On Jun 7, 2009, at 2:27 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
OK, there *was* a bit of a "cheat" in this test. But only a bit of one.
Just a "bit" of a cheat, Barry? LOL... The person never existed! But it was your test, so you get to make up the rules. But I don't think that was playing fair. JMO.
The person whose birth data was given was the subject of a six-volume series of books by the person I consider the greatest writer of the English language in the 20th century. He was fictional. *However*, Francis Crawford, Earl of Lymond was also one of the most meticulously imagined and researched characters in the history of literature. His creator was Dorothy Dunnett, considered by many the greatest writer in Scottish history.
You probably have never heard of her,
I've heard of her.
other than in mentions of her by me on this forum. The reason is that she wrote historical fiction, which is not everyone's cuppa tea.
I love hysterical fiction...
But Dorothy wrote historical fiction with a precision and with a level of "due diligence" that most historians have never achieved. Dorothy never "fudged" anything having to do with the periods of time and the characters -- both real and imagined -- she wrote about. She would typically spend a minimum of a year researching the place and the time she was to write about, reading literally hundreds of books about it, going there personally to get the "vibe" of the place and its people, thoroughly immersing herself in the place and the time, and then starting to write. She wrote about Lymond for 15 years, in a six- volume set of novels known as The Lymond Chronicles. If anyone on earth can be said to have had a real existence, it is someone who has thus been focused on by a great writer so intently, and for so long.
Doesn't absolve you! Try again, this time with someone who actually existed. Sal
