East of the Setting Sun: A Tale of Graustark

350 pp. "There were several outsiders in the club on this particular night. Not outsiders in the strictest sense of the term; merely members who did not belong to the little coterie of old-timers who went there night after night and assumed, by virtue of regular and faithful attendance, the right to occupy the most prominent and at the same time the most comfortable couches and chairs in the lounge-that is to say, the cushioned hollow-square fronting the massive fireplace, and on this particular night, it may be added, a seat close to the roaring fire was more to be coveted than usual, for it was not only bitterly cold outside but inside as well. Indeed there was something distinctly and unpleasantly suggestive of an icehouse about the interior of the club-except, of course, in and about that hallowed region afore-designated as a hollow square." "Graustark is a fictional country in Eastern Europe used as a setting for several novels by George Barr McCutcheon. Graustark's neighbors, which also figure in the stories, are Axphain to the north and Dawsbergen to the south. Graustark is described as a mountainous country with an area of approximately 800 square miles (2,100 km2); there is at least one reference in the books that fixes its location as somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains near Romania. On the other hand, in Graustark it is said to be threatened with reduction to being only 25 miles wide by 150 miles long (3750 square miles) and in Truxton King is said to provide a shorter rail route to Russian territories in or near Afghanistan. Graustark's capital city, Edelweiss, is accessible by train from Vienna. The mountain town of Ganlook is near the border with Axphain, Graustark's traditional enemy. Graustark is ruled as a principality and its unit of currency is called the gavvo, worth $1.40 at the time of the novel Truxton King. Graustarkian is the native language of the people, although American English is universally spoken among the educated classes and is the everyday language of the royal family and court." "George Barr McCutcheon (July 26, 1866-1928) was an American popular novelist and playwright. His best known works include the series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional East European country, Brewster's Millions, a play and several films."