Mixed Pickles - the Book log 2012

The sequel to "The Prisoner of Zenda" tells of Rudolf Rassendyll's return to Ruritania to save the reputation of the woman he loves, Princess (now Queen) Flavia. The prose is as chewy as late Victorian prose was wont to get, and the plot is somewhat naive by modern standards. It is a more melancholy book than its predecessor, in some ways acknowledging that the era of small European kingdoms with scheming Counts and duelling Dukes was coming to an end (although the setting served to provide Dornford Yates with a backdrop for his thrillers into the nineteen forties and beyond).