SOURCE: "The Prisoner of The Prisoner of Zenda: Anthony Hope and the Novel of Society," in Essays in Criticism, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1956, pp. 38-

In the following excerpt, Putt examines Hope's transition from a writer of adventure novels to novels commenting on contemporary British society.

I

One day in November, 1893, a young barrister of thirty was walking from Westminster County Court to his chambers in the Temple, when the idea of Ruritania came into his head. He smoked a pipe on it, and the next day wrote the first chapter of The Prisoner of Zenda. This young man had already published three novels with only moderate success; a fourth novel was about to appear, and he was meditating a fifth. He was torn (as many werebefore and have been since) between the safety of his profession and the nagging itch to make more time for his writing. He made...