Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Radiguet, Raymond

(Encyclopedia)Radiguet, Raymond rāmôNˈ rädēgāˈ [key], 1903–23, French writer. In his brief career he wrote two penetrating novels—The Devil in the Flesh (1923, tr. 1932), a study of adolescence; and Le B...

Ponge, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ponge, Francis fräNsēsˈ pôNzh [key], 1899–1988, French essayist and poet. A controversial figure, he was opposed to emotional and symbolic poetic methods. His method was to observe things meticu...

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...

Drewry's Bluff

(Encyclopedia)Drewry's Bluff dro͝orˈēz [key], high ground on the southern bank of the James River, E Va., S of Richmond; scene of two engagements in the Civil War. On May 15, 1862, the Confederates, positioned o...

Angoulême

(Encyclopedia)Angoulême äNgo͞olĕmˈ [key], city, capital of Charente dept., W France, on the Charente River. A former river port, it is now a major road and rail center. Its paper i...

Gonâve, La

(Encyclopedia)Gonâve, La, oblong island (1991 est. pop. 79,188), 254 sq mi (658 sq km), in the Gulf of Gonaïves, Ouest dept., W Haiti. The largest of Hispaniola's smaller neighboring islands, it is c.35 mi (56 km...

La Hire, Laurent de

(Encyclopedia)La Hire or La Hyre, Laurent de lä ēr [key], 1606–56, French painter. He produced many portraits and historical paintings, a few romantic landscapes, important decorative works for Richelieu, Pier...

Krausz, Ferenc

(Encyclopedia)Ferenc Krausz, 1962– , b. Mór, Hungary, Hungarian physicist, studied at Eötvös Loránd University and Technical University of Budapest in Hungary ...

hysteria

(Encyclopedia)hysteria hĭstĕrˈēə [key], in psychology, a disorder commonly known today as conversion disorder, in which a psychological conflict is converted into a bodily disturbance. It is distinguished from...

Browse by Subject