Ruritania

Ruritania is a fictional country, originally located in Central Europe as a setting for novels by Anthony Hope, such as The Prisoner of Zenda (1894).^[1]^[2] Nowadays, the term connotes a quaint minor European country or is used as a placeholder name for an unspecified country in academic discussions. The first known use of the demonym Ruritanian was in 1896.^[3]

Hope's setting lent its name to a literary genre involving fictional countries, which is known as Ruritanian romance.

^ Manguel, Alberto; Guadalupi, Gianni (1987). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 336–337. ISBN 0156260549.
^ Daly, Nicholas (2020). Ruritania: A Cultural History, from the Prisoner of Zenda to the Princess Diaries. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198836605.^{[page needed]}
^ "Definition of RURITANIAN". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2020-12-06.