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Little, Big
''Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament'' is a contemporary fantasy novel by John Crowley, published in 1981. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1982. Plot Turn-of-the-century American architect John Drinkwater begins to suspect that within this world there lies another (and within that, another and another ad infinitum, each larger than the world that contains it). Towards the center is the realm of the fairies, which his wife, the Englishwoman Violet Bramble, can see and talk with. Drinkwater gathers his thoughts into an ever-evolving book entitled ''The Architecture of Country Houses''. Drinkwater designs and builds a house called Edgewood north of New York City. It is a composite of many styles, each built over and across the others, supposedly as a ″sampler″ for customers thinking about employing Drinkwater's firm. It has the effect of disorienting visitors and somehow protecting the family, and it proves to be a door leading to the outer realm of Faerie. At the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine, with funding from Grosset & Dunlap and Curtis Publishing Company. It has since been purchased several times by companies including National General, Carl Lindner's American Financial and, most recently, Bertelsmann, which in 1986 purchased what had grown to become the Bantam Doubleday Dell publishing group. Bertelsmann purchased Random House in 1998, and in 1999 merged the Bantam and Dell imprints (amongst other mergers within the sprawling publishing house) to become the Bantam Dell publishing imprint. In 2010, the Bantam Dell division was consolidated with Ballantine Books (founded in 1952 by Bantam co-founders Ian and Betty Ballantine) to form the Ballantine Bantam Dell group within Random Hous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Barbarossa
Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 1152. He was crowned King of Italy on 24 April 1155 in Pavia and emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155 in Rome. Two years later, the term ' ("holy") first appeared in a document in connection with his empire. He was later formally crowned King of Burgundy, at Arles on 30 June 1178. His nickname of ' (meaning "Red Beard" in Italian) "was first used by the Florentines only in 1298 to differentiate the emperor from his grandson, Frederick II ... and was never employed in medieval Germany" (the colour red was "also associated in the Middle Ages with malice and a hot temper"; in reality, Frederick's hair was "blond", although his beard was described by a contemporary as "reddish"). In German, he was known as ', which in English means " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Western Canon
''The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages'' is a 1994 book about Western literature by the American literary critic Harold Bloom, in which the author defends the concept of the Western canon by discussing 26 writers whom he sees as central to the canon. Summary Bloom argues against what he calls the "school of resentment", which includes feminist literary criticism, Marxist literary criticism, Lacanians, New Historicism, Deconstructionists, and semioticians. ''The Western Canon'' includes four appendices listing works that Bloom at the time considered canonical, stretching from the earliest scriptures to Tony Kushner's '' Angels in America''. Bloom later disowned the list, saying that it was written at his editor's insistence and distracted from the book's intention. Bloom defends the concept of the Western canon by discussing 26 writers whom he sees as central to the canon: # William Shakespeare # Dante Alighieri # Geoffrey Chaucer # Miguel de Cervantes # Mic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995. Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "School of Resentment" (which included multiculturalism, feminism, and Marxism). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University. Early life and education ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass'' (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems ''Jabberwocky'' (1871) and ''The Hunting of the Snark'' (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Some of Alice's nonsensical wonderland logic reflects his published work on mathematical logic. Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicanism, Anglicans, and pursued his clerical training at Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar, teacher and (necessarily for his academic fellowship at the time) Anglican deacon. Alice Liddell – a daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, Dean of Christ Church – is wide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cottingley Fairies
The Cottingley Fairies are the subject of a hoax which purports to provide evidence of the existence of fairies. They appear in a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright (1901–1988) and Frances Griffiths (1907–1986), two young cousins who lived in Cottingley, Bradford, Cottingley, near Bradford in England. In 1917, when the first two photographs were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 9. The pictures came to the attention of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who used them to illustrate an article on fairies he had been commissioned to write for the Christmas 1920 edition of ''The Strand Magazine''. Doyle was enthusiastic about the photographs, and interpreted them as clear and visible evidence of supernatural phenomena. Public reaction was mixed; some accepted the images as genuine, others believed that they had been faked. Interest in the Cottingley Fairies gradually declined after 1921. Both girls married and lived abroad for a time after they grew up, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thornton Burgess
Thornton Waldo Burgess (January 17, 1874 – June 5, 1965) was an American conservationist and author of children's stories. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for his daily newspaper column. Biography Early life and career Born January 14, 1874 in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, Burgess was the son of Caroline F. Haywood and Thornton W. Burgess Sr., a direct descendant of Thomas Burgess, one of the first Sandwich settlers in 1637. Thornton, Sr., died the same year his son was born, and the young Thornton, Jr. was brought up by his mother in Sandwich. They lived in humble circumstances. As a youth, he worked tending cows, picking trailing arbutus (mayflowers) or berries, shipping water lilies from local ponds, selling candy, and trapping muskrats. William C. Chipman, one of his employers, lived on Discovery Hill Road, a wildlife habitat of woodland and wetland. This habitat became the setting of many stories in which Burgess re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, the society's first president. It draws upon a wide array of influences among them older European philosophies and movements such as Neoplatonism and occultism, as well as parts of eastern religious traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The founders described "Theosophy" as the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy. It notes that the purpose of human life is spiritual emancipation and the human soul undergoes reincarnation upon bodily death according to a process of karma, referring to the principles from Indian religions. Around 1880, Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India, and the organization split into the Theosophical Society (Adyar, India) and the Theosophical Society (Pasade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvie And Bruno
''Sylvie and Bruno'', first published in 1889, and its second volume ''Sylvie and Bruno Concluded'' published in 1893, form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss. The novel has two main plots: one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fantasy world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairy tale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll's ''Alice'' books, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality. Origin Two short pieces, "Fairy Sylvie" and "Bruno's Revenge", originally appeared in '' Aunt Judy's Magazine'' in 1867. Some years later, in 1873 or 1874, Carroll had the idea to use these as the core for a longer story. Much of the rest of the novel he compiled from notes of ideas and dialogue which he had collected over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brownie (folklore)
A brownie or broonie ( Scots), also known as a or (Scottish Gaelic), is a household spirit or hobgoblin from Scottish folklore that is said to come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep and perform various chores and farming tasks. The human owners of the house must leave a bowl of milk or cream or some other offering for the brownie, usually by the hearth. Brownies are described as easily offended and will leave their homes forever if they feel they have been insulted or in any way taken advantage of. Brownies are characteristically mischievous and are often said to punish or pull pranks on lazy servants. If angered, they are sometimes said to turn malicious, like boggarts. Brownies originated as domestic tutelary spirits, very similar to the Lares of ancient Roman tradition. Descriptions of brownies vary regionally, but they are usually described as ugly, brown-skinned, and covered in hair. In the oldest stories, they are usually human-sized or larger. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Ricans In The United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans (), also ambiguously known as Puerto Rican Americans (, ), or Puerto Ricans in the United States, are Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans (), most commonly known as Puerto Rico#Etymology, Boricuas, but also occasionally referred to as '':es:Anexo:Gentilicios de Puerto Rico#Lista general, Borinqueños'', '':es:Anexo:Gentilicios de Puerto Rico#Lista general, Borincan ... who reside in the mainland United States. Pursuant to the Jones–Shafroth Act, all Puerto Ricans born on the island have Citizenship of the United States, US citizenship. At 9.3% of the Hispanic population in the United States, Puerto Ricans are the second largest Hispanic and Latino Americans#Demographics, Hispanic group nationwide after Mexicans, and are 1.78% of the entire population of the United States. Stateside Puerto Ricans are also the largest West Indian Americans, Caribbean-origin group in the country, representing over one-third of people with origins in the geographic Caribbea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orrery
An orrery is a mechanical Solar System model, model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and natural satellite, moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent the relative sizes of these bodies; however, since accurate scaling is often not practical due to the actual large ratio differences, it may use a scaled-down approximation. Ancient Greek astronomy, The Greeks had working planetarium, planetaria, but the first modern example was produced by John Rowley. He named it "orrery" for his patron Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (in County Cork, Ireland). The plaque on it reads "Orrery invented by Graham 1700 improved by Rowley and presented by him to John [sic] Earl of Orrery after whom it was named at the suggestion of Richard Steele." Orreries are typically driven by a clockwork mechanism with a globe representing the Sun at the centre, and with a planet at the end of each of a series of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
