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euphuism

(Encyclopedia)euphuism yo͞oˈfyo͞oĭzəm [key], in English literature, a highly elaborate and artificial style that derived from the Euphues (1578) of John Lyly and that flourished in England in the 1580s. It was...

Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de fräNswäˈ rənāˈ vēkôNtˈ də shätōbrēäNˈ [key], 1768–1848, French writer. Chateaubriand was a founder of romanticism in French literature. Of n...

Jowett, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Jowett, Benjamin jōˈət, jouˈət [key], 1817–93, English educator and Greek scholar, b. London. Jowett was a Church of England clergyman, master of Balliol College, Oxford (1870–93), and vice c...

Dekker, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Dekker, Thomas, c,1570–1632, English dramatist and pamphleteer. Little is known of his life except that he frequently suffered from poverty and served several prison terms for debt. He began his lit...

Shuster, George Nauman

(Encyclopedia)Shuster, George Nauman, 1894–1977, American educator, b. Lancaster, Wis., grad. Notre Dame (B.A., 1915; M.A., 1920) and Columbia (Ph.D., 1940). He was head of the department of English at Notre Dame...

Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich tŏlˈstoi, Rus. əlyĭksyāˈ kənstəntyēˈnəvĭch təlstoiˈ [key], 1817–75, Russian poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was a distant cousin of Leo Tolstoy. Toge...

Middle Ages

(Encyclopedia)Middle Ages, period in Western European history that followed the disintegration of the West Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th cent. and lasted into the 15th cent., i.e., into the period of the Renaissa...

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe

(Encyclopedia)Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe tān, Fr. ēpôlētˈ ädôlfˈ tĕn [key], 1828–93, French critic and historian. A brilliant student, he gained recognition with the publication of his doctoral thesis, Ess...

Ouida

(Encyclopedia)Ouida də lä rəmāˈ [key], 1839–1908, English novelist. She was a prolific writer of flamboyant, romantic tales, the best of which are Under Two Flags (1867), Moths (1880), and In Maremma (1882)....

chamber music

(Encyclopedia)chamber music, ensemble music for small groups of instruments, with only one player to each part. Its essence is individual treatment of parts and the exclusion of virtuosic elements. Originally playe...

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