Thursday 4 September 2014

Read in 2014 - 30: The Lost Prince

„The Lost Prince“ was a book I very much enjoyed, and wonder why it isn’t as popular as Frances Hodgson Burnett’s more famous works, such as “The Secret Garden” and “Little Lord Fauntleroy”. While I am not overly fond of the “Little Lord”, I very much like the “Secret Garden” and would certainly make sure to have my own children read it (or read it to them), if I had any. “The Lost Prince” was first published in 1915, and if you have a chance to come across the version with illustrations by Maurice L. Bower, go for it. My free kindle version didn’t come illustrated, but I found the drawings on the internet while researching for this review.

The reader meets Marco Loristan when the boy is 12 years old and has just moved to shabby quarters in London with his father, Stefan Loristan, and their faithful soldier-servant Lazarus. Marco is young, but he has seen more of the world than many will ever do in a lifetime; the small family has always been on the move, and Marco is familiar not only with the big cities all across Europe, but speaks their languages like a native, and knows their museums and galleries like their most studied and best educated residents. For the Loristans, only one place is home, and that is a place they can not live at: Samavia (a fictitious country), a monarchy struggling between civil war, general unrest and bloody revolutions, poverty-stricken and politically unstable since that day 500 years ago when the last legitimate heir to the throne mysteriously disappeared. This “Lost Prince” of Samavia has become a legend over time; a legend many believe to be true, and many a passion-filled Samavian heart longs for the return of the Lost Prince and the restoration of their home country to its former peaceful glory.

Marco, his father and Lazarus are very close and usually do not speak of Samavia outside their four walls. But when Marco meets “The Rat”, a crippled street urchin who is fascinated with all things military and has a brilliant mind in his weak body, the two soon become friends, and together invent “The Game”. They make up schemes to form a Secret Party all across Europe, a party that works behind the scenes to find the Lost Prince and re-establish peace and prosperity for Samavia.
Up until that point, I had found the book a little tedious at times, because the way the Loristans are described is so unreal – they are just too good to be true. But once The Rat enters the picture, things become more realistic, and when The Rat’s circumstances change and he ends up living with them, the story quickly picks up pace and really found me in its grip.

Needless to say, The Game turns into reality, and the two boys embark on an adventurous trip throughout Europe, from big cities like Paris, Munich and Vienna to tiny mountain hamlets. Eventually, they even travel to Samavia, but throughout their adventures, the geographical distances are parallel to personal development. It is a “coming of age” novel in a way, although only The Rat really develops in character; Marco has been perfect from the start. The descriptions of places and people are good and not too lengthy, and while there aren’t many surprises, there is still enough suspense to have kept me going – while at the same time I did not want the story to come to its inevitable (and foreseeable) end.

During my research for this review, I learned a new term: Ruritanian. This book is, according to wikipedia, an example of Ruritanian literature. Ruritania is a fictitious country, created by Anthony Hope as the setting of his novel "The Prisoner of Zenda" (which I have never read). It gave its name to romantic novels set in similar countries, all fictitious, all set in central/southeastern Europe, all showing similar elements of adventures, romance, intrigue, the re-instating of peace in an unstable country, with honour, loyalty and love featuring prominently. Typically for me, I am sure I'll remember this curious little fact - an example of the kind of trivia I know, trivia that comes in useful only if it happens to be the answer to a pub quiz question. Instead, I never remember the really useful facts and figures other people seem to be able to rattle off whenever needed.
 
For more reviews of Frances Hodgson Burnett's books and some information about her, simply type "Burnett" into the search box at the top left corner of my blog, and you'll find five older posts.

14 comments:

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    1. Please stop spamming other people's blogs. Thank you. (I have visited your website and left a message for you there as well.)

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  2. I haven't come across this one, Meike, but The Secret Garden was and is a top favourite of mine. I read it to all my children.

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    1. I wonder how you'd like this one, Frances. Like most (or probably all) of Burnetts' works, it gives quite an insight into her ideas about good and bad, truth and love, friendship and forgiving.

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  3. While i've read much of Burnett, i've never heard of this one, so i will look for it. Maybe it's at our library.

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    1. Strange, isn't it, how some books of an author never really "take off" while others become classics.

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  4. I've read some of her other books, but never heard of this one. It sounds interesting and I'll look it up.

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    1. Hello Kathy, I am not sure whether you have commented here before? I don't think so, so: Welcome to my blog, and thank you for stopping!

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  5. Hello Meike,

    Like many of your readers, we suspect, we are very familiar with 'The Secret Garden' but this title has passed us by. Quite an intriguing plot and, as you say, filled with all manner of social commentary and coming of age realisations. Not sure that it will be a must for us, but we have to say that we love the cover of the book you show here. So beautifully tooled and quite a work of art in itself.

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,

      of course my free kindle edition had no such beautiful cover, and no illustrations. But the words were what kept me in a different world, a world of the past where spies and secret parties existed without "social media", and patriotism did not have the negative connotation it can easily assume nowadays.

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  6. I wonder if it didn't become popular because it took so long for the most interesting character to appear? These days she would have an editor to point that out maybe- I do t know if they did then. I know her other books but never heard of this one.

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    1. Possibly that's one reason, Jenny. Maybe it also didn't take off because it showed war as the terrible bloodshed it is, which was not what people wanted to read in 1915, just one year into the Great War, when most people still liked to believe in the "glory" of it all.

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  7. This is a favorite from my childhood. But you are right, it is not at all as well known nor as popular as The Secret Garden nor Little Lord Fauntleroy. It was not as easy to obtain, not reprinted as often as her others, but that must have happened because it didn't initially sell as well.....It's certainly in the tradition of her stories.So I have no real answer for you.

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    1. How wonderful that you know and love this book, too, Kristi! What did you make of "The Law of the One" when you were a child, I wonder? Did you think Samavia was a real country? I know for sure that, had I known this book in my childhood, I would have drawn my own maps of Samavia, and plans of the layout of its capital and the palace.

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