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Mantel, Dame Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Mantel, Dame Hilary, 1952–, English novelist, b. Hilary Mary Thompson. After working as a social worker, she moved to Botswana with her geologist husband and later to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where she...

Reynard the Fox

(Encyclopedia)Reynard the Fox rĕˈnərd, rāˈnärd [key], the supreme trickster and celebrated hero of the medieval beast epics, works predominantly in verse which became increasingly popular after c.1150. They a...

Sibelius, Jean Julius Christian

(Encyclopedia)Sibelius, Jean Julius Christian zhän yo͞oˈlyo͝os krĭsˈtyän sĭbāˈlyo͝os [key], 1865–1957, Finnish composer. Sibelius was a highly personal, romantic composer, yet at the same time he repre...

Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

Monteverdi, Claudio

(Encyclopedia)Monteverdi, Claudio klouˈdyō mōntāvĕrˈdē [key], 1567–1643, Italian composer; first great figure in the history of opera. His earliest published works, a set of three motifs, appeared when he ...

Saint John, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Saint John, city (1991 pop. 74,969), S N.B., Canada, at the mouth of the St. John River on the Bay of Fundy. A year-round port, it has an excellent harbor, large dry docks, and terminal facilities. Th...

Trilling, Lionel

(Encyclopedia)Trilling, Lionel, 1905–75, American critic, author, and teacher, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1925; M.A., 1926; Ph.D., 1938). He began teaching literature at Columbia in 1932 and became a...

Gates, Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Gates, Horatio, c.1727–1806, American Revolutionary general, b. Maldon, Essex, England. Entering the British army at an early age, he fought in America in the French and Indian War and served in the...

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

(Encyclopedia)Shelley, Percy Bysshe bĭsh [key], 1792–1822, English poet, b. Horsham, Sussex. He is ranked as one of the great English poets of the romantic period. Most of Shelley's poetry reveals his philos...

Carlyle, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Carlyle, Thomas, 1795–1881, English author, b. Scotland. One of the most important social critics of his day, Carlyle influenced many men of the younger generation, among them Matthew Arnold and J...