Solutions Third Edition

6 Literature Worksheet
The Prisoner of Zenda – Anthony Hope
1 BEFORE YOU READ   Answer the questions. 5 SPEAKING   In pairs, look at the reading extract again and
1 Read about Anthony Hope. What were his talents? answer the questions.
2 Read the cultural context. How did Victorian literature 1 Describe Sapt’s plan in your own words.
change at the end of the century? 2 Why does Rassendyll agree to the plan?
3 Read the background to the story on page 2. Why does 3 What does this tell us about Rassendyll’s character?
Duke Michael send his half-brother a bottle of wine? 4 Why has the author put a few words in italics?
5 How does the author increase the pace in the last
Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

paragraph of the extract?

(pseudonym Anthony Hope) 1863−1933
6 How are we sure that Rassendyll and the king really do
Important works:  The Dolly Dialogues (1894), The
look very similar?
Prisoner of Zenda (1894), Rupert of Hentzau (1898)
Anthony Hope grew up in London and later went to 6 Read what happens next below. Why does one of the
Oxford University, where he was a brilliant student and
bodyguards kill Black Michael?
athlete. After university, he became a lawyer and wrote Although Rassendyll loves the king’s fiancée, Princess

READ ON
in his free time. He wrote short stories, novels, plays and Flavia, he decides to go to the castle of Zenda and
non-fiction titles. When he had the idea for The Prisoner save the king. Three of Black Michael’s bodyguards are
of Zenda, he wrote the whole book in only one month! guarding the king there. One of them, Rupert of Hentzau,
loves a French lady called Antoinette de Mauban. But she
The Prisoner of Zenda was published near the end of loves Black Michael, so Rupert kills him. Rassendyll fights
CULTURAL CONTEXT

Queen Victoria’s reign, a time of great social change in the other guards and the king tries to help him, but both
Britain. Earlier Victorian novelists like Charles Dickens of them are wounded.
and William Makepeace Thackeray wrote about the
social problems of the age, but at the end of the century 7   06   Listen to the next part of the story. Why doesn’t
a group of young novelists (Robert Louis Stevenson, Rupert kill Rassendyll?
Rudyard Kipling and Anthony Hope) rejected this realism.
They wrote novels full of romance and adventure. 8   06   Listen again and complete the sentences with the
people below. Some people are used more than once.
2 Read the extract on page 2. How can Captain Sapt and Antoinette Fritz Rassendyll Rupert
Rassendyll stop Black Michael from becoming king?
1 wants to shoot at Rupert.
3 Read the extract again and number events a−f in the 2 escapes from the castle.
correct order. 3 chases after Rupert.
a Black Michael’s men arrive.  4 takes Rassendyll’s horse.
b Rassendyll tells Sapt he’s afraid that people will know 5 thinks he is going to die.
something.  6 picks Rassendyll up.
c Rassendyll and Sapt kill three men. 
d Fritz sees Rassendyll and thinks he’s the king. 
9 SPEAKING   In pairs, ask and answer the questions.

e Sapt wants Rassendyll to take the king’s place.  1 How would you describe Rupert’s character?
f Rassendyll and Sapt arrive in Strelsau.  2 Why does Rupert call Rassendyll a ‘play-actor’?
3 Why does he laugh at the end of the extract?
4 Read about The pace of an adventure novel. Then look 4 Was Rassendyll right to choose duty and not love?
at the extract again and find examples of strong verbs,
5 How would you like the story to end?
modals and imperatives. What effect do they have?
6 Can you think of any modern stories about mistaken
THE PACE OF AN ADVENTURE NOVEL identity? Where are they set?

Pacing is how the author moves the story forward. 10 WRITING   Rudolf Rassendyll has to make some difficult
Adventure stories have a fast pace: they use modals and decisions in the story. Write a paragraph saying how and
imperatives to convey importance and urgency, and why Rassendyll makes these decisions.
short sentences to move quickly from one action to the • Why does he agree to help Sapt?
next. There are lots of references to time passing, and a • Why does he risk his life to save the king?
variety of adverbs and strong verbs (e.g. dashed instead • Why does he try to forget his love for Princess Flavia?
of ran) show how people do things. Adventure stories
avoid passive sentences and detailed descriptions.

Solutions Third Edition Level 3 Literature Worksheet 6 PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press­  1
 Solutions Third Edition

6 Literature Worksheet
BACKGROUND TO THE STORY
The story is told from the point of view of Rudolf Rassendyll, who decides to visit Ruritania for the
coronation of King Rudolf V. But the future king’s half-brother, Duke Michael (Black Michael), also
wants to be king. In the forest at Zenda, Rassendyll meets the king with Colonel Sapt and Fritz von
Tarlenheim. They are surprised that the king and Rassendyll look alike, and they invite Rassendyll
to dinner. That evening the king drinks a bottle of wine that Black Michael gave him, but there is
a drug in the wine. The king is soon unconscious, and so he can’t go to his coronation. Rassendyll
takes the king’s place in order to help him, and he is crowned King of Ruritania. But when they go to
get the real king later, he isn’t there.

The Prisoner of Zenda

It was one o’clock in the morning. For a few minutes
we said nothing. Then Sapt cried, ‘The Duke’s men
have taken the King prisoner!’
‘Then we must get back and wake everyone in
5 Strelsau!’ I cried. ‘We must catch Black Michael before
he kills the King.’
‘Who knows where the King is now?’ Sapt answered.
Then suddenly he began to laugh. ‘But we’ve given
Black Michael a problem,’ he said. ‘Yes, my boy. We’ll
10 go back to Strelsau. The King will be in his palace in
Strelsau again tomorrow.’
‘No!’ I cried.
‘Yes!’ Sapt answered. ‘It’s the only way to help him.
Go back and take his place for him.’
15 ‘But the Duke knows . . .’ 35 He pulled me over to the door. The moon was low
‘Yes, but he can’t speak, can he? What can he say? now, and there was not much light, but I could just
“This man isn’t the King because I’ve taken the real see a small group of men on horses. They were Black
King prisoner and murdered his servant.” Can he say Michael’s men, probably coming to take the dead body
that?’ of Josef away.
20 ‘But people will soon realize I’m not the real King,’ I 40 ‘We can’t let them go without doing something,’ I
said. said, thinking of poor Josef.
‘Perhaps, perhaps not,’ said Sapt. ‘But we must have ‘Right,’ Sapt agreed. We ran out of the back of the
a King in Strelsau, or Michael will ride in tomorrow house, and quickly got onto our horses. Silently, we
as the new King! Listen, boy, if you don’t go back to waited in the darkness, and then we galloped round the
25 Strelsau, they’ll kill the King. And if you do go back, 45 house and straight into the group of men. Between us,
they can’t kill the King. Because if they kill him, how we killed three of them, but a bullet hit my finger and
can they ever say that you’re not the real King? Don’t it began to bleed.
you see?’ he cried. ‘It’s a dangerous game, but it gives We rode hard all night and it was about eight or
us a chance of winning.’ nine o’clock in the morning when we reached Strelsau.
30 It was a wild, hopeless plan, but I was young. I 50 Luckily, the streets were still empty. We arrived at the
would never have the chance of an adventure like this palace, went in, and got to the dressing-room. When
again. ‘Sapt, I’ll try it,’ I said. we opened the door, Fritz was asleep, but he woke
‘Good for you!’ Sapt cried. ‘But we must hurry! immediately. When he saw me, he fell to the ground
Look!’ and cried, ‘Thank God, Your Majesty! You’re safe!’

From The Prisoner of Zenda, Oxford Bookworms. Text adaptation: Diane Mowat

Solutions Third Edition Level 3 Literature Worksheet 6 PHOTOCOPIABLE © Oxford University Press­  2