the worthless word for the day is: graustark
1) an imaginary place of high romance
2) a highly romantic piece of writing
(from a 1901 bestseller, Graustark)
Ellen Kushner is a throwback. I think she's doing it on purpose, in fact. Her first novel, Swordspoint, was a marvelous Graustark novel, in that wonderful tradition of nonmagical imaginary kingdoms that was almost buried in the avalanche of Tolkien-ish middle-earths in the last two decades. - Orson Scott Card