50 Must-Read 50 Beta
← The Must-Read 50
Cover of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony HopeThe Prisoner of Zenda
Modern · Fiction, Classics, Young Adult

The Prisoner of Zenda

by Anthony Hope
2006 · 252 pages · Fiction
Reserve shelf
≈ 6 hours to read · about 2 weeks at 30 minutes a day

By the numbers

53.6Must-Read Score
  • Readers11 out of 100 · counts 42%
  • Critics30 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
  • Bestseller0 out of 100 · counts 14%
  • Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%

Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.

On our reserve shelf: it doesn't have enough readers yet for us to rank it alongside the Must-Read 50 pool. We check again every month, and it can still turn up in your 50 once you've read most of our ranked books.

Why it made the list

On the lists
Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

Reads as

Adventurous, Epic

How we rank

Already read it? Upload your Goodreads or StoryGraph history and get the 50 best books you haven't read, tuned to your taste.Get my 50

If you like this, read next

Cover of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. LewisThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeC. S. Lewis
Cover of Powers by Ursula K. Le GuinPowers
PowersUrsula K. Le Guin
Cover of The Hobbit by J. R. R. TolkienThe Hobbit
The HobbitJ. R. R. Tolkien
Cover of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty SmithA Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty Smith
Cover of Jane Steele by Lyndsay FayeJane Steele
Jane SteeleLyndsay Faye
Cover of Sophie's World by Jostein GaarderSophie's World
Sophie's WorldJostein Gaarder

Explore the best-of lists

All 36 best-of lists →