#prisoner of zenda

[vintagegeekculture]

Friends: the Ruritanian Resistance needs our help. Please share this status. Just place the flag of Ruritania in your feed to raise awareness.

With assistance from top international NGOs, we can, must, and will free the Prisoner of Zenda.

[2703148a]

prisoner of zenda world in kh4 is going to be peak

[copperbadge]

I’m home in Texas with the family right now -- I was supposed to fly to Austin today, but because of the massive storm sweeping the midwest I rebooked and flew home yesterday. I had to get to the airport a bit earlier than I normally do, so once I was at my gate I settled in to do a bit of reading. 

The literary term “Ruritarian” refers to the invention of a country in which to set a narrative, named after the fictional Ruritaria in The Prisoner Of Zenda. I’d never read it, so after our recent discussion of Ruritarian romances, I thought I’d give it a try, and managed to check out an ebook copy on one of my library apps.  

I’d assumed, having been written in 1894, it would be a kind of stodgy melodrama and I wouldn’t read much of it, but it’s actually really entertaining. I’m not done with it yet, but it seems like what would happen if Bertie Wooster found himself in a Dumas novel. Very funny and a plot that’s both gripping and entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised and got through about half the book in the gate and on the flight.  

Although I think it’s the first full-on book I’ve read since finding out about aphantasia and visual perception in prose. It really is an experience to lose patience with a descriptive paragraph and then think to myself “Oh, that’s for the people who see stuff in their heads.” Wild. 

[tavoit]

The Prisoner of Zenda is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope about the fictional King of Ruritania and doppelganger English cousin.  Adapted many times over the years to stage and screen, Ramón Novarro, Ronald Coleman, Steward Granger, Christopher Plummer and even Peter Sellers have all starred in the title roles.  Who, one wonders, wore the costume best?

And back to Grainger

[cursemewithyourkiss]

Bring back absurdly long swordfights with threatening quips throughout!!!!!!!!

[littlehorrorshop]

The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)

[hootenanie]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr in (promotional material for) The Prisoner of Zenda, 1937

[citizenscreen]

John Cromwell’s THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., premiered in New York City on September 2, 1937. Its wide U.S. release following the next day.

[pinkstarlightcomputer]

Sir Claude Francis Barry “Castle of Zenda“

[ecoustsaintmein]

Nate Mann has the face and demeanour of a late 1880s debonair American adventurer/traveller who goes to Europe for funsies, before getting mistaken as European royalty by the proletariat, and accidentally proceeded to get entangled in court intrigues and swashbuckling exploits, which may or may not include swordfighting.

[sunsetpanic]

Ronald Colman as Rudolf V

[assortedantics]

Nobody:

Absolutely nobody:

Rudolf Rassendyll seeing his cousin: Wow, he looks just like me, except for the fact that he’s not as handsome. And he doesn’t have a really impressive moustache. And he’s shorter than me as well. Did you guys know I’m six foot two?

[pizza-hats-of-the-world-1882]

swordtember 10: hello, play-actor!

[esteemed-excellency]

I really need to go to sleep but i can't stop thinking about Ruritania

[cursemewithyourkiss]

Ronald Colman as Rudolf Rassendyll in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937)

[littlehorrorshop]

Ramón Novarro in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)