Older Than Radio

Tropes first documented between the invention of the steam engine (1698) and the radio (1890s, if one presumes Everyone Knows Morse).

This is the classic age of English literature, and of the penny dreadful: Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, but also Frankenstein, Varney the Vampire and Sherlock Holmes. It is also the last time when books dominated popular entertainment, although many of these 'books' were originally serialised in magazines, such as The Strand, Blackwood's etc.

This is also when many compilations of legends and fairy tales were collected and recorded, such as 19th-century Finnish work The Kalevala, the Child Ballads, The Brothers Grimm books, and most European Fairy Tale collections.


 * Acid Reflux Nightmare: A Christmas Carol, 1843
 * Adventurer Archaeologist: 19th-century gothic horror
 * Affably Evil: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 1859
 * Alien Invasion: The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells, 1898
 * Aliens Are Bastards: The War of the Worlds 1898
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Gilbert and Sullivan
 * Alone with the Psycho: Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, 1860-1861
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: The sympathetic reading of Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
 * Ancient Astronauts: Edison's Conquest of Mars, 1898
 * Animal Stereotypes: Br'er Rabbit stories
 * Arch Enemy: Sherlock Holmes if not older.
 * Asshole Victim: Sherlock Holmes had a couple of these.
 * Asteroid Miners: Edison's Conquest of Mars, Garrett P. Serviss, 1898
 * Author Vocabulary Calendar: Bram Stoker uses the word "voluptuous" a lot in Dracula, 1897.
 * Beautiful All Along: The Ugly Duckling (1843) and The Rough-Faced Girl (at least 1884).
 * Become a Real Boy: The Adventures of Pinocchio, early 1880s
 * Black Best Friend: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1876
 * Blind and the Beast: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
 * Boxing Kangaroo: An actual practice of the time.
 * Brain Fever: Frankenstein
 * Brand Name Takeover: Aspirin, Kerosene, Corn Flakes, and Zippers
 * Briar Patching: West African Anansi stories, known in North America as Uncle Remus.
 * Busman's Holiday: Sherlock Holmes, 1893
 * Cat Scare: God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop by Robert Southey, 1799
 * Chained to a Railway: "Captain Tom's Fright", 1867
 * Coat, Hat, Mask: The Invisible Man, 1897
 * Color Me Black: The Inky Boys from Der Struwwelpeter, 1845.
 * The Convenient Store Next Door: The Sherlock Holmes story The Red-Headed League, 1891
 * Conveyor Belt O' Doom: Melodrama Blue Jeans, 1890
 * Creepy Child: The Turn of the Screw, 1898
 * Criminal Mind Games: Sherlock Holmes
 * Death Faked for You: Four fairy tales recorded by The Brothers Grimm, including "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs".
 * Death Ray: The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells, 1898
 * Delivery Stork: Victorian English folklore
 * Depth Deception: "The Sphinx", short story by Edgar Allan Poe, 1850
 * Domed Hometown: Three Hundred Years Hence by William Delisle Hay, 1881
 * Doom It Yourself: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, 1889
 * Down to the Last Play: "Casey at the Bat", Ernest Thayer, 1888
 * Dramatic Spotlight: Started with the use of 'limelight' (created by directing an oxy-hydrogen flame at calcium oxide) at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in 1837.
 * Dying Dream: Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", 1890
 * Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion: The War of the Worlds 1898, using the "planet takes care of the invaders by itself" variant.
 * Elves Versus Dwarves: The Time Machine, 1895
 * Emergency Impersonation: The Prisoner of Zenda 1894
 * Epunymous Title: The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895
 * Evil Laugh: Faust, Charles Gounod, 1859
 * Evilutionary Biologist: The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1896
 * Explosive Overclocking: The steam engine, bringing this to the brink of Older Than Steam without actually crossing it.
 * Facing the Bullets One-Liner: A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, 1859
 * Fair Play Whodunnit: The Sherlock Holmes story "The Red Headed League", 1891
 * Fish Out of Temporal Water: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain, 1889
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Three Musketeers, 1844
 * Frankenstein's Monster: The Trope Namer
 * Freaky Friday Flip: F. Anstey's Vice Versa 1882
 * Freaky Is Cool: Frankenstein
 * Gambit Roulette: The Count of Monte Cristo, 1844
 * Giving Radio to the Romans: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain 1889
 * Great White Hunter: Allan Quatermain in King Solomons Mines, 1885
 * The Grotesque: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831
 * Haunted Castle: The Castle of Otranto, 1764
 * Heartbroken Badass: Cyrano de Bergerac
 * Heart Trauma: "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Moby Dick, 1851
 * Hikikomori: ''Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov, 1859
 * Historical In-Joke: The Three Musketeers, 1844; possibly its source material in 1700.
 * Hourglass Plot: Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886
 * I Call It Vera: Davy Crockett had a rifle nicknamed "Betsy."
 * I Do Not Own: Lord Byron's Don Juan, 1824
 * Ill Girl: Fantine in Les Misérables, 1862
 * I'm Going to Hell For This: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) is the Trope Namer.
 * Inspector Javert: Les Misérables, 1862
 * Interrupted Suicide: Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1791
 * Ironic Nursery Tune: Mahler's Symphony No. 1, 1899
 * Lesbian Vampire: Carmilla, 1872
 * Last of His Kind: The Last of the Mohicans, 1826
 * Leitmotif: Term coined by a critic describing Carl Maria von Weber's classical compositions, 1871, but Weber died in 1826.
 * Lemony Narrator: Gabriel Betteredge in The Moonstone, 1868
 * Literary Allusion Title: Far from the Madding Crowd, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", arguably Pride and Prejudice.
 * Living Shadow: "The Shadow" by Hans Christian Andersen, 1847.
 * Living Toys: E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and The Mouse King, 1816.
 * Loves My Alter Ego: Roxane from Cyrano De Bergerac, 1897
 * Mad Scientist: Victor Frankenstein from Literature/Frankenstein, 1816
 * Magical Database: 1890s and Sherlock Holmes
 * Man-Eating Plant: Early examples include a giant flytrap in Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The American's Tale" (1879) and the "man-eating tree of Madagascar", a newspaper hoax born in 1881.
 * Matzo Fever: Rebecca in Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, 1819
 * Message in a Bottle: "Manuscript Found In A Bottle" by Edgar Allan Poe, 1833
 * Miraculous Malfunction: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886
 * Mistaken for Special Guest: "The Inspector General" by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1836.
 * Monumental Damage: During the The War of 1812.
 * Must Have Caffeine: Bach's Coffee Cantata
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866. (Not sure if this technically counts, seeing as C&P was six years before Nietzsche's first published work...)
 * The Noun and the Noun: Jane Austen's novels.
 * Noodle Incident: The Sherlock Holmes canon, if not earlier.
 * No Ontological Inertia: Dracula, 1897
 * "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Popov's Dream, Alexey Tolstoy, 1873
 * Now It's My Turn: Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews, 1742
 * Occult Detective: Dr Martin Hesselius from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly, 1872.
 * The Old Convict: The Count of Monte Cristo, 1844
 * Open Sesame: Literally, in "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves," 18th century.
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, 1838.
 * Pardon My Klingon: Utopia, Limited
 * Pensieve Flashback: A Christmas Carol, 1843
 * Pirate Parrot: Treasure Island
 * Planet Looters: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, 1898
 * The Pratfall: Shows up in vaudeville and music hall theater.
 * Princess Classic
 * Rain of Blood: Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles
 * Rambling Old Man Monologue: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 * Rapid-Fire Comedy: The works of Oscar Wilde.
 * Rear Window Investigation: Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
 * Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Mark Twain said similar words when he was mistakenly declared dead in the 1880s.
 * The Right of a Superior Species: War of the Worlds, 1898.
 * Right on the Tick: A Christmas Carol, 1843
 * River of Insanity: "Doctor Livingston, I presume?"
 * Robotic Reveal: "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1816
 * Salvage Pirates: Robinson Crusoe, 1719
 * Save the Villain: The Woman in White Wilkie Collins, 1859
 * Science Is Useless: The legend of John Henry from the mid-19th century: man with sledgehammers digs a tunnel faster than a steam-powered drilling rig.
 * Scrapbook Story: Common Victorian form; Dracula (1897) being a representative example.
 * Send in the Search Team: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1899
 * Sinister Minister: The Monk by Matthew G. Lewis, 1796
 * So Much for Stealth: The Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper, early 1800s, possibly much older.
 * Split Personality: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886
 * Stock Yuck (Inedible Christmas Fruitcakes): "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake", 1883
 * Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: "The Ghost of Oyuki," c. 1750
 * Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Frankenstein, 1816
 * Switched At Birth: A plot device popularized in the 18th century.
 * Sympathetic Murderer: Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866
 * Talking Weapon: Kullervo's sword in The Kalevala, and might be older
 * Textbook Humor: Johnson's Dictionary (1755) has entries such as "Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words."
 * Time Travel: The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come in A Christmas Carol (Dickens, 1843)
 * Trapped in the Past: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889
 * Tripod Terror: War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, 1898
 * Tomboyish Name: Josephine "Jo" March of Little Women, 1868, by Louisa May Alcott
 * Town with a Dark Secret: Germelshausen, 1800s, by Friedrich Gerstacker, source for Brigadoon.
 * Ubermensch: Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866
 * Unconventional Formatting: Tristram Shandy, 1767
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Die Fledermaus, 1871
 * Walk the Plank: Francis Grose's 'Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue', 1788
 * The Walls Are Closing In: "The Pit And The Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, 1842
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Count of Monte Cristo, 1844
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Invisible Man, 1897. While there may have been earlier versions, this is arguably the first time man-made technology grants the powers that drive the gifted insane.
 * With This Herring: "The Brave Little Tailor", a European folktale collected by The Brothers Grimm.
 * Working on the Chain Gang: Les Misérables, 1862
 * Wrong Guy First: Jane Austen, or earlier.
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz: Aleister Crowley popularized the "Magick" spelling for magic in the modern western world.
 * Your Costume Needs Work: "Masque of the Red Death", 1842
 * Zillion-Dollar Bill: The Sampo in the Kalevala.