Читать книгу The Flashman Papers: The Complete 12-Book Collection - George Fraser MacDonald - Страница 46

Whether Flashman’s real-life experiences in Germany provided Anthony Hope with the basis of his famous romance, The Prisoner of Zenda, is a matter which readers must decide for themselves. Flashman is quite definite in the text in two places—especially where he refers to “Hawkins”, which was Hope’s real name. There is certainly some similarity in events, and names like Lauengram, Kraftstein, Detchard, de Gautet, Bersonin, and Tarlenheim are common to both stories; Flashman’s “Major Sapten” is literary twin brother to Hope’s “Colonel Sapt”, and no amateur of romantic fiction will fail to identify Rudi von Starnberg with the Count of Hentzau.