History Literature / UncleCorneliusHisStory

-->'''Uncle Cornelius:''' What if the direful creatures, whose report lingers in these tales, should have an origin far older still? What if they were the remnants of a vanishing period of the Earth's hsitory long antecedent to the birth of mastodon and iguanodon; a stage, namely, when the world, as we call it, had not yet become quite visible, was not yet invisible; and when, as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions, Gorgons and Chimerae dire, might be expected to gloom out occasionally from the awful Fauna of an ever-generating world upon that one which was being born of it ...

* ClassyCane: Cornelius carries a knobbed walking-stick, which he may well need as a prop, given that he is somewhere in his sixties in UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain. Given that he's also an occult adventurer, it may well [[SimpleStaff have]] [[SwordCane other]] [[MagicStaff purposes]].

Published in 1869 by [=George MacDonald=], this is the story of Uncle Cornelius, who is saved from making a bad match by witnessing a ghost -- possibly of the past, possibly of the future.

-->Uncle Cornelius: What if the direful creatures, whose report lingers in these tales, should have an origin far older still? What if they were the remnants of a vanishing period of the Earth's hsitory long antecedent to the birth of mastodon and iguanodon; a stage, namely, when the world, as we call it, had not yet become quite visible, was not yet invisible; and when, as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions, Gorgons and Chimerae dire, might be expected to gloom out occasionally from the awful Fauna of an ever-generating world upon that one which was being born of it ...

* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Uncle Cornelius wears "spectacles of the most delicate hair-steel, iwt the largest pebble-eyes that ever were seen."

* NerdsAreSexy: Seems to be one of the main reasons for the romance between Cornelius and Letitia; they are both highly intelligent.

* RegencyEngland: The NestedStory takes place in 1820, when old Uncle Cornelius was a young man.

* AGentlemanAndAScholar: Uncle Cornelius is well-to-do, polite, and highly erudite.

-->Uncle Cornelius: What if the direful creatures, whose report lingers in these tales, should have an origin far older still? What if they were the remnants of a vanishing period of the Earth's hsitory long antecedent to the birth of mastodon and iguanodon; a stage, namely, when the world, as we call it, had not yet become quite visible, was not yet so far finished as to part from the invisible world that was its mother,and which, on its part, had not yet become quite invisible; and when, as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions, Gorgons and Chimerae dire, might be expected to gloom out occasionally from the awful Fauna of an ever-generating world upon that one which was being born of it ...

-->Uncle Cornelius: What if the direful creatures, whose report lingers in these tales, should have an origin far older still? What if they were the remnants of a vanishing period of the Earth's hsitory long antecedent to the birth of mastodon and iguanodon; a stage, namely, when the world, as we call it, had not yet become quite visible, was not yet so far finished as to part from the invisible world that was its mother,and which, on its part, had not yet become quite invisible; and when, as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions, Gorgons and Chimerae dire, might be expected to gloom out occasionally from the awful Fauna of an ever-generating world upon that one which was being born of it ...

Published in 1869 by [=George MacDonald=], this is the story of Uncle Cornelius, who is saved from making a bad match by witnessing a ghost -- whether of the past, or of the future.

-->Uncle Cornelius: What if the direful creatures, whose report lingers in these tales, should have an origin far older still? What if they were the remnants of a vanishing period of the Earth's hsitory long antecedent to the birth of mastodon and iguanodon; a stage, namely, when the world, as we call it, had not yet become quite visible, was not yet so far finished as to part from the invisible world that was its mother,and which, on its part, had not yet become quite invisible; and when, as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions, Gorgons and Chimerae dire, might be expected to gloom out occasionally from the awful Fauna of an ever-generating world upon that one which was being born of it ...
* ScienceMarchesOn: Cornelius' concept of Natural History is fairly primitive by modern standards -- as one might expect, given that this story was written only ''ten years'' after Darwin published his ''Origin of Species''.