The Prisoner of Zenda is Dumas's swashbuckler moved to an invented country, which is the whole of Anthony Hope's contribution and a large one: the Ruritanian romance is named after his kingdom. From Dumas: court intrigue driving the plot, a monarchy whose succession is the stake, duelling as the way arguments end, a hero out of his class thrown among nobles, and loyalty valued above outcome. Hope's change is that the country is fictional, which frees the book from history and lets every later writer invent a small European kingdom and put a plot in it. Filed MEDIUM: an inherited form rather than a documented reading.