Historical crushes?

Maxx · Feb 6, 2013

benbenberi said:
My main crush has long been the Grand Condé.

So that's who that is!

There is some evidence that I once had a thing about Jean Stafford:

Maxx · Feb 6, 2013

schizoidwoman said:
Feels so good to finally share little secret that the world!

Like my ill-advised affection for Patricia Highsmith:

Rachel Udin · Feb 7, 2013

Nikola Tesla. Good looking, creative and unlike many scientists he worked backwards. He got the idea of what he wanted science to do and then went about proving it could be done. I don't mind his pigeon obsession. I do admit, though the no touching allowed would probably be hard to deal with. But still....

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Feb 7, 2013

Y'all might want to review the FAQ on image posting... make sure you haven't hotlinked any images and don't post HUGE images. Folks on dialups suffer for it. Danke.

Carry on.

Tepelus · Feb 7, 2013

Rachel Udin said:
Nikola Tesla. Good looking, creative and unlike many scientists he worked backwards. He got the idea of what he wanted science to do and then went about proving it could be done. I don't mind his pigeon obsession. I do admit, though the no touching allowed would probably be hard to deal with. But still....

The creator of The Oatmeal I think must have a man crush on Tesla, he's absolutely stoked over this guy (and loathes Edison) and is raising money to buy Tesla's laboratory in New York and turn it into a museum.

Lyra Jean · Feb 7, 2013

Pompey the Great. Just learning about him in my Roman History class in college. He seemed like a really great person.

twasadark · Feb 9, 2013

Rachel Udin said:
Nikola Tesla. Good looking, creative and unlike many scientists he worked backwards. He got the idea of what he wanted science to do and then went about proving it could be done. I don't mind his pigeon obsession. I do admit, though the no touching allowed would probably be hard to deal with. But still....

My chemical engineer husband insisted that we stay in Nikola Tesla's last hotel room in NYC when we were there in July (He lived in hotels, apparently). It was expensive and tiny and had pictures of him with huge electrical sparks all around him.

twasadark · Feb 9, 2013

Scipio Africanus, the noble Roman general who defeated Hannibal. He was dashing and passionate and devoted and I am determined, one day when I am very old, to publish a novel about him. *happy sigh*

MumblingSage · Feb 11, 2013

The Chevalier Saint-Georges. Fencer, composer, a man who, as the son of his aristocratic father's slave, had to overcome a lot of prejudice in 18th century France but also developed an acute social conscience. Also, if his contemporary portrait is to be trusted (and he himself claimed it was frighteningly accurate), he was a dreamboat. His music is delightful and I've always had a weakness for violinists. And if I had a time machine, the first place I'd go to is his duel with the transvestite Chevalier d'Eon.

I also have such a soft spot for British philosopher John Stuart Mill that I took his surname as my penname. Mainly for reasons of his liberalism and efforts to help women win the vote.

SpinningWheel · Feb 26, 2013

Mine was Thomas More for a very long time but Hilary Mantel cured me of that one.
(I haven't gone quite as far as falling in love with Thomas Cromwell instead, though I know quite a few people who have.)

I used to a have a picture of More on my wall when my friends had Duran Duran and Rick Astley.

clee984 · Feb 26, 2013

Maxx said:
Like my ill-advised affection for Patricia Highsmith:

Yeah, I have a bit of a thing for young Patricia Highsmith too! Although you do wonder about a mind that was able to create Tom Ripley.

and I'd never admit this to anyone I know, but a few years ago I read a book about Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and I developed a bit of a "crush" on her, because she was such a tragic character.

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Women in old photos always look so sad.....

gothicangel · Feb 26, 2013

Antinous. I'm currently writing a research proposal for an MPhil on The Cult of Antinous, and would love to get past the cold marble features, and find the flesh and blood youth. The statues are so melancholic and masculine, I want to strip away the centuries of romanticism.

Maxx · Feb 26, 2013

clee984 said:
Yeah, I have a bit of a thing for young Patricia Highsmith too!

She seems to have been a challenge to photographers for many decades:

Freddie's Girl · Mar 23, 2013

Define historical: how recent can it be?

1. Napoleon
2. Fletcher Christian
3. Francois Cevert
4. Freddie Mercury

There are many characters I'm fascinated by, but wouldn't say I have a crush on.

VioletK · Mar 31, 2013

What a great topic

MmeGuillotine said:
I've had the most immense crush on the French Revolutionary Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just since childhood. I used to carry a picture of him around in my purse and even considered changing my surname to his. I know he was a DREADFUL person but I can't help it, I'm hooked.

I also love Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Oscar Wilde, Henry V and Lucile Desmoulins. Oh sigh.

I have a crush on a "dreadful" person too- Vlad III Dracula! Although the more I learn about him, the less I think he was truly evil. He was really no worse than some other contemporaries of his time, he just got a back rap from his enemies!

Tepelus · Mar 31, 2013

VioletK said:
I have a crush on a "dreadful" person too- Vlad III Dracula! Although the more I learn about him, the less I think he was truly evil. He was really no worse than some other contemporaries of his time, he just got a back rap from his enemies!

Hmm. I don't have a crush on him, but I have perhaps an unhealthy interest in him since I discovered him twenty years ago.

bulldoggerel · Apr 20, 2013

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know

Harry Grew Crosby!
Every bone was bad. Apparently he made lists and suicide pacts. My kinda guy.

JustSarah · Apr 20, 2013

I think I have three historical favorites. Joan Of Arc, Charlotte Corday, and Sophie Scholle.

Vlad Dracula was one of my favorite men as well.

BradyH1861 · Apr 21, 2013

I always thought a young Varina Davis was attractive in a historical way.

Livilla · Apr 21, 2013

DianeL said:
As a kid I had a crush on the portrait of Mozart in our grade school music room (not a good likeness of the historical composer, but striking and attractive enough). I can't find the image, but it made him look a bit rockstar - more pretty and wild than actual portraits of Mozart reveal him to have looked. And, when it came around - yes, I did love the film "Amadeus" for embodying that.

I wouldn't say I have a CRUSH on Mozart, but for some reason I've been collecting books about him ever since I was a teenager. He was a fascinating person and had a fascinating life.

MmeGuillotine said:
I've had the most immense crush on the French Revolutionary Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just since childhood. I used to carry a picture of him around in my purse and even considered changing my surname to his. I know he was a DREADFUL person but I can't help it, I'm hooked.

I also love Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Oscar Wilde, Henry V and Lucile Desmoulins. Oh sigh.

I so know what you mean. HUGE crush on Robespierre here, since I was 16, and I'd fight you for Oscar W. any day. But perhaps we can just let Oscar have fun with his boys and hang out with Maximilien and Louis-Antoine.

Zelenka said:
Lately, I had a little thing for Jan Mydlař, who probably no one has heard of. Sixteenth / seventeenth century executioner from Chrudim in Bohemia, later became master executioner of the Old Town in Prague, after signing up to become executioner (a job you were then stuck with, as the Bohemian executioners were considered outcasts) in order to try and save his girlfriend Dorota from execution. He didn't succeed, but he tried, and was supposedly an unusually honest and decent bloke for someone in his position. And he was rich.

I also have a bit of a thing for Vílem of Rožmberk, who was a courtier of Rudolf II, again sixteenth into early seventeenth century, and an alchemist, but I don't have much of a reason for that one.

*raises hand* Praguer here. Both those guys were very intriguing characters, I think I understand what you see in them.

angeliz2k · Apr 21, 2013

In an interview, Doris Kearns Goodwin admitted to thinking Abraham Lincoln was sexy. Or at least, that was the implication. I think she said that when he was a bit younger, he was ruggedly handsome . . . . To each her own.

As for me, Camille Desmoulins is awfully crush-worthy for a dead guy. I think I can thank Hilary Mantel for making me think that.

sohalt · Apr 21, 2013

Saint-Just? Moi, I'm more of a Camille Desmoulins kind of girl. I guess you have to pick one (the Jagger/Lennon divide of that particular period?)

Most recent discovery:

Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and shag a nun.

How are there not a million movies about her?

Talking about, why isn't there a movie about her yet:

Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville - one of the longest serving and most effective special agents working for Britain in WWII. Survived several suicide missions into nazi territory only to be cowardly murdered in peace time by a rejected suitor.

Maxx · Apr 22, 2013

sohalt said:
Saint-Just?

Which reminds me of the emergence of the "Rescue Opera" genre:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_opera

And Down with the beautiful wolf:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Louvet_de_Couvrai

Urnathok · Apr 24, 2013

Boudicca you magnificent untamed demagogue, our love could never be.

Phaeal · Apr 24, 2013

twasadark said:
Scipio Africanus, the noble Roman general who defeated Hannibal. He was dashing and passionate and devoted and I am determined, one day when I am very old, to publish a novel about him. *happy sigh*

Me too, me too! I've named one of my SF characters after him.

Hilary Mantel has me well on the way to being in love with Thomas Cromwell, though I must say that Thomas More looks better in his Holbein portrait.

Then there's my dear Roger Williams. Gotta love a guy who will let you into his colony no matter what and then pepper you with pamphlets about why you're wrong.

Historical crushes?

Got the hang of it, here

Got the hang of it, here

Hand? What hand?

And so...

Two years old now.

Inarticulate Herb

Bearded and serious

Toughen up.

Got the hang of it, here

And so...

Let Them Eat Crow

Hold Fast.

never mind the shorty

Got the hang of it, here

Boojum Tamer

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.