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Barrès, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Barrès, Maurice môrēsˈ bärĕsˈ [key], 1862–1923, French novelist and nationalist politician. As an advocate of the supremacy of the individual self, he wrote the trilogy of novels Le Culte du ...

Triolet, Elsa

(Encyclopedia)Triolet, Elsa (Elsa Blick) ĕlsäˈ trēôlĕˈ [key], c.1896–1970, Russian-French author, b. Moscow. In 1928 she married the French writer Louis Aragon. Her novels often combine a sweeping Russian ...

Perrault, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Perrault, Charles shärl pĕrōˈ [key], 1628–1703, French poet. His collections of eight fairy tales, Histoires ou contes du temps passé [stories or tales of olden times] (1697) gave classic form ...

Aymé, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Aymé, Marcel märsĕlˈ āmāˈ [key], 1902–67, French writer. Aymé's La Table aux crevés (1929), a story of peasant life, typifies the satirical tone of his works. La Jument verte (1933, tr. The...

Brookner, Anita

(Encyclopedia)Brookner, Anita, 1928–2016, English writer and art critic. After establishing an academic career at London's Courtauld Institute of Art and becoming the first woman appointed (1968) Slade Professor ...

Brunschvicg, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Brunschvicg, Léon lāôNˈ brünˈshvēk [key], 1869–1944, French philosopher, b. Paris. From 1909 until his death he taught at the Sorbonne. Brunschvicg's philosophy, which has had considerable in...

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de zhôrzh lwē ləklĕrkˈ kôNt də büfôNˈ [key], 1707–88, French naturalist and author. From 1739 he was keeper of the Jardin du Roi (later the Jardin des ...

Cendrars, Blaise

(Encyclopedia)Cendrars, Blaise blĕz siNdrärˈ [key], 1887–1961, Swiss-born French writer whose real name was Frédéric Sauser. He was at various times an art critic, a journalist, and a film director, and he t...

Brétigny, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Brétigny, Treaty of brātēnyēˈ [key], 1360, concluded by England and France at Brétigny, a village near Chartres, France. It marked a low point in French fortunes in the Hundred Years War. After ...

La Bruyère, Jean de

(Encyclopedia)La Bruyère, Jean de zhäN də lä brüyĕrˈ [key], 1645–96, French writer. He lived (1684–96) as tutor in the house of the prince de Condé. His great work, Les Caractères de Théophraste, trad...