Anthony Hope

Anthony Hope (Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins) was born in London and educated at Marlborough and at Balliol College, Oxford. He became a lawyer in 1887, and dabbled in Liberal politics, but the immediate success of The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), his fourth work, turned him entirely to writing. This work and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau (1898), describe the perilous adventures of the Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll in the mythical kingdom of Ruritania.

The adventure, intrigue and romance of these novels are typical of the literature popular before World War I. Anthony Hope successfully published many other novels and plays. He was knighted in 1918 for his services in the British Ministry of Information during World War I. He died in 1933.