stories set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe, for example Graustark from the novels of George Barr McCutcheon, and the neighbouring countries of Syldavia and Borduria in the Tintin comics.

"A Man of Mark" is, like "The Prisoner of Zenda," a story of adventure and intrigue, its scene laid in an imaginary South American republic, and told in a manner strongly suggestive of opera bouffe. The writer gives his fancy the freest of play, and his characters, despite their unreality, succeed in interesting us in their fortunes. The narrative has swiftness of action, diversity of incident, and cleverness in a hundred minor touches.

Anthony Hope''s swashbuckling romance transports his English gentleman hero, Rudolf Rassendyll, from a comfortable life in London to fast-moving adventures in Ruritania, a mythical land steeped in political intrigue. Rassendyll bears a striking resemblance to Rudolf Elphberg who is about to be crowned King of Ruritania. When the rival to throne, Black Michael of Strelsau, attempts to seize power by imprisoning Elphberg in the Castle of Zenda, Rassendyll is obliged to impersonate the King to uphold the rightful sovereignty and ensure political stability.Rassendyll endures a trial of strength in his encounters with the notorious Rupert of Hentzau, and a test of a different sort as he grows to love the Princess Flavia. Five times filmed, The Prisioner of Zenda has been deservedly popular as a classic of romance and adventure since its publication in 1894.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This new story is in the authors most finished and delicate style. The gallant Captain is a French soldier of fortune, and the surprising adventures into which he is projected, by his choice of a nights lodging in the Castle of Fieramondi, form the basis of a characteristically ingenious and interesting tale.

Kravonia is a principality to be sought on the map somewhere in the vicinity of Zenda, and is, like most of the states of the mythical group to which it belongs, the sport of diplomatic intrigue. Its prince is sorely beset by enemies, but when he acquires a princess, in the shape of a beautiful English maiden-transformed from a lowly maid-servant into a captivating adventuress his fortunes change, and he gives his foes a run for their money. Unhappily, he is killed just when triumph is at hand, and his princess goes into exile cherishing the memory of the glorious weeks of the conict. Mr. Hopes hand has lost little of its cunning since the days when he invented Zenda, and his "Sophy of Kravonia" is a capital story.

The story of The God in the Car is of a very special character. Here we find the large canvas of serious life brushed over with a firm hand, relentless in general outlines and detailstelling the tragedy of a womans love and the price that ambition pays for its own gratification. It is said that a certain English colonial statesman suggested the character of Rushton; we do not know, nor do we care. What we do know, however, is that in this story we meet not one or two, but several, characters that are worth knowing, and whom we will remember for many a day. Juggernaut, "The God in the Car," is the incarnation of all the qualities and shortcomings of what the French are pleased to call the strugforlifer, and under the wheels of his rolling throne he crushes the woman that loves him, relentless of the ruin and misery he leaves behind. Mr. Hope has shown that quantity is not always detrimental to quality.

In "Mrs. Maxon Protests" Hope has presented with his usual brilliancy a study of the false position incurred by a thoroughly good woman when she defies fundamental conventionalities. Mrs. Maxons marriage is a failure, so is her attempt to find satisfaction outside the marriage tie. And, as she exclaims, "If both orthodoxy and unorthodoxy go wrong, what is a poor human woman to do?" Mr. Hawkins answer to this provides an interesting examination of the complexities of the divorce and separation question, and although he attempts no definite solution, his discussion exploits many suggestive theories of social philosophy. He touches a fundamental factor for solution when one of his characters remarks: "Thats to some extent like the woman questionare we to change the law or the people first? Hope a better law will make better people, or tell the people they cant have a better law till theyre better themselves?" The two quotations are inevitably two questionsbecause the book itself is precisely a long and brilliantly expressed question.