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fairy

(Encyclopedia)fairy, in folklore, one of a variety of supernatural beings endowed with the powers of magic and enchantment. Belief in fairies has existed from earliest times, and literatures all over the world have...

Sanusi

(Encyclopedia)Sanusi or Senussi both: səno͞oˈsĭ [key], Arabic Sanusiyya, a political-religious organization in Libya and Sudan founded in Mecca in 1837 by Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanusi (1791–1859), known as the ...

Rigel

(Encyclopedia)Rigel rīˈjəl [key], bright star in the constellation Orion; Bayer designation Beta Orionis; 1992 position R.A. 5h14.2m, Dec. −8°13′. A huge, blue supergiant of spectral class B8 Ia, Rigel has ...

antinovel

(Encyclopedia)antinovel or new novel: see French literature; Robbe-Grillet, Alain. ...

Hurd, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Hurd, Richard, 1720–1808, English theologian, editor, and critic. From 1781 until his death he was bishop of Worcester. His best-known works are Moral and Political Dialogues (1757) and Letters on C...

nouveau roman

(Encyclopedia)nouveau roman or new novel: see French literature; Robbe-Grillet, Alain. ...

Millett, Kate

(Encyclopedia)Millett, Kate (Katharine Murray Millett), 1934–2017, American feminist author and activist, b. St. Paul, Minn., B.A. Univ. of Minn., 1956, M.A. Oxford, 1958, Ph.D. Columbia, 1968. Her pioneering fem...

Mendele mocher sforim

(Encyclopedia)Mendele mocher sforim [Yid.,= Mendele the book peddler] shōˈləm yäˈkôv əbräməˈvĭch [key], 1836–1917, Yiddish novelist. Born in Minsk, and orphaned at 14, he traveled with beggars through ...

De Voto, Bernard Augustine

(Encyclopedia)De Voto, Bernard Augustine də vōˈtō [key], 1897–1955, American writer and editor, b. Ogden, Utah, grad. Harvard, 1920. He taught at Northwestern Univ. (1922–27) and then at Harvard (1929–36)...

Book of the Dead

(Encyclopedia)Book of the Dead, term used to describe Egyptian funerary literature. The texts consist of charms, spells, and formulas for use by the deceased in the afterworld and contain many of the basic ideas of...