Phroso

by Anthony Hope

For this story there can be nothing but praise. It is true that it can scarcely be called literature, as doubtless no one knows better than the author. A writer who leaves off such work as Half a Hero and takes a royal road to fortune, if not to fame, with The Prisoner of Zenda, must be conscious of the change of method. But the work is quite as fine in its different way as if it were of much finer literary quality, and far more interesting than many a better written story. Too many books are worn thin by overuse of literature's tools, too few are endowed with the vitality that makes this tale vividly alive. From beginning to end it moves with a breathless rush. The plot is the purchase by an English nobleman ot an isolated island inhabited by semi-civilised Greeks who have a confirmed habit of killing any man who buys the island. They kill the old lord who sells it, and who dies just as the new owner arrives, so that the story opens with murder, to be followed by attempted assassination, all leading to blood and adventures galore.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1897

About the author

Prolific English novelist and playwright Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins especially composed adventure. People remember him best only for the book The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These works, "minor classics" of English literature, set in the contemporaneous fictional country of Ruritania, spawned the genre, known as Ruritanian romance. Zenda inspired many adaptations, most notably the Hollywood movie of 1937 of the same name.

Reviews

[Thomas Murch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for the novels of the nineteenth century; the style of narration you see in so many stories of that era have a wit that I think has aged wonderfully, even if other aspects have not. I recently read the stories in Anthony Hope's Ruritania series, and enjoyed them enough that when I saw an advert for Phroso at the back of one of the books, I decided to add that to my reading list. I'm glad that I did - for as much as I enjoyed the 'man who could be king' angle of Hope's more famous stories, I liked Phroso even more.

The tale is a fairly straightforward one. With the date of his marriage set for several months ahead, a young English lord named Charley Wheatley treats himself by purchasing something he has long desired: a Greek island. He promptly goes to visit his new purchase, taking his cousin Denny, his valet Watkins, and Hogvardt (his 'dragoman' - which means 'interpreter', according to my dragoman), and receive a rather cold reception from the natives, who are not thrilled to find their home sold to a stranger. Intrigues that threaten his ownership and his life quickly begin to occupy Wheatley's thoughts, whilst his heart is filled with feelings for Euphrosyne (the daughter of the island's previous owner) that make him question his engagement. Most of the characters lack much depth, with the villains being nefarious and the protagonists being honourable even when it risks getting them all killed, but the prose is so darn fun that I consider the trade worthwhile. To my mind, not enough stories would dare allow a secondary character to answer the question, ‘What’s the ladder here for, my friend?’ with, ‘It enables one to ascend or descend, my lord.’

[Riccardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il romanzo segue il solito schema di Hope: un uomo onesto e coraggioso si ritrova a vivere una grande avventura, affronta nemici e si innamora della giovane fanciulla. secondo me come storia d'avventura non è niente male anche se questa volta, a differenza di "Rupert of Hentzau", il finale è più scontato. Una cosa che mi è piaciuta molto invece è stato il fatto che, dopo aver sconfitto un nemico, ne compare un altro ancora più temibile e la storia continua.