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The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) tells the story of Rudolf Rassendyll, a dashing English gentleman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the ruler of the fictional kingdom of Ruritania. Rassendyll masquerades as the king in order to save the country from a treacherous plot and secures the release of a wronged prisoner. In the process he wins the heart of the beautiful Princess Flavia, but ultimately surrenders the crown and the hand of his beloved princess to the rightful ruler. Rupert of Hentzau (1898), which ends in tragedy, not triumph, is the darker sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda. Full of humor and swashbuckling feats of heroism, the tales also contain, within their narrative structures and characterizations, a satire on late-nineteenth-century European politics.