- Ruritanian romance
A Ruritanian Romance is a story set in a
fictional country , usually inMiddle Europe orEast Europe , such as theRuritania that gave thegenre its name. The popularity of theGraustark novels led to this type of story also being called Graustarkian Romances.Such stories are typically swashbuckling
adventure novel s, tales of high romance and intrigue, centered on the upper classes, aristocracy and royalty. The themes ofhonor ,loyalty , andlove predominate, and the books frequently feature therestoration of kings to their thrones.Although recognizable Ruritanian romances such as
Robert Louis Stevenson 's "Prince Otto " were written prior toAnthony Hope 's "The Prisoner of Zenda ", that 1894 novel set the type, with its handsomepolitical decoy restoring the rightful king to the throne, and resulted in a burst of similarpopular fiction , such asGeorge Barr McCutcheon 's Graustark novels andFrances Hodgson Burnett 's "The Lost Prince". See a list ofhomage s here.The genre was widely spoofed and parodied.
George Bernard Shaw 's "Arms and the Man " parodied many elements.Dorothy Sayers 's "Have His Carcase " featured as the murder victim a man deceived by his murderers because of his foolish belief in his royal ancestry, fed by endless reading of Ruritanian romances. InVladimir Nabokov 's "Pale Fire ", the main narrator has the delusion of being the incognito king of a "distant northern land" who romantically escaped a Soviet-backed revolution.cite journal | last = McCarthy | first = Mary | authorlink = Mary McCarthy (author) | title = A Bolt from the Blue | journal = The New Republic | date = June 4, 1962 Revised version in cite book |author= Mary McCarthy |title=A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays |url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1590170105/ |accessdate=2006-09-25 |year=2002 |publisher=The New York Review of Books |location=New York |id=ISBN 1-59017-010-5 |pages=pp. 83–102] The genre was spoofed in "The Princess Bride ", which features the fictional countries ofGuilder andFlorin (terms for old forms of money).The popularity of the genre declined after the first part of the twentieth century. Aside from the change in literary taste, the royalist elements of Ruritanian romances became less plausible as many European monarchies receded even from memory, and their restorations grew less likely.
Many elements of the genre have been transplanted into
fantasy world s, particularly those offantasy of manners and alternate history. Thescience fiction writerAndre Norton first reached success with a 1934 Ruritanian novel, "The Prince Commands". Although "Ruritania" originally referred to a "contemporary" country, the idea has been adapted for use inhistorical fiction . A subgenre of this ishistorical romance , such asJennifer Blake 's "Royal Seduction" and its sequel "Royal Passion"; both are set in the nineteenth century and feature Prince Rolfe (later King) and his son Prince Roderic respectively, of the fictional Balkan country of Ruthenia.References
*
John Clute and John Grant, "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy "External links
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext95/prott10.txt Robert Louis Stevenson's "Prince Otto"]
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/384/384-8.txt Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Lost Prince"]
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