Ruritania was invented by Anthony Hope who wrote ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’

Posted in Adventure, English Literature, Historical articles, History, Law, Literature, Theatre on Tuesday, 12 June 2012

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This edited article about Anthony Hope originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 725 published on 6 December 1975.

Anthony Hope Hawkins, picture, image, illustratiion

Anthony Hope Hawkins by Sir Leslie Ward (Spy)

The young barrister was walking briskly back to his chambers in the quiet, cobbled courtyards of the Temple, one of the Inns of Court, just behind Fleet Street, in the City of London. He had just won a case at the Westminster Country Court, and he was feeling very pleased with himself.

Suddenly he halted in his tracks. He had been toying with the idea of writing a new novel for some time, and now an idea had flashed through his mind – an idea for a book far removed from the musty, dry-as-dust law books that lined his room – an idea for a story set in a small kingdom in south-east Europe.

The barrister’s name was Anthony Hope Hawkins – later to become famous as the novelist, Anthony Hope. On that November day in 1893, he had just invented the colourful, romantic country of Ruritania, set somewhere in the Balkans. The next day he sat down at his desk and wrote the first chapter of The Prisoner of Zenda.

Hope was then thirty and he had been at the Bar for only six years. In that time his law practice had not grown very large, so he had no difficulty in finding time to work on his novel between preparing the few briefs that came his way. Sometimes he completed two chapters a day, and at this sort of rate the novel was finished within a month.

The book appeared early in 1894, and was an immediate success, and it changed Hope’s whole life. He had already written three other novels, but the success of his latest work proved to him that he could make a full-time career for himself as a writer.

On July 4th, 1894, he made up his mind and wrote letters of thanks and farewell to his clients. Anthony Hope Hawkins, barrister, had now become Anthony Hope, full-time author.

Hope was born on February 9th, 1863, the second son of a clergyman who was the headmaster of a school at Clapton, London, where Anthony started his education. Later he was sent to Marlborough College and from there he went to Balliol College, Oxford.

In 1887 he became a barrister, although this was not his first choice when he was deciding on a career. All his life Hope loved the theatre, and he wrote several successful plays, including an adaptation of The Prisoner which was even more of a triumph as a play than as a novel.

For the next thirty five years, Hope turned out a steady stream of books, plays, short stories and articles. All of them were crisply written and often full of wit and gentle irony as well as excitement. He wrote, among other things, a sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda. This was Rupert of Hentzau, dealing with the further adventures of Rudolph Rassendyll, the Englishman, caught up in the exciting politics of the Balkans.

Anthony Hope was knighted in 1918, for war work, and died at Walton on the Hill, Surrey, in 1933.

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