Other Definitions
ruritania (dict)
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RuritaniaRuritania was an imaginary kingdom, in Central Europe, in three novels by the writer Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), The Heart of Princess Osra (1896), and Rupert of Hentzau (1898). Ruritania is depicted as a German-speaking, Roman Catholic country under an absolute monarchy, with deep social divisions reflected in the conflicts of the first novel. Geographically, it is located between Saxony and Bohemia—the author indicates that the capital city, Strelsau, lies on the railway line between Dresden and Prague. Hope's novels give the impression that Ruritania would not be a pleasant place to inhabit, with its feckless, autocratic king, police surveillance of suspected subversives, and society deeply polarised between rich and poor. However, stage and film versions sanitised and romanticised the setting, ignoring Hope's references to the poverty and political unrest in Strelsau's Old City, and depicted instead a picturesque fairy-tale kingdom. Consequently, "Ruritania" became a generic term for any imaginary kingdom used as the setting for romance, intrigue and adventure. In Evelyn Waugh's 1930 comedic novel Vile Bodies, one character is a deposed and maudlin "ex-King of Ruritania." "Ruritania" is also the name of a hypothetical country used by members of the Austrian School of economics to teach economic concepts. Some well known economists who have adopted this tradition are Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt and Walter Block
Ruritania is also a Jugendstil fraktur typeface, by Australian designer Paul J. Lloyd.
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