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Liège, province, Belgium

(Encyclopedia)Liège lyĕzh [key], Du. Luik, Ger. Lüttich, province (1991 pop. 999,646), 1,526 sq mi (3,952 sq km), E Belgium, bordering on Germany in the east. The chief cities are Liège (the capital), Verviers,...

Verhaeren, Émile

(Encyclopedia)Verhaeren, Émile āmēlˈ vārärĕnˈ, vərhäˈrən [key], 1855–1916, Belgian poet and critic, a Fleming who wrote in French. His dominant passion for social reform found expression successively ...

Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de

(Encyclopedia)Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de fräNswäˈ märēˈ ärwāˈ də vôltĕrˈ [key], 1694–1778, French philosopher and author, whose original name was Arouet. One of the towering geniuses in lite...

Clark, William

(Encyclopedia)Clark, William, 1770–1838, American explorer, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition, b. Caroline co., Va.; brother of George Rogers Clark. He was an army officer (1792–96), serving ...

Aix-en-Provence

(Encyclopedia)Aix-en-Provence ĕk-säN-prôväNsˈ [key], city (2020 metropolitan area pop. 1,608,000), Bouches-du-Rhône dept., in Provence, SE France. It is a commercial center in an ...

Habré, Hissène

(Encyclopedia)Habré, Hissène hēsĕnˈ häbrāˈ [key], 1942–, Chadian political leader, president of Chad (1982–90). He studied political science in Paris during the late 1960s and, returning to Chad (1970),...

Gothic romance

(Encyclopedia)Gothic romance, type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th cent. in England. Gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and the...

Gide, André

(Encyclopedia)Gide, André äNdrāˈ zhēd [key], 1869–1951, French writer. He established a reputation as an unconventional novelist with The Immoralist (1902, tr. 1930), a partly autobiographical work in which ...

Gautier, Théophile

(Encyclopedia)Gautier, Théophile gōtyāˈ [key], 1811–72, French poet, novelist, and critic. He was a leading exponent of “art for art's sake”—the belief that formal, aesthetic beauty is the sole purpose...

Gance, Abel

(Encyclopedia)Gance, Abel, 1889–1981, pioneering French filmmaker. He acted on the stage in the early 1900s and appeared on the silent screen. From 1911 he wrote and directed several films; his first important fi...