Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Feith, Rhijnvis

(Encyclopedia)Feith, Rhijnvis rīnˈvĭs fīt [key], 1753–1824, Dutch romantic poet, novelist, and dramatist. His principal works are the long poem on eternity Het Graf (1792) and the sentimental novel Julia (178...

Thackeray, William Makepeace

(Encyclopedia)Thackeray, William Makepeace thăkˈərē [key], 1811–63, English novelist, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. He is important not only as a great novelist but also as a brilliant satirist. In 1830, ...

Proust, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Proust, Marcel pro͞ost [key], 1871–1922, French novelist, b. Paris. He is one of the great literary figures of the modern age. Born to wealthy bourgeois parents, he suffered delicate health as a c...

Mann, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Mann, Thomas tōˈmäs män [key], 1875–1955, German novelist and essayist, the outstanding German novelist of the 20th cent., b. Lübeck; brother of Heinrich Mann. A writer of great intellectual br...

Monte Cristo

(Encyclopedia)Monte Cristo mŏnˌtē krĭsˈtō, Ital. mônˈtā krēˈstō [key], unpopulated, rocky island, 6 sq mi (15.5 sq km), belonging to Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Corsica and the Italian coast. I...

Körmendi, Ferenc

(Encyclopedia)Körmendi, Ferenc fĕˈrĕnts körˈmĕndē [key], 1900–1972, Hungarian novelist. His Escape to Life (1932) won the international novel competition of 1932. Among his translated novels are The Happy...

Timmermans, Felix

(Encyclopedia)Timmermans, Felix fāˈlĭks tĭmˈərmäns [key], 1886–1947, Flemish novelist. Among his most successful works are Pallieter (1916, tr. 1924), the story of a lusty Fleming of gigantic appetites, an...

Rodoreda, Mercè

(Encyclopedia)Rodoreda, Mercè, 1909–83, Spanish novelist writing in Catalan. Exiled for several decades in Paris and Geneva following the Spanish Civil War, Rodoreda focuses her novel Time of the Doves (1962, tr...

Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock

(Encyclopedia)Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock krāk [key], 1826–87, English author. She is best known for the moralistic novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1856) and for the children's classics The Adventures of a Brownie ...

Helps, Sir Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Helps, Sir Arthur, 1813–75, English historian and author. His works include Friends in Council (3 series, 1847–59), dialogues on social and intellectual subjects; The Spanish Conquest in America (...