THE AGE OF RURITANIAN ROMANCE

Hope, Anthony [Anthony Hope Hawkins] (1863–1933)

Phroso: A Romance [Signed 1897] [Illustrated Edition]

New York: Frederick Stokes, 1896. Illustrated by Henry B. Wechsler. Second Edition.
SIGNED AT THE HEIGHT OF ANTHONY HOPE’S INTERNATIONAL FAME
A handsome signed edition of Phroso, one of Anthony Hope’s most successful late-Victorian adventure romances, issued during the extraordinary popularity that followed The Prisoner of Zenda. Boldly signed ‘Anthony-Hope-Hawkins’ and dated ‘19th Oct / 97,’ the inscription captures the author at the height of his literary celebrity, when his romantic adventures and exotic political intrigues dominated popular fiction on both sides of the Atlantic.

Set among the islands of the Aegean, Phroso follows an English nobleman drawn into rebellion, kidnapping, political conspiracy, and Mediterranean intrigue after attempting to claim a remote Turkish island. Combining romance, danger, and aristocratic adventure, the novel helped solidify the conventions of the ‘Ruritanian Romance’ genre that Hope largely defined for a generation of readers.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Original green buckram over beveled boards. Front board and spine elaborately stamped in black and gilt. Illustrated throughout by Henry B. Wechsler with frontispiece and numerous plates and text illustrations. 12mo, 7.5 inches tall. [2], 306, [3 advertisements] pages. Second Edition.

CONDITION: Bindings are tight and secure with the front hinge just beginning to start. Text is clean; light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf handling and light hand-soiling to the cloth consistent with age and use. The illustration plate following page 216 shows a closed edge tear. A solid and attractive signed Victorian edition with strong shelf presence.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE —
Anthony Hope became an international literary phenomenon following the publication of The Prisoner of Zenda in 1894. His novels shaped popular adventure fiction during the final years of the Victorian era and strongly influenced twentieth-century swashbuckling literature and cinema.

The ‘Ruritanian Romance’ tradition he popularized later informed works ranging from early Hollywood adventure films to modern fantasy and political thrillers. Though overshadowed today by The Prisoner of Zenda, Phroso was among Anthony Hope’s major commercial successes during the peak of his career. The novel exemplifies the late nineteenth-century appetite for aristocratic adventure, exotic Mediterranean settings, political unrest, and romantic heroism.

Hope’s fiction helped define the ‘Ruritanian Romance,’ a genre built around fictional kingdoms, political conspiracies, royal impersonations, and heroic quests. In Phroso, however, the imagined kingdom gives way to the real-world tensions of the eastern Mediterranean, blending adventure fiction with contemporary European fascination for the Ottoman frontier and the Aegean world.

The signature dated 1897 places this copy squarely within the period when Anthony Hope was among the most widely read popular novelists in the English-speaking world. Signed Anthony Hope titles remain steadily collectible, particularly works issued during the immediate post-Zenda popularity boom of the late 1890s. Copies signed using both his pen name and legal surname are especially desirable to collectors of Victorian literature and adventure fiction.

SUBJECTS: Anthony Hope, Anthony Hope Hawkins, signed Victorian fiction, Ruritanian romance, Aegean adventure fiction, Ottoman Empire in literature, nineteenth-century adventure novels, The Prisoner of Zenda, illustrated Victorian books, Henry B. Wechsler, Gilded Age publishing, Mediterranean fiction, Victorian Fiction, Adventure Romance, Historical Adventure, Ruritanian Fiction.

Item #21586

Price: $195.00