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Saint-Denis, city, France

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Denis săN-dənēˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 90,806), Seine–Saint-Denis dept., N central France. It is an industrial suburb N of Paris. Metals, chemicals, machinery, electronics, and food produc...

Rousseau, Henri

(Encyclopedia)Rousseau, Henri äNrēˈ ro͞osōˈ [key], 1844–1910, French primitive painter, b. Laval. He was entirely self-taught, and his work remained consistently naive and imaginative. Rousseau was called L...

Sieyès, Emmanuel Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Sieyès, Emmanuel Joseph ĕmänüĕlˈ zhôzĕfˈ syāĕsˈ [key], 1748–1836, French revolutionary and statesman. He was a clergyman before the Revolution and was known as Abbé Sieyès. His pamphle...

Deneuve, Catherine

(Encyclopedia)Deneuve, Catherine, 1943–, French film actress, b. Paris as Catherine Fabienne Dorléac. The daughter of actors and sister of actress Françoise Dorléac (1942–67), the cool and beautiful blonde h...

Comte, Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Comte, Auguste ōgüstˈ kôNt [key], 1798–1857, French philosopher, founder of the school of philosophy known as positivism, educated in Paris. From 1818 to 1824 he contributed to the publications ...

Institut de France

(Encyclopedia)Institut de France ăNstētüˈ də fräNs [key], cultural institution of the French state. Founded in 1795 by the Directory, it replaced five learned societies that had been suppressed in 1793 by the...

Houellebecq, Michel

(Encyclopedia)Houellebecq, Michel mēshĕlˈ wĕlˈbĕk [key], b. 1958– or 1956–, French author, perhaps France's best-known contemporary novelist, b. Réunion as Michel Thomas. A literary pessimist and master ...

Jospin, Lionel Robert

(Encyclopedia)Jospin, Lionel Robert zhôspăNˈ [key], 1937–, French politician, premier of France (1997–2002). He studied at the elite École Nationale d'Administration (1961–65) and worked (1965–70) in th...

Jacobs, Jane

(Encyclopedia)Jacobs, Jane, 1916–2006, American-Canadian urbanologist, b. Scranton, Pa., as Jane Butzner. She moved to New York City in the 1930s, was an editor (1952–64) of Architectural Forum magazine, and wr...

Modiano, Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Modiano, Patrick (Jean Patrick Modiano) zhäN pätrēkˈ mōdyänōˈ [key], 1945–, French novelist. He has been acclaimed for his treatment of memory, loss, and the puzzle of identity in novels tha...