The Lost Prince, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

[sophia_sol]

I READ THIS BOOK AND IT'S surexit'S FAULT.

It is... not a good book. But ENTIRELY CHARMING. It is so very of its era. Wooo outdated sentimental children's novels!

So I CANNOT EVEN DECIDE WHAT THE MOST RIDICULOUS PART OF THIS BOOK IS, BECAUSE THE READER IS SO SPOILED FOR CHOICE.

1. Yes, Frances Hodgson Burnett, that is totally how royalty works. If a king is overthrown and the prince goes into hiding, his heir 500 years later is STILL THE RIGHTFUL KING AND HAS LOTS OF SUPPORT AND WILL USHER IN A UTOPIAN FUTURE BECAUSE HE IS THE RIGHTFUL KING

2. Obviously entrusting the success of your revolution to two preteen boys is the right way to make it succeed, especially if one of those boys is the SOLE HEIR to the dude your revolution is trying to put on the throne!

3. Speaking of the utopian future Stefan Loristan is going to introduce, yeah, hello orientalism. Also hello what are the theories in that stupid book "The Secret" doing in my Edwardian sentimental novel

4. Marco is perfect!!! And his dad is even perfecter!!! And there's definitely nothing creepy at all about the ways Stefan's been training Marco since, like, birth

5. Obviously everybody is perfectly wonderful and helpful to Marco except the Lovely Person aka the spy! (ngl though I love how she's referred to as the Lovely Person. SO GREAT.)

6. Of course the Rat's Squad is NEVER GOING TO BE RELEVANT TO THE PLOT despite being a clear Chekov's gun

ET CETERA

BUT DESPITE ALL THE ABOVE, it's so charmingly earnest and good-hearted, and everybody cares about everybody else so much, and basically YEAH SCREW YOU I LOVED IT and stayed up till 1 a.m. last night giggling helplessly at how ridiculous and adorable it was. (and yes the Rat and Marco love each other forever the end. I mean, obviously.)

Comments

[skygiants]

STEFAN LORISTAN IS SO CREEPY

AND HIS BRILLIANT PLANS MAKE NO SENSE

it is still my theory that he is using his brainwashing powers on Marco and the Rat, and someday they will wake up and overthrow him and usher in a democracy

(But I deeply enjoy the book)

[surexit]

OMG BECCA STOP GOING AROUND AND CALLING HIM CREEPY, HE'S NOT HE'S PERFECT. >:(

SAMAVIA!

[seekingferret]

ZOMG I have never read this book, but I once read this hilariously over-earnest book review in a Chasidic newspaper which read the Lost Prince as a metaphor for the Rebbe rather than as a metaphor for Jesus. Because the reviewer apparently had only slimmest idea who Jesus was and clearly had no idea that Western literature is full of Jesus characters.

[qian]

I love The Lost Prince! It's so terrible and idficcy. *_* Have you read Little Lord Fauntleroy? Even funnier!

[surexit]

YOU'RE WELCOME.

OMG CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE POLITICS JUST DON'T WORK? I will c/p a previous comment: Secret societies cannot maintain razor-edge readiness for five hundred years! By the time Marco arrived, that secret society would be, like, two crazy old men and a dog sitting amongst piles of rusting weapons. Or it would have turned into some sort of old boys' network, where they're all hiring each other for jobs and being like, "Oh, he's alright, he's a Forger of the Sword," but they would emphatically not be BATTLE-READY.

AND NO ONE WOULD CARE THAT STEFAN HAD A FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO ROYAL ANCESTOR.

And hahaha yes, obviously Marco is the right choice for the dangerous mission. NOT ENDANGERING THE SUCCESSION AT ALL.

Obviously everybody is perfectly wonderful and helpful to Marco except the Lovely Person aka the spy!
I knoooowww, I love how basically nothing actually happens on their dangerous adventure? They have a mild brush with fear, but basically everything works PERFECTLY.

I LOVE THE SQUAD AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM.

[surexit]

(Also I'm glad you agree about Marco and The Rat. ALTHOUGH HOW COULD YOU NOT?)

[osprey_archer]

I agree with everything here. I think perhaps we are supposed to assume that Stefan has been revamping the secret society, what with all the shenanigans and moving around over the years?

But that doesn't really help with the fact that they were deposed five hundred years ago. Was Burnett secretly yearning for Ye Olde Glory Days with the Plantagenets?

Also I am excited that there are other people on the internet who have read The Lost Prince, because when I first read it I was like, "This is so hilariously bad and yet at the same time idtastically AWESOME and there is no one to discuss it with, WOE."

[surexit]

Oh, that is a good point! It still doesn't really work, but yes, that makes more sense.

OMG I KNOW, no one cares about a five hundred years ago king. Bonny Prince Charlie's descendant would not get put on the Scottish throne, and anyone who wanted him there would be part of a very fringe group!

I AM ALSO EXCITED. It is extremely bad but I LOVE IT. Also I have written fic for it. >.> If you are interested in Marco/The Rat.

[osprey_archer]

Does it involve the Rat holding up a sign that says "I LOVE YOU, DUMMY"? Because I am pretty sure that is the only way Marco will ever notice, because he is soooo bad at taking hints. "Marco, all the people in the cavern are kneeling and weeping and kissing your hand! Also, the portrait of the Lost Prince looks exactly like your father! Does none of this suggest anything to you? Anything? No? Really?"

And of course the Rat had figured it all out months ago.

What is Samavia going to do when Marco is on the throne? One can only hope that the Rat is there to run everything behind the scenes.

Then again, World War I and the Conference of Versailles might sweep the Loristans back off the throne forthwith. Woe.

[surexit]

No, but that is a really good idea and I might incorporate it into the fic I'm currently writing. (I have no idea why I have so many ideas for this fandom, I think it's lain dormant in my psyche for so long, and then I reread and it ECPLODED.) It involved a) sex drugs and b) Marco realising by himself, which I accept is possibly OOC.

AND OMG I KNOOOOW, the fact that the "reveal" only comes in like the last two pages? I MEAN, WHAT?

I am merrily ignoring WWI in my ficwriting atm. >.> Samavia is very small! It all takes place in Olden Times but not those Olden Times! Um, um, *HANDWAVE*.

[osprey_archer]

Marco is clearly incapable of realizing things that are stunningly obvious, but perhaps things that are slightly less obvious - like, say, the fact that he doesn't just love the Rat as his bestest friend ever, but is actually in love with him - he is capable of realizing? I don't even know how that would work. But Marco comes across as pretty smart, at least about everything else, so presumably he has some realizing capability.

Another theory: Marco's father has been brainwashing him from birth so he wouldn't realize that he was a Lost Prince of Samavia too early.

Also I love that you have basically made The Lost Prince your fandom of one. Tiny fandoms for the win!

[surexit]

That's the thing, he is clearly intended by the author to be really really smart. It's just that the reader can see that he has a MASSIVE BLIND SPOT.

Brainwashing is a popular theory. :D

I AM TRYING TO GET MORE PEOPLE IN. JOIN ME.

[osprey_archer]

I must finish my final papers before I join any new fandoms! But then, hmm, what could I write. The Rat could be all efficient and military and secretly pining, and be like "Thank God Marco is incapable of observing the blindingly obvious because otherwise he would realize that I am madly in love with him," and then...and then....I am not sure how I would get them past this logjam.

I feel like the only way Marco/the Rat can work is if Marco does make the first move, because I just can't see the Rat doing it? Because Marco is perfect in his eyes and he doesn't feel worthy of that, and also that's just not the kind of thing an aide de camp is supposed to do.

On the other hand, sometimes wistful pining fic is fun. So I could just go with that. :)

[surexit]

Ugh yes, efficient military pining Rat sounds AMAZING. And I kind of agree
that Marco has to make the first move, although I could see The Rat being
PUSHED PAST THE BOUNDS OF REASON by Marco doing something terribly sexy.

Although yes to this: Marco is perfect in his eyes and he doesn't feel
worthy of that, and also that's just not the kind of thing an aide de camp
is supposed to do.

[osprey_archer]

Clearly the answer is "Marco does an accidental striptease." Like, he is taking off his uniform after a battle, or something. And the Rat is like "BRB! Supplies to check! Must dash!"

[surexit]

YES, THIS. :D:D:D:D:D:D I THINK YOU SHOULD WRITE IT. :D

[osprey_archer]

I will add it to my list! Alongside the Vikings fic and the Eagle of the Ninth OT3. Why does my list of fics I need to write never get shorter?

[surexit]

oh God I know. :(

[genarti]

Yessssssssssss. Yes to ALL OF THIS OH MY GOD.

I encountered this book in... college, I think? Anyway, old enough to be fully aware of how ridiculously a product of its time and its author's id and romanticizing it is, and I cackled all the way through it and kind of love it anyway. Nothing makes any real-world sense and it's great.

(Not that I blame anyone, I should say, for being unable to get through the orientalism and classism and all that permeates it. But I was.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I AM GLAD THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE READING THIS RIDICULOUS BOOK. Because it is, as you say, completely ridiculous in every way - seriously, five hundred years? Like, at the beginning I thought maybe Marco's grandfather had been deposed when Marco's dad was young, which would make way more sense as a timeline, don't you think? But then they were like, "So we've been waiting five hundred years! Let us lay the fate of the kingdom of the slender thread of two pre-teen boys and a conspiracy that has...apparently been waiting five hundred years?" and I was all WHAT.

Also, Marco is ridiculously short-sighted. He is so bright about some things, but it never even occurs to him that the fact that he looks exactly like the lost prince might mean something? Seriously?

And yet you are right, it is so charmingly earnest. Basically I cannot help loving everything Frances Hodgson Burnett ever wrote, except perhaps Little Lord Fauntleroy, because Cedric is just so saintly that he makes Sara Crewe look like a little hellion, and that just can't be right.