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Thomas, Ambroise

(Encyclopedia)Thomas, Ambroise äNbrwäzˈ tōmäˈ [key], 1811–96, French operatic composer, studied at the Paris Conservatory, receiving the Prix de Rome in 1832. He later taught composition there and became it...

Scarron, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Scarron, Paul pōl skärôNˈ [key], 1610–60, French writer. His picaresque novel Le Romant comique (1651) vividly portrays the lives of a company of strolling players. He also wrote short stories, ...

Chartier, Alain

(Encyclopedia)Chartier, Alain älăNˈ shärtyāˈ [key], b. c.1385, d. c.1433, French writer, secretary to Charles VII. His most popular work was the love poem La Belle Dame sans mercy (1424), which provided Keats...

Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire

(Encyclopedia)Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire fēlēpˈ fräNswäˈ näzĕrˈ fäˈbrə dāgläNtēnˈ [key], 1755–94, French dramatist and revolutionist. His chief work, Le Philinte de Molière (1...

Ponge, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ponge, Francis fräNsēsˈ pôNzh [key], 1899–1988, French essayist and poet. A controversial figure, he was opposed to emotional and symbolic poetic methods. His method was to observe things meticu...

Radiguet, Raymond

(Encyclopedia)Radiguet, Raymond rāmôNˈ rädēgāˈ [key], 1903–23, French writer. In his brief career he wrote two penetrating novels—The Devil in the Flesh (1923, tr. 1932), a study of adolescence; and Le B...

Basselin, Olivier

(Encyclopedia)Basselin, Olivier ōlēvyāˈ bäsəlăNˈ [key], 15th cent., French miller of Vire, Normandy. He was one of the Compagnons du Vau de Vire [companions of the Vire valley], who made drinking songs, lov...

Bow ware

(Encyclopedia)Bow ware bō [key], English porcelain, similar to Chelsea ware. It was made at Stratford-le-Bow from 1730 to 1776, when its factory was absorbed by the Derby ware pottery. ...

Corneille, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Corneille, Pierre pyĕr kôrnāˈyə [key], 1606–84, French dramatist, ranking with Racine as a master of French classical tragedy. Educated by Jesuits, he practiced law briefly in his native Rouen ...

Balzac, Honoré de

(Encyclopedia)Balzac, Honoré de bălˈzăk, bôl–, Fr. ōnôrāˈ də bälzäkˈ [key], 1799–1850, French novelist, b. Tours. Balzac ranks among the great masters of the novel. Of a bourgeois family, he himsel...