The Lost Prince - a lost book

[igenlode]

I encountered this book in the school library (I think) as a child. I had no memory of who wrote it -- I never took any notice of authors -- nor of the title, and had never seen another copy, but when I encountered a plot summary in a list of 'Ruritanian romances' I recognised the characters at once.
Although I still think I was mixing it with another lost novel I read around the same period ,in which the protagonist was a refugee child sent to America post WWII whose real identity was that of the heir to a small Balkan kingdom whose father had been execrated as a Nazi collaborator; his name was Michael, and thus "Michael, Prince of <wherever>" becomes plain "Michael Prince" in his new life...

The Lost Prince, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Comments

[pedanther]

I read The Lost Prince around five years ago, and found it a mixed bag. The Michael Prince story is ringing a faint bell, in the way that I think I might have heard someone talking about it before, but I don't recall any additional details; I don't think I've ever read it myself.

[igenlode]

It sounds as if the second one is "The Chestry Oak", though I don't remember any of the horsy stuff; the bit that really made an impact on me was the loss of identity (and I'm afraid I saw what I remember being the protagonist's eventual Americanization in a 'wonderful folksy family' as less of an unmixed blessing than I think the emigrant author did!)

What I remembered vividly about "The Lost Prince" was the opening chapters about Marco's training to observe, to retain, and to betray nothing about what he knew or understood. I thought the drawing was part of that too, but apparently he adopts that of his own accord later on. It reminds me of Kim's undercover practice...