A. A. Milne
(1882–1956)British writer, noted especially for his ever-popular children's books and his plays.After attending Westminster School and reading mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, Milne found ...
Adam Bede
A novel by G. Eliot, published 1859.The action takes place at the close of the 18th cent. Hetty Sorrel, pretty, vain, and self‐centred, niece of the genial farmer Martin Poyser, is loved by Adam ...
adaptation
The process of making a work of art upon the basis of elements provided by an earlier work in a different, usually literary, medium; also the secondary work thus produced. Literary works have been ...
Adelaide Ann Procter
(1825–1864) British poet and campaigner for women's rightsLegends and Lyrics [1st series; 2nd series, 1861] (1858) PoetryThe Victoria Regia (1861) AnthologyA Chaplet of Verses (1862) PoetryLegends ...
American Notes for General Circulation
Travel account by Dickens, published in 1842. Dickens visited the U.S. (Jan.–May 1842) in a tour that took him from Boston and New York to Canada and as far west as St. Louis. His book is almost ...
Angus Wilson
(1913–1991)British writer. He was knighted in 1980.Angus Wilson was born in England but spent part of his childhood in South Africa, his mother's homeland, before completing his education at ...
Antoine Galland
(1646–1715)French translator and orientalist. His Mille et une nuits (1704–17) was the first translation into a European language of the Arabic Thousand and One Nights (see Arabian Nights ...
audience participation
1. Any active involvement of audience members in a live public performance, whether or not planned as part of the performance.2. The involvement of audience members in a broadcast programme—primarily ...
Barkis
In Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, the carrier who is the suitor of David's nurse Peggotty, to whom he sends the message ‘Barkis is willin'.’
Barnaby Rudge
A novel by Dickens published in 1841 as part of Master Humphrey's Clock. The earlier of Dickens's two historical novels, it is set at the period of the Gordon anti‐popery riots of 1780, and Lord ...
Barry Cornwall
(1787–1874),enjoyed success as a writer of songs and lyrics. His works include Dramatic Scenes (1819); Marcian Collona (1820); Mirandola (1821), a dramatic work; and English Songs (1832). He also ...
Battle of Life
Dickens's fourth Christmas book, written in Switzerland in 1846 while he was also at work on Dombey. He found great difficulty in writing it, and the result was, of all ...
Benito Pérez Galdós
(1843–1920), most important Spanish novelistin the 19th century. His contribution to the short-story genre has been traditionally overlooked, and not until recently have his tales been published ...
Benjamin Farjeon
(1838–1903),born London, broke away from his family's Jewish faith as a youth and came penniless to Australia in 1854. From 16 to 23 he roamed the Victorian goldfields, sometimes ...
Bentley's Miscellany
(1837–69),a successful periodical consisting of essays, stories, and poems, begun by R. Bentley. Dickens was the first editor, and Oliver Twist appeared in its pages in 1837–8. J. H. Reynolds, Hook, ...
Bildungsroman
The term applied to novels of ‘education’ (in the widest sense), of which many of the best examples are German. Wieland's Agathon (1765–6) is usually thought of as the first example of the genre, but ...
Bleak House
A novel by Dickens, published in monthly parts 1852–3.The book contains a vigorous satire on the abuses of the old court of Chancery, the delays and costs of which brought misery and ruin on its ...
Boz
The pseudonym used by Charles Dickens in his Pickwick Papers and contributions to the Morning Chronicle; in his preface to the Pickwick Papers (1847), Dickens explained that he had taken the name ...
Brighton
Originally Brithelmston, a Sussex fishing village, Brighton developed rapidly from the mid‐18th cent., when Dr Richard Russell recommended its health‐giving air. It was patronized by Fanny Burney, ...
British and Irish fairy tales
1. The medieval periodEnglish fantasy could be said to have its beginning in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, the best-known early work in English literature, generally dated in the ...
