The latter, directed by John Cromwell and starring Ronald Colman as both Rassendyll and the prince, with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Movie adaptations began arriving in 1913, and the 1922 version of The Prisoner of Zenda is regarded as one of the jewels of silent cinema, although the definitive screen version is the 1937 Selznick production. Smith and Sigmund Romberg as Princess Flavia and A Royal Pretender during the mid-'20s, and, later still, as Zenda, by Everett Freeman and Vernon Duke and Hope himself wrote the stage version of Rupert of Hentzau. The play received dozens of productions in England and America from 1896 onward additionally, the story was musicalized by Harry B. His Ruritanian books were dramatized on-stage, beginning with Edward Rose's theatrical version of The Prisoner of Zenda - with kidnapping, romance, palace intrigue, swordplay galore, and a kingdom in the balance, it was a natural for the stage. Yet, even with the prolific pace of his follow-up adventures, including The King's Mirror, Quisante, Tristram of Blent, Sophy of Kravonia, Captain Dieppe, and Beaumaroy Home From the Wars, there seemed to be ceaseless demand for more work in the same vein. His books were translated into dozens of languages and read by millions of people around the world.
Over the next five years, Hawkins wrote four more novels - including Rupert of Hentzau, which was published as a serial - that followed up on this initial adventure. The novel was an instant success when published in 1894, and suddenly Anthony Hope was one of the most popular authors in the English-speaking world. There was also a charismatic villain in the guise of Rupert of Hentzau, who assumed a life of his own in a later work. He took a Central European locale in Bohemia and created the mythical kingdom of Ruritania, based in part on the dukedoms and principalities that still existed on the continent at the time - into this setting, he put the character of Rudolph Rassendyll, the dashing British tourist who is pressed into service at a critical moment in Ruritania's history to impersonate a missing crown prince Rassendyll ends up romancing the prince's royal consort in order to maintain the masquerade and rescuing the imprisoned monarch. Indeed, few books have had more of an impact on literature, theater, or movies, establishing a setting and a cast of characters, as well as presenting plot elements that were assimilated into popular culture in a chain stretching out a century or more. Both were published in 1894 and were successful, but The Prisoner of Zenda became a major cultural phenomenon. Then, in late 1893, while finishing work on the Dolly Dialogues, he began work on The Prisoner of Zenda. He also started writing plays and novels in the late 1880s, financing his first book's publication (under the name Anthony Hope) at a huge financial loss in 1890. For four years, he saw little success as a barrister and was forced to reside in his father's rectory, where he took up journalism, authoring stories to earn some kind of an income, in publications such as the St. He grew up in poor surroundings, attending public school and Oxford University on scholarships, and pursued a legal education. Anthony Hope Hawkins was born in an Anglican rectory in the London suburb of Hackney, the son of the Rev. During the quarter century between 18, Anthony Hope was England's rival to Alexandre Dumas, with his books The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau matching the popularity of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask - those and other adventure novels earned the humble Anglican clergyman's son a life of luxury and a knighthood, and made him a popular and highly influential author for much of the first half of the 20th century.