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black humor

(Encyclopedia)black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usu...

Quinet, Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Quinet, Edgar ĕdgärˈ kēnāˈ [key], 1803–75, French historian. A romantic nationalist, he was much influenced by Johann Gottfried von Herder and was a close friend and associate of Jules Michele...

Hoffmann, Jules Alphonse

(Encyclopedia)Hoffmann, Jules Alphonse, 1941–, French biologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Strasbourg, 1969. Hoffmann was a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, Strasbourg, from 1974 to 2009. In...

Levasseur, Émile

(Encyclopedia)Levasseur, Émile (Pierre Émile Levasseur) pyĕr āmēlˈ lüväsörˈ [key], 1828–1911, French economist. He was noted especially for his historical approach to the study of economics. He studied ...

Moskenstraumen

(Encyclopedia)Moskenstraumen mālˈstrəm [key], tidewater whirlpool in the Lofoten Islands, NW Norway. Formed when tidal currents flow through coastal fjords and a maze of small islands, it is c.2.5 mi (4 km) wide...

Carnot, Sadi

(Encyclopedia)Carnot, Sadi kärnōˈ [key], 1837–94, French statesman, president of the Third Republic (1887–94); son of Hippolyte Carnot. As minister of public works (1880–85) and of finance (1886), he rema...

Schlegel, August Wilhelm von

(Encyclopedia)Schlegel, August Wilhelm von ouˈgo͝ost vĭlˈhĕlm fən shlāˈgəl [key], 1767–1845, German scholar and poet. With his brother, Friedrich von Schlegel, he founded the Athenaeum, which he edited (...

MacMahon, Marie Edmé Patrice de

(Encyclopedia)MacMahon, Marie Edmé Patrice de märēˈ ĕdmāˈ pätrēsˈ də mäkmäōNˈ [key], 1808–93, president of the French republic (1873–79), marshal of France. MacMahon, of Irish descent, fought in ...

Beutler, Bruce Alan

(Encyclopedia)Beutler, Bruce Alan, 1957–, American immunologist and geneticist, b. Chicago, Ill., M.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1981. Beutler has been a professor and physician at Rockefeller Univ. (1984–86), a facult...

Cambon, Pierre Paul

(Encyclopedia)Cambon, Pierre Paul käNbôNˈ [key], 1843–1924, French diplomat; brother of Jules Martin Cambon. Named resident minister to Tunis in 1882, he conceived and organized the new Tunisian protectorate ...
 

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