Inspired by my love for adventure novels, and the soon to be released League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I was wondering what do you imagine yourself to be.
I like to think of myself as a dashing young explorer, whose bronzed flesh is only marred by a Taihitian tattoo and a scar I received when a pygmy shaman attempted to remove my heart. I have of course bedded many a savage princess, it would have been rude not to, and yet somehow managed to avoid venerial disease. My exploration and adventure are not for glory but for the edification and entertainment of my countrymen.
I’d be the curly-haired, big-blue-eyed daughter of the O’Hara-esque slave owner, sitting on the porch sipping a mint julep while my Mammy fans me. I’d probably complain about my corset and make eyes at the handsome hero.
I’ll be the flashing eyed heiress who chafes at the ridiculous limitations on women. I’ll know 8 languages including Latin and Greek AND ride to hounds with ferocity and abandon.
However my hoydenish ways won’t keep me from having lots of fabulous dresses. I think my favorite is my claret colored velvet
Well, i’m a foreigner living in America, so i think i’d probably be one of those self-righteous Europeans who spent weeks or months travelling in the United States, and then went home and wrote a fat book about all the problems with American society.
Someone like Alexis de Tocqueville, Francis Trollope, or Charles Dickens perhaps.
Oh, it’s so tricky. I could be the insignificant-but-strangely-compelling governess with a penchant for wandering around the grounds of big houses looking mournful. But I also fancy being a London proto-feminist and wearing trousers and smoking cigars, like George Sand, while I entertain men of letters in my boudoir.
But I think I shall be a massively rich, mysteriously handsome decadent bachelor similar to the hero of A Rebours with a large collection of high-class porn in my library and plenty of beautiful Moroccan youths around. I would lounge around all day in a silk peignoir drinking Absinthe and eating Turkish delight while my beautiful youths acted out scenes from the Arabian Nights. Oh, and write the occasional Rubaiyat.
Alright, that’s maybe not a stereotype, but, damn, it would be cool.
I am a delicate aesthete, dying of consumption, while rolling out metaphysical claptrap and having illicit sex on the chaises longues of the young but frustrated wives of generous artistic patrons.
I’d be the fearless spinster lady*, who can travel anywhere from London society to the darkest jungles, armed only with her own sense of self-righteousness and a good, pointy-tipped umbrella.
*preferrably played by Maggie Smith in the film version.
The Erudite Victorian Scholar. With an inheritance, that enables me to continue my studies without monetary concerns. I might live simply, but my books would always be there.
Gorgeous thread, caffeine! I love 19th Century lit.
I’d be the shy, pretty servant girl on a big English country estate. My master is minor aristocracy - a baronet, or some such - and he and his mean, invalid wife have one daughter, a haughty beauty about my own age. The daughter has many suitors, but they naturally lose interest in her the moment I glide gracefully into the room.
My sweet little smile, my demure manner, and sparkling green eyes captivate the suitors as I serve tea and bicuits, but then I disappear back to the kitchen, leaving them all flustered.
Of course, I have no idea of my own appeal, and if anyone suggested it, I would never believe them. I’m coy and bashful, and have no ambitions beyond serving my employers well.
Similar to Miss Mapp, I would be the Modern Woman—the active but still stylish Gibson Girl or Suffragette type. A well-bred, self-sufficient, “strong-minded” woman who refuses to marry the local curate, but insists on moving into the city and taking a job, as a writer for a magazine or newspaper, much to the distress of her family.
I’d be the dashing explorer with the trim goatee and deep brown eyes. Armed with my trusty revolver in one hand and a map to King Solomon’s Mines in the other, I’d be fluent in many languages and feel at ease in many different cultures. I would of course have an array of thrilling stories with which to entertain and amuse at all the very best cocktail soirees…
Secretly, however, I’d be working for Her Majesties Government in an intelligence-gathering capacity, keeping a close eye on the devious machniations of those who we wish ill upon the Crown and our good nation.