Ay-leen the Peacemaker's Blog Posts Tagged 'QUAINT' (26)

QUAINT #26: He Yufeng from “The Gallant Maid” by “Yanbei Xianren” (a.k.a. Wen K’ang)

From the Chinese film version of "The Gallant Maid" titled "The Heroine"

He Yufeng was created by “Yanbei Xianren” and appeared in Ernü ying xiong zhuan (The Gallant Maid, 1851-1879). “Yanbei Xianren” was the pseudonym of Wen K’ang (1798- 1872), a local official in Anhui who came from a prominent Manchu family and was appointed imperial agent to Lhasa. The Gallant Maid is little-known outside of China but is popular…

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Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on July 13, 2011 at 3:45pm — No Comments

QUAINT #25 Pedro Arbuez d’Espila in "The Torture of Hope" by Villiers de l’Isle Adam

Inquisition Scene by Francisco Goya

Pedro Arbuez d’Espila was created by Villiers de l’Isle Adam and appeared in “The Torture of Hope” (Nouveaux Contes Cruels, 1888). “The Torture of Hope” is in many ways the quintessential conte cruel.

There was a real Pedro Arbuez d’Espila,… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on June 30, 2011 at 8:56pm — No Comments

QUAINT #24 Sufrah, Geomancer by Marcel Schwob

Illustration by Maxfield Parrish from The Arabian Nights, 1909

Sufrah was created by Marcel Schwob and appears in “Sufrah, Geomancer” (Vie Imaginaire, 1896). Schwob was also the creator of the King in the Golden Mask and Septima.

“Sufrah, Geomancer” is a sequel to the Arabian Nights. Moghrabi Sufrah is the magician who is Aladdin’s enemy in the Arabian Nights, but as “Sufrah, Geomancer” tells us, at the end of… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on June 18, 2011 at 7:27pm — No Comments

QUAINT #23: The Hellenes in "Gobi or Shamo: A Story of Three Songs" by G.G.A. Murray

Hellenes. The Hellenes were created by G.G.A. Murray and appeared in Gobi or Shamo: A Story of Three Songs (1889). George Gilbert Aime Murray (1866-1957) was a scholar of the Classics, a Fellow at Oxford, a playwright, a translator and popularizer of Hellenism, and a passionate liberal, campaigning tirelessly for the League of Nations.

Gobi or Shamo is the search for a lost colony of Greeks. Mavrones is a young English scholar who yearns… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on June 8, 2011 at 3:30pm — No Comments

QUAINT #22: “Les Xipéhuz” (The Shapes) by J.H. Rosny

Close up of Danae Stratou's "Desert Breath", which would be an apt illustration for this novelette. Image courtesy of io9. Click for link.

The Xipéhuz were created by “J. H. Rosny (aîné)” and appeared in “Les Xipéhuz” (“The Shapes,” L’Immolation, 1887). “J. H. Rosny (aîné)” was the pen name of Joseph Henri Honoré Böex (1866-1940), a French author. For many years after his death… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 31, 2011 at 9:11pm — No Comments

QUAINT #21 The Lost Race Story

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

The Lost Race Story. Stories in which unknown lands and races are discovered have been written for centuries, but in the last two decades of the 19th century a new type of story involving their discovery was created. The genre began with the 1885 publication of H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines and the 1887 publication of… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 31, 2011 at 9:00pm — No Comments

QUAINT #20: Roots of the Yellow Peril, Part 2

Note: Read Part 1 of this essay here.

Cartoon from The Wasp. Image courtesy of Berkeley University. Click for link.

Historical and cultural trends fed into the development during the 19th century of the Yellow Peril in the United States and Europe.… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 18, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #18 Roots of the Yellow Peril, Part I

Note: Jess Nevins' entry on the Yellow Peril was just too fascinating to be abridged, and so it will be posted in two parts. Follow along next Wednesday for Part II.

Film poster for The Face of Fu Manchu, who is one of the best known examples of the Yellow Peril stereotype. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Yellow Peril. Although the anti-Asian stereotype of the “Yellow… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 11, 2011 at 3:36pm — No Comments

QUAINT #17 Assowaum from "The Regulators of Arkansas" by Friedrich Gerstäcker

Image from the Gerstäcker Magazine from the Gerstäcker Museum, featuring his illustrated Westerns. Click for source (in German).

Assowaum was created by Friedrich Gerstäcker and appeared in Die Regulatoren in Arkansas ("The Regulators of Arkansas, 1845"). Gerstäcker (1816-1872) was a German who went to America in 1837. For six years he lived a checkered life in America, working as a… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 5, 2011 at 8:26pm — No Comments

QUAINT #16 "The Doomswoman" by Gertrude Atherton

Gertrude Atherton

The Doomswoman was created by Gertrude Atherton and appeared in “The Doomswoman” (Lippincott’s, September, 1892, as a novel, 1900). Atherton (1857-1948) was a notable American novelist and won the Légion d’Honneur for her hospital work during WW1. The Doomswoman is a historical romance of Old California.

The Doomswoman is set in the days when America… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on April 27, 2011 at 3:41pm — No Comments

QUAINT #16 Vathek: An Arabian Tale by William Beckford

Vathek was created by William Beckford and appeared in Vathek: An Arabian Tale from an Unpublished Manuscript, with Notes Critical and Explanatory (1786). Beckford (1760-1844) was one of English literature's real oddities. He lived a life of scandal and extravagance, both financial and sexual, and even in the 21st century his name retains the… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on April 20, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #15 Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert

Alfons Mucha's Salammbo (1896). Click for source.

Salammbô was created by Gustave Flaubert and appeared in Salammbô (1862). Flaubert (1821-1880) is one of the major writers of the 19th century. Although he is best known for Madame Bovary he has a respectable body of work, from short stories to dramas. His work is generally placed in the realist genre, but his skill as a stylist and technician is far above most of the other realists.… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on April 13, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #14 The Land of Agartha from “Mission de l’Inde en Europe, Mission de l’Europe en Asie” by Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves

One representation of Agartha, based on writings of Raymond W. Bernard, which assumed that Agartha existed inside the Earth with an opening entrance in the Himalayas. Click for source.

Agartha was created by “Saint Yves d'Alveydre” and appeared in Mission de l'Inde en Europe, Mission de l'Europe en Asie (Mission to India from Europe, Mission to Europe from Asia, 1885). Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves, Marquis d’Alveydre (1824-1909) was a…

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Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on April 4, 2011 at 9:54pm — No Comments

QUAINT #13 Hagar of the Pawnshop, The Gypsy Detective by Fergus Hume

Image courtesy of Phountains. Click for source.

Hagar Stanley was created by Fergus Hume and appeared in Hagar of the Pawnshop, The Gypsy Detective (1898). Hume (1859-1932) was born in England but grew up in New Zealand and moved to Australia to practice law.… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 30, 2011 at 5:18pm — No Comments

QUAINT #12 Lady Jaguar, the Robber Queen by William H. Manning

Vintage print of a Mexican cowgirl

Lady Jaguar was created by William H. Manning and appeared in “Lady Jaguar, the Robber Queen. A Romance of the Black Chaparral” (Beadle’s New York Dime Library v14 n176, 8 March 1882). Manning (1852-1929) was a Bostonian author of frontier stories and dime novels.

Doña Luisa Villena, a Mexican noblewoman, is drugged… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 24, 2011 at 9:01am — No Comments

QUAINT #11 Salome da Costa from “The Story of Salome” by Amelia B. Edwards

Amelia B. Edwards, author of "The Story of Salome". Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Salome da Costa was created by Amelia B. Edwards and appeared in… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 15, 2011 at 10:46pm — No Comments

QUAINT #10 Cahina from “A Royal Enchantress” by Leo Charles Dessar

Cahina was created by Leo Charles Dessar and appears in A Royal Enchantress (1900). Dessar (1847-1924) was a New York judge who was a part of the corrupt Tammany Hall political system.

There was a real Cahina (alternatively, “Kahena” or “Kahina”), a Queen of the Berbers in the 7th and 8th… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 9, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #9 Jigong ("Crazy Ji") from Jigong Drum Song & other tales

Sculpture of Ji Gong in Ling Yin Temple. Click for source.

Jigong appears in Wang Mengji’s Jigong zhuan (Jigong Drum-Song, c. 1859), Guo Guangrui's Pingyan Jigong zhuan (Storyteller's Jigong, 1898), and the thirty-eight sequels to Storyteller's Jigong which appeared in China (mostly Shanghai) between 1905 and 1926. No… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 2, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #8 Tokeah from the White Rose by “Charles Sealsfield” aka Karl Anton Postl

Tokeah, or The White Rose opening page

Tokeah was created by “Charles Sealsfield” and appeared in Tokeah; or the… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 23, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #7 “A Question of Reciprocity” by Robert Duncan Milne

The Almirante Latorre (Chilean Navy), as the HMS Canada by the time this photo was taken. This was one of Chile's first modern battleships, built in the early 1900s. Click for source.

“A Question of Reciprocity” was a serial written by Robert Duncan Milne and appeared in San Francisco Examiner, November 15-22, 1891. Milne (1844-1899) was a San Franciscan journalist and writer whose alcoholism first destroyed his… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 16, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments