The Phoenix And The Carpet
''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' is a fantasy novel for children, written by E. Nesbit and first published in 1904. It is the second in a trilogy of novels that begins with ''Five Children and It'' (1902), and follows the adventures of the same five children: Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb. Their mother buys the children a new carpet to replace one from the nursery that they have destroyed in an accidental fire. The children find an egg in the carpet, which hatches into a talking Phoenix. The Phoenix explains that the carpet is a magic one that will grant them three wishes a day. The five children go on many adventures, which eventually wear out their magic carpet. The adventures are continued and concluded in the third book of the trilogy, ''The Story of the Amulet'' (1906). Plot summary This is the middle volume of a trilogy that begins with ''Five Children and It'' and concludes with ''The Story of the Amulet.'' It deviates from the other two novels insofar as it ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Edith Nesbit
Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English writer and poet, who published her children's literature, books for children as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist and co-founder of the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later affiliated to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. Biography Nesbit was born in 1858 at 38 Lower Kennington Lane, Kennington, Surrey (now classified as Inner London), the daughter of an agricultural chemist, John Collis Nesbit, who died in March 1862, before her fourth birthday. Her mother was Sarah Green (née Alderton). The ill health of Edith's sister Mary meant that the family travelled for some years, living variously in Brighton, Buckinghamshire, France (Dieppe, Rouen, Paris, Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême, Bordeaux, Arcachon, Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pau, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, and Dinan in Brittany), Spain and Germany. Mary was engaged in 187 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Deus Ex Machina
''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device. Origin of the expression ''Deus ex machina'' is a Latin calque . The term was coined from the conventions of ancient Greek theater, where actors who were playing gods were brought onto stage using a machine. The machine could be either a crane (''mechane'') used to lower actors from above or a riser that brought them up through a trapdoor. Aeschylus introduced the idea, and it was used often to resolve the conflict and conclude the drama. The device is associated mostly with Greek tragedy, although it also appeared in comedies. Ancient examples Aeschylus used the device in his '' Eume ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon (company), Amazon. the database contained some million titles (including television episodes) and million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. Features The title and talent ''pages'' of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of the site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Dee Wallace
Deanna Wallace (née Bowers; born December 14, 1948), also known as Dee Wallace Stone, is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Mary Taylor, the mother in the 1982 blockbuster film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. She is also known for her starring roles in several horror films including ''The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film), The Hills Have Eyes'' (1977), ''The Howling (film), The Howling'' (1981), ''Cujo (film), Cujo'' (1983) and ''Critters (film), Critters'' (1986). Early and personal life Wallace was born in Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, the daughter of Maxine (married and maiden names, née Nichols) and Robert Stanley Bowers. She attended Wyandotte High School, before attending the University of Kansas and obtaining an education degree. She briefly taught high school drama at Washington High School in her native Kansas City in the early 1970s. She was briefly married first to Barry Wallace and still uses his last name in her career. Their mar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Peter Ustinov
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. An intellectual and diplomat, he held various academic posts and served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and president of the World Federalist Movement. Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards during his life, including two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTA Awards for acting, and a Grammy Award for best recording for children, as well as the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He also displayed a unique cultural versatility which frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, composer of the music for ''Quo Vadis'' and of numerous concert works, dedicated his String Quartet No. 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Helen Cresswell
Helen Cresswell (11 July 1934 – 26 September 2005) was an English television scriptwriter and author of more than 100 children's books, best known for comedy and supernatural fiction. Her most popular book series, ''Lizzie Dripping'' and ''The Bagthorpe Saga'', were also the basis for television series. Cresswell's TV work included adaptation of her own books for television movies and series: ''Lizzie Dripping'' (two series, 1973–75), ''Jumbo Spencer'' (1976), ''The Secret World of Polly Flint'' (1987), and '' Moondial'' (1988). Works by others that she adapted for TV include ''The Haunted School'', ''Five Children and It'' (1991, from the 1902 novel), ''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' (1997), ''The Famous Five'' (1995–96), and ''The Demon Headmaster'' (1996–98). Life Cresswell was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. Her mother arranged Greek-language instruction for her daughter at age 12, when she was hospitalized one year with spinal problems. She was educate ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Phoenix And The Carpet (1997 Serial)
''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' is a BBC Television adaption of the 1904 book of the same name by E. Nesbit about four children in Edwardian England who acquire a phoenix and the adventures they have as a result. The six-part serial was first broadcast in 1997 and starred David Suchet as the Phoenix. Production The series was a co-production between the BBC and HIT Entertainment and took the format of six 28-minute episodes, first broadcast on BBC One between November and December 1997. ''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' is part of a family of BBC productions about the adventures of the Bastable children, based on novels by E. Nesbit, launched in 1991 with ''Five Children and It'' in six episodes, followed in 1993 by ''The Return of the Psammead''. All three were adapted by Helen Cresswell, and apart from the children the Psammead, created and voiced by Francis Wright, appears in all three. The serial was first released on DVD in a truncated version, only half as long as the origi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Jackanory
''Jackanory'' is a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the first story was the fairy-tale "Cap-o'-Rushes" read by Lee Montague. ''Jackanory'' continued to be broadcast until 1996, with around 3,500 episodes in its 30-year run. The final story, ''The House at Pooh Corner'' by A. A. Milne, was read by Alan Bennett and broadcast on 24 March 1996. The show was briefly revived on 27 November 2006 for two one-off stories, and the format was revived as ''Jackanory Junior'' on CBeebies between 2007 and 2009. The show's format, which varied little over the decades, involved an actor reading from children's novels or folk tales, usually while seated in an armchair. From time to time the scene being read would be illustrated by a specially commissioned still drawing, often by Quentin Blake. In 1983, Malou Bonicos was commissioned to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Film Adaptation
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dialogic process. While the most common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis, other works adapted into films include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiographical works, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources and even other films. Adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking since the earliest days of cinema in nineteenth-century Europe. In contrast to when making a remake, movie directors usually take more creative liberties when creating a film adaptation. Elision and interpolation In 1924, Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris's novel ''McTeague'' with his film ''Greed.'' The resulting film was 9½ hours long, and was cut to four ho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Typographic Ligature
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined to form a single glyph. Examples are the characters æ and œ used in English and French, in which the letters 'a' and 'e' are joined for the first ligature and the letters 'o' and 'e' are joined for the second ligature. For stylistic and legibility reasons, 'f' and 'i' are often merged to create 'fi' (where the tittle on the 'i' merges with the hood of the 'f'); the same is true of 's' and 't' to create 'st'. The common ampersand (&) developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters 'E' and 't' (spelling , Latin for 'and') were combined. History The earliest known script Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian language, Egyptian hieratic both include many cases of character combinations that gradually evolve from ligatures into separately recognizable characters. Other notable ligatures, such as the Brahmic family, Brahmic abugidas and the Runes, Germanic bind rune, figure pr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Tate And Brady
Tate and Brady refers to the collaboration of the poets Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, which produced one famous work, ''New Version of the Psalms of David'' (1696). This work was a metrical version of the Psalms, and largely ousted the old version of T. Sternhold and J. Hopkins' Psalter. Still regularly sung today is their version of Psalm 34, "Through all the changing scenes of life" (which was improved in the second edition of 1698). As well as the 150 Psalms they also wrote metrical versions of the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith". The creed most likely originated in 5th-century .... Because of the association between the authors and the collection, the work itself is sometimes referred to as "Tate and Brady". Tate's well-known Christmas carol " While Shepherds Watched T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Arabian Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition (), which rendered the title as ''The Arabian Nights' Entertainment''. The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central and South Asia, and North Africa. Some tales trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature. Many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work ( fa, هزار افسان, lit. ''A Thousand Tales''), which in turn relied partly on Indian elements. Common to all the editions of the ''Nights'' is the framing device of the story ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |