Simon Dale - Hardcover

One who was in his day a person of great place and consideration, and has left a name which future generations shall surely repeat so long as the world may last, found no better rule for a man's life than that he should incline his mind to move in Charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of Truth. This condition, says he, is Heaven upon Earth; and although what touches truth may better befit the philosopher who uttered it than the vulgar and unlearned, for whom perhaps it is a counsel too high and therefore dangerous, what comes before should surely be graven by each of us on the walls of our hearts. For any man who lived in the days that I have seen must have found much need of trust in Providence, and by no whit the less of charity for men. In such trust and charity I have striven to write: in the like I pray you to read.

Anthony Hope (in full Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins) was born in London and educated at Marlborough and at Balliol College, Oxford. He became a lawyer, and dabbled in Liberal politics, but the immediate success of 'The Prisoner of Zenda', his fourth work, turned him entirely to writing. This work and its sequel, 'Rupert of Hentzau', both describe the perilous adventures of the Englishman Rudolph Rassendyll in the mythical kingdom of Ruritania. Anthony Hope successfully published many other novels and plays. He was knighted in 1918 and died in 1933.