Where is Ruritania?

 

One might begin with answering another question, "What is Ruritania?". If one refers to the font of all knowledge online one receives the oversimplified and frankly unusable answer, "Ruritania is a fictional country in central Europe which forms the setting for three books by Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), The Heart of Princess Osra (1896), and Rupert of Hentzau (1898)".

Scrolling down the font of all knowledge online, one learns that those novels written by Anthony Hope spawned a literary genre known as Ruritanian Romance.

However, my favourite fact from the font of all knowledge online is that Ruritania features in a treaty between Indonesia and Australia which among other things, seeks to protect both from a potential but unknown enemy which, for the sake of the treaty, shall be named Ruritania. One cannot make up things like that. It is so absurd, entertaining and anti-rational that it actually doesn't matter whether such a treaty exists and why should be we believe that font of all knowledge anyway - just because it is free? Tish and Pish.

The questions "What is Ruritania?" and "Where is Ruritania?" have no simple answers. However, if one reads this blog on a regular basis, one may get to learn of its rich literary culture, its books and where to buy them. For even in Ruritania, one must earn a living, even if it is by minstrelsy.

Today's partial answer is: "Ruritania is a fictional land to the east of France and to the north of the Mediterranean and may contain provinces known by other names like Slovakia or Slovenia" though, it may be rather hard to think of them as different and also, why would want to know the detail? The Australians have already found a contradictory answer.

Happy Reading