Entry tags:
Comments halfway through Rupert of Hentzau
I’ve been reading this off and on for about two months now, with speed depending on how comparatively gripping whatever I’ve got out from the library at the same time is. I haven’t read it before, but I do know some of the major spoilers.
For a while there it was going very slowly because it felt like an adventure novel crossed with a French farce, which actually would be a great idea if you did it on purpose. But now the title character is back on page and it’s going faster again.
It’s interesting, because of course The Prisoner of Zenda is a majorly influential work in Western literature (or at least Western pop culture) … which most people today haven’t actually heard of. And Rupert of Hentzau is unfortunately not a very satisfactory sequel. (Whereas the Scarlet Pimpernel series went on for over a dozen books.)
I want to blame it on Fritz being a weaker narrator than Rudolf, but that’s a cop-out, because of course Anthony Hope is writing both of them. And I can see how even just reordering the narrative in the middle would make everything way more suspenseful and remove the (perceived) need for Fritz’s defences of other characters acting on limited information.
Doesn’t pass the Bechdel test - lots of women, sometimes they even talk to each other, but there isn’t anything for them to talk about except men. But I am still disappointed that no one on AO3 has written Helga/Flavia fanfic, because Flavia deserves someone like that.
For a while there it was going very slowly because it felt like an adventure novel crossed with a French farce, which actually would be a great idea if you did it on purpose. But now the title character is back on page and it’s going faster again.
It’s interesting, because of course The Prisoner of Zenda is a majorly influential work in Western literature (or at least Western pop culture) … which most people today haven’t actually heard of. And Rupert of Hentzau is unfortunately not a very satisfactory sequel. (Whereas the Scarlet Pimpernel series went on for over a dozen books.)
I want to blame it on Fritz being a weaker narrator than Rudolf, but that’s a cop-out, because of course Anthony Hope is writing both of them. And I can see how even just reordering the narrative in the middle would make everything way more suspenseful and remove the (perceived) need for Fritz’s defences of other characters acting on limited information.
Doesn’t pass the Bechdel test - lots of women, sometimes they even talk to each other, but there isn’t anything for them to talk about except men. But I am still disappointed that no one on AO3 has written Helga/Flavia fanfic, because Flavia deserves someone like that.