Summary
This novel is about the adventures of a young English gentleman, Rudolf Rassendyll, in the fictional European kingdom of Ruritania.
Chapter 1: Rudolf Rassendyll decides to visit Ruritania to watch the coronation of King Rudolf the Fifth in the capital city, Strelsau. Rassendyll makes his way to Zenda, a small town in favour of Duke Michael, the King’s brother.
Rassendyll meets the King’s men, Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim in the forest of Zenda. He meets the King as well and discovers that they look extremely alike. They get on well and have a meal together on the night before the coronation. Unfortunately the King is drugged by his evil brother, Duke Michael, who wants the throne for himself.
Colonel Sapt persuades Rassendyll to impersonate the King so that the coronation can take place; there he meets the King’s betrothed, Princess Flavia.
With the coronation successfully accomplished in Strelsau, Rassendyll and Sapt return to where they had left the real King, only to find out that Duke Michael
has him imprisoned in the castle of Zenda. It becomes Rassendyll’s task to continue acting as king.
Sapt and Fritz thinks that the real King is still alive as only three of Michael’s famous Six – a Frenchman (de Gautet), a Belgian (Bersonin) and an Englishman
(Detchard) – are in Strelsau. They think the other three – the Ruritanians (Lauengram, Krafstein and Rupert Hentzau) – are guarding the King at Zenda. Rassendyll meets Michael and three of the famous Six while he is paying Flavia a visit.
Rassendyll receives a letter from Antoinette de Mauban, Michael’s French mistress. She doesn’t want Michael to become king and marry Flavia. Rassendyll
meets Antoinette at a summerhouse, where he is nearly killed by the three of the famous Six. Rassendyll uses a tea table in the summerhouse to protect himself and manages to escape.
Rassendyll is told to ask Flavia to marry him. He finds it hard to play this part as he himself is falling in love with her. After he finds out that Flavia is in love
with him and not with the real King, he tries to tell Flavia the truth, but Sapt interrupts just in time. Rassendyll decides to attack Michael at Zenda and free the King. He asks Marshal Strakencz to protect Flavia while he is ‘going
hunting a wild pig’.
Rupert Hentzau comes to see Rassendyll to deliver a message from Michael. At the end of the meeting Hentzau tries to kill him; Rassendyll is wounded. Michael’s forest guard, Johann, falls into a trap which Rassendyll has set, and tells him about the Duke’s plans and the pipe called ‘the Path to Heaven’, which has been
built to hide the King’s body.
Flavia comes to see Rassendyll when she hears he is wounded. Johann brings the news of the real King growing thin and ill, so Rassendyll, Sapt, Fritz and six
men set out for the Castle of Zenda to rescue the King. Johann’s brother, Lauengram, Krafstein and three of the King’s men are killed in the fight. Rassendyll and Michael need to seem friendly in public, so Rassendyll gives out
an order that no more private fighting is allowed in the future. The Chief of the Strelsau Police comes to Zenda at the request of the British ambassador, trying to find where Rudolf Rassendyll is. Rassendyll, acting as king,
immediately sends him back to Strelsau.
Rassendyll learns that Rupert Hentzau is interested in Antoinette de Mauban and that he would turn against Duke Michael. Hentzau suggests that
Rassendyll and he kill both Michael and the King in order to be with the women they love. Rassendyll makes a plan for a second attempt to free the real King because Rassendyll learns that the King is very sick, and also
because he has been forced to fix the date for the wedding, which is only two weeks ahead.
Rassendyll’s plan goes awry as Hentzau goes to Antoinette de Mauban’s room to seduce her that night. Michael comes to her room and is killed. Rassendyll
manages to kill de Gautet, Bersonin and Detchard, but both Rassendyll and the real King are wounded.
Rassendyll has a chance to kill Hentzau from behind, but he does nothing. Hentzau escapes into the forest of Zenda, and Rassendyll follows although he
is tired and wounded. He wants to fight like a man, but Hentzau flees when he saw Fritz riding towards them. When Flavia finds Rassendyll in the forest, he tells her
that he’s not the King.
The King is restored to his throne, and he is grateful to Rassendyll. They, however, have to make sure that the duplicity remains a secret from the people of Ruritania. Rassendyll and Flavia must part. Rassendyll goes back to England and lives quietly there. Only once a year he meets Fritz, who brings a red rose and a message from Flavia.
