Résumé
Résumé de Le Prince orgueilleux
Go deeper: the whole of Le Prince orgueilleux
About 3 h 20 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love old legends retold in rich color, romances set in sunlit medieval Sicily, and tales of pride brought low. Anyone who enjoys brave heroines, swords and bells will feel at home.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What would you do if everyone you knew, from your closest friend to the priest at the altar, looked straight at you and saw a stranger? In The Proud Prince, a handsome and cruel young king stands on a Sicilian mountaintop, sure that no power in heaven can touch him. Within the hour he wears the crooked body of a hunchbacked jester, and a double sits in his place.
Justin H. McCarthy wrote this romance of medieval Sicily, retelling the old legend of the proud king humbled by an angel.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A hilltop girl meets a bitter court foolFree
- 2An executioner hides his daughter from the world
- 3The king climbs the hill and plays a hunter
- 4Revenge ends with a sword of light
- 5No one knows the king in his new shape
- 6A girl with a knife teaches a fool to be brave
- 7A small church by the sea becomes a home
- 8The bell rings and the law is turned on her
- 9Pride brings the king down and humility lifts him
- 10A pure heart, pity and the way the tale is told
Point clé 1 sur 10
A hilltop girl meets a bitter court fool
The story opens on a hot spring morning on a hill above Syracuse. Perpetua, eighteen years old, stands among wildflowers and looks down the white road to a city she has never entered. She is the daughter of Theron, the executioner, and she lives in a hut built inside an old Saracen mosque.
She cares for her father's great two-handed sword and sings the Song of the Sword as she sharpens it. No blood has ever touched the blade. She is proud of justice and has never met cruelty.
Then a hunchbacked jester drags himself up the hill, cursing the heat. He is Diogenes, the court fool, and he has run away from the new king. From him she learns that Robert the Good is dead and that his son, whom the fool calls Robert the Bad, wears the crown. When the fool tries to frighten her with talk of vice, she answers with pity. She keeps to herself that she met a gracious hunter in the woods a week ago.
Pity, in this book, is a form of strength.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Le Prince orgueilleux
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Questions about Le Prince orgueilleux
What is The Proud Prince about?
It follows Robert, a vain and cruel young king of Sicily, who is punished by an archangel and made to live in the body of a jester. He learns humility through the kindness of Perpetua, an executioner's daughter.
Who is Perpetua in The Proud Prince?
Perpetua is the eighteen-year-old daughter of Theron, the executioner of Syracuse. She has lived on a mountaintop all her life, cares for her father's sword, and meets every danger with calm faith and fearless honesty.
Is The Proud Prince based on a true story or a legend?
It is fiction, a romance set in medieval Sicily that draws on the old legend of the proud king humbled by an angel. The Norman church, the Syracuse setting and the court of Naples give it a historical feel.
What does the hymn Magnificat mean in The Proud Prince?
The Magnificat is the Latin hymn sung in the church while Robert rages. Its line about the mighty cast down and the humble lifted up is the book's main message, and it returns at important moments.
Is The Proud Prince easy to read?
The story is told in short scenes with lively dialogue, clear villains and heroes, and plenty of action, from a hilltop meeting to a trial by combat. Songs and rich descriptions add color without hiding the plot.
Cite this edition
McCarthy, Justin Huntly. The Proud Prince. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-proud-prince.
McCarthy, J. H. (2026). The proud prince. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-proud-prince (Original work published 1903)
McCarthy, Justin Huntly. The Proud Prince. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-proud-prince.
@book{mccarthy2026proud,
author = {McCarthy, Justin Huntly},
title = {The Proud Prince},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-proud-prince},
note = {First published 1903}
}
