ABSTRACT
One of the most fascinating characters in the Irishman Michael J. Quin’s account of his journey on the Danube—a book that enjoyed considerable success in the mid-1830s—is the “Moldavian adventurer,” already mentioned in Chapter 2. His appearance immediately makes him stand out on board the Austrian steamboat. He wore a tattered blue frock coat, “a pair of old black stuff trousers patched at the knees in a most unworkmanlike manner […], together with a ghost of a black waistcoat, a cast-off military cap, and wretched boots.” “He had not shaved for three weeks—he certainly could not have washed either his hands or his face for three months, and a comb had probably not passed through his hair for three years,” continues Quin’s sarcastic portrait of the man, completing the portrait with “a very red nose, on the top of which was perched a pair of spectacles.” 1
