Graustark: The Story of a Love Behind a Throne

The fiction of George Barr McCutcheon (1866-1928) proved so popular in his day that he, along with Anthony Hope, the author of "The Prisoner of Zenda," invented a whole new genre, now called the "Graustarkian novel," a charming product of a more innocent time when the Balkans could be the scene of adventurous romances set in imaginary countries. McCutcheon's Graustark no doubt borders Hope's Ruritania and Avram Davidson's more recent Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania. It was a place where an American adventurer could find himself or herself adrift, but rapidly caught up in intrigues, captures and escapes, and the perilously-hinged destiny of (at the very least) a royal throne or two. "Graustark" is one entry in this best-selling series, which also includes "The Prince of Graustark," "Truxton King," and "Beverly of Graustark."