This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in Harry Turtledove's novel The Wages of Sin. These characters play at best a peripheral role in the novel. Most were simply mentioned or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that impacted the plot minimally, if at all, and never appeared again. Some were not even given a name.
George Atkinson[]
George Atkinson reviewed books for the Fortnightly Examiner in London. In his review of A Voyage to the Island of the Temeculans, Atkinson dismissed the idea that Viola Williams was the actual author. Atkinson believed that the true author was a reformer or satirist male author who used a woman's name to make his ideas more palatable. Further, Atkinson argued that a woman could not have written of ocean travel with such verisimilitude, and that a woman could not have imagined such a "lewd" people as the Temeculans.[1]
Williams' publisher, Thomas Egerton, sent her a clipping of the review. He advised that it was normally bad form for authors to respond to such critiques except to point out errors in fact, and Atkinson's assumption that Williams wasn't real was such an error. After raging at Atkinson to her family, Williams wrote a scathing response. Her father also sent a brief note confirming Viola was indeed a woman.[2]
While Egerton did deliver the letter to the Fortnightly Examiner, Atkinson never actually responded.[3]
Alfred Richard Drinkwater[]
Alfred Richard Drinkwater was born in 1853 in Salisbury, England, to novelist Viola Williams and her husband Peter Drinkwater. He was named for his grandfathers Alfred Drinkwater and Richard Williams.
Charles V of England[]
Charles V was King of England at the close of the 18th century. Charles attempted to apply the Turkish method of smallpox inoculation to the Wasting. In the experiments which King Charles sponsored, people without the Wasting were inoculated with the blood of people with it. Two of those inoculated developed the Wasting symptoms immediately, and died within five years. Charles saw to it that they and their families received financial aid.[4]
See also[]
- King George III, the Monarch of the United Kingdom from 1760-1820 in OTL.
| Royal offices (Fictional Work) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Unknown; last known is Mary |
King of England (The Wages of Sin) Late 18th/early 19th centuries |
Succeeded by Unknown; next known is Michael III |
Earl of Carnarvon[]
The Earl of Carnarvon owned prime land in Andover, which he oversaw from Highclere Castle.[5]
Samuel Langhorne[]
Samuel Langhorne was an English author who wrote an account of his travels through the Father of Waters in North America. Viola Williams was fascinated by his writing, which helped give her the idea to write about fictional lands.[6]
Literary comment[]
Langhorne's name is a reference to Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, who wrote about travels on the Mississippi River.
Michael III of England[]
Michael III was King of England in the early 1850s.[7] During his reign, Viola Williams wrote and published her novel A Voyage to the Island of the Temeculans.[8]
See also[]
- Queen Victoria, the Monarch of the United Kingdom from 1837-1901 in OTL.
| Royal offices (Fictional Work) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Unknown; last known is Charles V |
King of England (The Wages of Sin) Incumbent in 1851 |
Succeeded by Incumbent at novel's end, 1853 |
Albert Wallace Russell[]
Albert Wallace Russell was a young English naturalist who journeyed around the Earth in the Royal Navy survey vessel HMS Basset in the late 1840s. Viola Williams was enthralled by Russell's descriptions of foreign lands, including icebergs and steaming jungles, and imagined a world where a lady explorer sailed on a ship called HMS Beagle.[9]
Literary comment[]
Russell is based on different aspects of 19th-century English biologists Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace.
Sanford and Merton[]
Sanford and Merton were the authors of a law book called On Torts. Peter Drinkwater and Walter Haywood found the hefty tome to be a great sleeping aid.[10]
Literary comment[]
The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–89) was a collection of moralistic children's stories by Thomas Day.
Tavisham[]
Tavisham was an English author considered to be genius on the order of Marlowe.[11]
References[]
- ↑ The Wages of Sin, pg. 304-307, loc.4509-4550, ebook.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid, pg. 309, loc. 4589.
- ↑ Ibid., pgs. 26-27, loc. 386-387.
- ↑ E.g., Chapter III. Pg. 45, hc.
- ↑ Ibid., Chapter IV. Pg. 56, HC.
- ↑ Ibid., pg. 33, loc. 474, ebook.
- ↑ See, e.g., pg. 191, loc. 2817.
- ↑ Ibid., chapter VII. Pgs. 96,, 102-103, HC.
- ↑ Ibid., Chapter X. Pgs. 151-152, HC.
- ↑ Ibid., Chapter XIII. Pg. 195, HC. Pg. 237, loc. 3510.
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