Notes to League of Extr. Gentlemen hardcover
Jess Nevins
Page 2. SIMPLICISSIMUS was a satirical German magazine, similar
to PUNCH, founded in 1896 and which ran for almost 40 years. It was
graphic-heavy and liberal in tone, so presumably this sort of
illustration
might have appeared there. You can find out more about
SIMPLICISSIMUS at this web site:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTsimplic.htm
The Bloomsbury Group, in real life, was a collection of writers and
critics, including Clive Bell, Vanessa Bell, E.M. Forster, Roger Fry,
Duncan Grant, John Maynard Keynes, Desmond MacCarthy, Thoby
Stephen, Adrian Stephen, Lytton Strachey, Saxon Sydney-Turner,
Leonard Woolf, and Virginia Woolf. They were (and remain) notable
for their efforts to challenge the social and artistic norms of the
Victorian era. Although none of the League would be at ease in their
company, I think, the League members are all social outcasts of one
kind or another and are in their own way a Bloomsbury Group of their
own–hence the title the Bloomsbury Quintet.
First page after the end of issue #6. The BOYS’ FIRST-RATE
POCKET LIBRARY was an actual British boys’ magazine, published
by Aldine and beginning publication in 1890. They published stories
very much like “Allan and the Sundered Veil.”
Second page. I assume that THE RIVAL, Henry T. Johnson, and
“Found Guilty” were all real–the advertisement certainly looks
legitimate to me–but I’ve been unable to confirm the existence of any of
them.
Basil Hallward’s Painting by Numbers. This is a reference to Oscar
Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY (1890) and to Basil
Hallward, the character in the novel who painted Grey’s portrait and
who was eventually murdered by him.
Basil Hallward’s Painting by Numbers, later version. The differing
condition of the painting here is a reference to what Dorian Grey’s
portrait looked like after his years of depravity and decadence. “The
American Richard Pickman” is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s story,
“Pickman’s Model” (1926), and its subject, Richard Upton Pickman,
the most brilliant and disturbed of Boston’s painters and a man whose
portraits of ghouls are a little too close to reality for comfort.
“Unorthodox Churchyard Picnic Scene-by-numbers” is a reference to
Pickman’s most horrible painting, of a corpse-gnawing ghoul. The
“Caligari Self-Assembly Cabinet” is a reference to the classic German
impressionist film, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920), about
a murderous somnambulist and the man controlling him.
Allan has mislaid his Taduki. The locations shown on the maze are as
follows, moving left to right and top to bottom:
Utopia, from Thomas More’s UTOPIA (1516), the imaginary island in
which society is perfect and there are no woes.
King Solomon’s Mines, from H. Rider Haggard’s 1885 book of the
same name. The mines are where King Solomon hid his treasure.
Limehouse, based on the London borough of the same name and
appearing in (among other places) Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels
and Thomas Burke’s Limehouse stories. (As an aside, Jessica Amanda
Salmonson has promised, on the web site of her wonderful antiquarian
bookstore Violet Books, at http://www.violetbooks.com, that
forthcoming soon will be THE GOLDEN GONG & OTHER NIGHT-
PIECES & UNPLEASANTRIES, the complete collection of Thomas
Burke’s weird tales of Limehouse. These stories are splendid and have
been out of print for decades, so y’all need to go out and buy this book
as soon as it’s available)
Zenda, from Anthony Hope’s THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1894).
Zenda is the name of the castle in Ruritania, an imaginary European
kingdom where Rudolf Rassendyll is forced to impersonate King
Rudolf in order to win the King’s freedom.
Lilliput, from Jonathan Swift’s GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (1726).
Lilliput is a country of very small people.
Morlocks, from H.G. Wells’ THE TIME MACHINE (1895). The
Morlocks are the troglodytic natives of a dystopic future.
Flatland, from E.A. Abbott’s FLATLAND (1884). Flatland is a two-
dimensional (literally) kingdom, a place with only length and width, but
no height.
Vrilya, from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s THE COMING RACE (1871).
Vrilya (or “Vril-ya,” both spellings appear in the novel) is the name of
both an advanced race and the underground kingdom (located beneath
Newcastle) which they inhabit.
Hollow Earth, from...well, many sources. Hollow Earth stories were
quite popular during the Victorian era following Captain John Cleve
Symmes’ appeal to Congress, in 1823, for funds to explore the center
of the Earth and Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Narrative of Arthur
Gordon Pym” (1838).
Curupuri, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD
(1912). Curupuri is, to quote Doyle, “the spirit of the woods, something
terrible, something malevolent, something to be avoided. None can
describe its shape or nature, but it is a word of terror along the
Amazon.”
Caves of Kor, from H. Rider Haggard’s SHE (1886). The caves of
Kor are where Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, live, Kor being
the capital of a long-dead civilization and the caves beneath it where
the
Flame of Immortality burns.
Wonderland, from Lewis Carroll’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND
(1865). (I surely don’t need to describe Wonderland, do I?)
Back Cover:
The mechanical elephant may be the Steam House. It first appeared in
Jules Verne's THE STEAM HOUSE (1881). It was a steam-powered
vehicle that Banks the Engineer built so that he and his friend Colonel
Edward Munro could travel around India in safety and comfort. (For
more information on the Steam House see its entry on my Victoriana
http://ratmmjess.tripod.com/vics.html site)
"Sapathwa" is better known as the penny dreadful villain The Blue
Dwarf. The Dwarf was a penny dreadful character who first appeared
in 1861 and was the companion-in-arms (and crime) of Dick Turpin,
the archetypal heroic bandit and highwayman of the penny dreadfuls.
The Dwarf was a nobleman in disguise whose portrayal varied from
being an evil influence over Dick to a faithful friend to him.
Jack Harkaway was the staggeringly popular creation of Bracebridge
Hemyng and first appeared in JACK HARKAWAY'S
SCHOOLDAYS (1871, not coincidentally the date shown in the
portrait here). Harkaway is perhaps the archetypal heroic British
schoolboy, resolute, two-fisted, given to adventuring around the world
and always fighting for truth, justice, and the way of Empire. His
adventures (and those of his children) appeared for over 30 years. (For
somewhat more information on Harkaway see his entry on my
Victoriana http://members.tripod.com/ratmmjess/vichk.html site)
I don't know who the portrait in the upper right hand corner is
supposed to be of, although I've seen a photo of H.G. Wells that
somewhat resembles this painting.
Sir Francis Varney is the subject of James Malcolm Rymer's VARNEY
THE VAMPYRE: OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD, first published in
the mid-1840s and both the first vampire novel in English and the most
famous pre-DRACULA novel of vampires. You can read the e-text
here http://netvampyric.8m.com/varney/index.html if you like, although
it's hard slogging. Sir Francis Varney had originally been a supporter
of
the Crown during Cromwell's era but had struck his son in a moment of
passion, leading to (literally) heavenly retribution and his
transformation
into a vampire.
I don't know who the portrait next to Varney's is meant to represent,
but this gentleman's profile somewhat matches that of Jules Verne.
Basil Hallward, who signed the painting of the Nautilus, is covered
above.
Dorian Grey is the young dandy of Wilde's THE PICTURE OF
DORIAN GREY whose decadence and depravity are reflected in
Hallward's painting, rather than on Grey's body.
"unt Allamistakeo" is actually the mummified body of Count
Allamistakeo, from Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words With A Mummy"
(1845). Count Allamistakeo is revived via electricity (he was only in a
coma) and shows a remarkable vitality, sophistication, and loquacity.
"Ayesha," on the headless and handless statue, is a reference to She
Who Must Be Obeyed, the immortal goddess of H. Rider Haggard's
SHE books.
I confess I do not know who the boy is in the mirror, looking askance
at Quatermain.
jess