Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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...

Tracy, Honor

(Encyclopedia)Tracy, Honor, pseud. of Lilbush Wingfield, 1913–89, British writer, b. Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk. A long-time foreign correspondent, Tracy is best known as a travel writer. Her novels satirize Briti...

Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de

(Encyclopedia)Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de də bälzäkˈ [key], 1597?–1654, French writer. His Lettres (1624, tr. 1634) and other writings were a great influence in reforming French prose. Their style was marked ...

Legion of Honor

(Encyclopedia)Legion of Honor: see decorations, civil and military. ...

Traviès de Villers, Charles Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Traviès de Villers, Charles Joseph shärl zhôzĕfˈ trävyĕsˈ də vēlĕrˈ [key], 1804–59, French caricaturist and painter, b. Switzerland. He founded and was a prolific contributor to the popu...

De Witt

(Encyclopedia)De Witt, uninc. town (2020 pop. 26,074), Onondaga co., central N.Y., a residential suburb of Syracuse.

Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de

(Encyclopedia)Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de kätrēnˈ də vēvônˈ märkēzˈ də räNbo͞oyāˈ [key], 1588–1665, famous Frenchwoman, whose salon exercised a profound influence on French liter...

Rojas Zorrilla, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Rojas Zorrilla, Francisco de fränthēˈskō dā rōˈhäs thôrēˈlyä [key], 1607–48, Spanish dramatist. He created a new type of comedia de gracioso, enlarging the role of the gracioso, or buffo...

Chouans

(Encyclopedia)Chouans sho͞oˈənz, Fr. shwäN [key] [Norman Fr.,=owls], peasants of W France who rose against the French Revolutionary government in 1793. One of their first leaders was Jean Cottereau, traditional...

Jouvenel, Henry de

(Encyclopedia)Jouvenel, Henry de äNrēˈ də zho͞ovənĕlˈ [key], 1876–1935, French statesman and journalist. Although from an early age influential in politics, he refused to join a party, claiming that exist...

Browse by Subject