Harlequin
Checkered costume clown
Harlequin is a stock character from Italian commedia dell'arte—a nimble, mischievous servant in a mask and diamond-patterned costume who schemes and tumbles through comic plots.
The character became a fixture in pantomime and influenced later clown traditions.
Harlequin is also a major publisher of mass-market romance novels, known for formulaic but popular love stories: She devoured Harlequin novels on vacation. (Lowercase harlequin describes the pattern or a generic clown figure.)
Spurred perennial wildflower
- pantomimeDrama through gesture alone
- commediaItalian masked theatrical tradition
- masqueradeDeceptive act or costume party
- slapstickExaggerated physical humor
trickster · prankster · impish · caprice · mummery · farce · jest · mask
Book with flexible cover
- bodice-ripperSensational romantic fiction
- regencySubstitute monarch's authority
- bestsellerHigh-volume publication
- seriesOrdered set of related items
passion · heroine · duke · rake · swooning · happily-ever-after · whodunit · detective
columbine
Spurred perennial wildflower
- pantomimeDrama through gesture alone
- commediaItalian masked theatrical tradition
- masqueradeDeceptive act or costume party
slapstick · trickster · prankster · impish · caprice · mummery · farce · jest · mask · tights
paperback
Book with flexible cover
- bodice-ripperSensational romantic fiction
- regencySubstitute monarch's authority
- bestsellerHigh-volume publication
series · passion · heroine · duke · rake · swooning · happily-ever-after · whodunit · detective · sleuth
- clown namesRonald, Bubbles, Sprinkles, Dizzy, Binky
- popular fictionbestsellers, genre fiction, page-turners, popular novels, pulp fiction
- PublishersSimon & Schuster, book publisher, Penguin Books, Penguin, Random House
- Rabbitsbunny, cottontail, domestic rabbit, dwarf rabbit, lionhead
- romance fictionlove stories, romance novel, romance novels, contemporary romance, romantic fiction
- cannabisweed, sativa, indica, dispensaries, hybrid
Harlequintragic hero
Character whose flaw causes ruin
master · tragedian · leading man · Hamlet · King Lear
Harlequinsolid
Firm matter state
monochrome · plain · unpatterned · uniform · unadorned
- harlequin patternRepeating colored diamond design