1.
Nintendo
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Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is one of the worlds largest video game companies by market capitalization, founded on 23 September 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small businesses, such as cab services. The word Nintendo can be translated from Japanese to English as leave luck to heaven. From 1992 until 2016, Nintendo was also the majority shareholder of Major League Baseballs Seattle Mariners, as of 31 March 2014, Nintendo has cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units. The company has created and released some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand, in 1949, the company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. doing business as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. outside Japan. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the Nintendo Cup. In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U. S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company and he found that the biggest playing card company in the world was using only a small office. Yamauchis realization that the card business had limited potential was a turning point. He then acquired the license to use Disney characters on playing cards to drive sales, in 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital during the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company called Daiya. However, Nintendo was forced to sell it because problems with the unions were making it too expensive to run the service. It also set up a hotel chain, a TV network. All of these ventures failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped. In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new Nintendo Games department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester
2.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
3.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
4.
E-book
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An electronic book is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as a version of a printed book. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-reader devices, however, almost any sophisticated computer device that features a controllable viewing screen can also be used to read e-books, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. In the 2000s, there was a trend of print and e-book sales moving to the Internet, where readers buy traditional paper books and e-books on websites using e-commerce systems. With e-books, users can browse through online, and then when they select and order titles. At the start of 2012 in the U. S. more e-books were published online than were distributed in hardcover, the main reasons that people are buying e-books online are due to possibly lower prices, increased comfort and a larger selection of titles. With e-books, lectronic bookmarks make referencing easier, and e-book readers may allow the user to annotate pages, although fiction and non-fiction books come in e-book formats, technical material is especially suited for e-book delivery because it can be searched for keywords. In addition, for programming books, code examples can be copied, E-book reading is increasing in the U. S. by 2014, 28% of adults had read an e-book, compared to 23% in 2013. This is increasing, because by 2014 50% of American adults had an e-reader or a tablet, E-books are also referred to as ebooks, eBooks, e-Books, e-journals, e-editions or as digital books. The devices that are designed specifically for reading e-books are called e-readers, the idea of an e-reader that would enable a reader to view books on a screen came to Bob Brown after watching his first talkie. In 1930, he wrote a book on this idea and titled it The Readies, although Brown came up with the idea intellectually in the 1930s, early commercial e-readers did not follow his model. Schuessler relates it to a DJ spinning bits of old songs to create a beat or a new song as opposed to just a remix of a familiar song. The inventor of the first e-book is not widely agreed upon and her idea behind the device was to decrease the number of books that her pupils carried to school. The first e-book may be the Index Thomisticus, a heavily annotated electronic index to the works of Thomas Aquinas, prepared by Roberto Busa beginning in 1949, although originally stored on a single computer, a distributable CD-ROM version appeared in 1989. In 2005, the Index was published online, augment ran on specialized hardware, while FRESS ran on IBM mainframes. All these systems also provided extensive hyperlinking, graphics, and other capabilities, van Dam is generally thought to have coined the term electronic book, and it was established enough to use in an article title by 1985. FRESS was used for reading extensive primary texts online, as well as for annotation and online discussions in several courses, browns faculty made extensive use of FRESS, for example the philosopher Roderick Chisholm used it to produce several of his books. Thus in the Preface to Person and Object he writes The book would not have been completed without the epoch-making File Retrieval, despite the extensive earlier history, several publications report Michael S. Hart as the inventor of the e-book
5.
Handheld game console
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A handheld game console is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls, and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video consoles and contain the console, screen, speakers. In 1976, Mattel introduced the first handheld game with the release of Auto Race. Later, several companies—including Coleco and Milton Bradley—made their own single-game, the oldest true handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges is the Milton Bradley Microvision in 1979. Nintendo is credited with popularizing the handheld console concept with the release of the Game Boy in 1989, the origins of handheld game consoles are found in handheld and tabletop electronic game devices of the 1970s and early 1980s. These electronic devices are capable of playing only a game, they fit in the palm of the hand or on a tabletop. In 1978, handheld games were described by Popular Electronics magazine as nonvideo electronic games. This synthesis happened in 1976, when Mattel began work on a line of calculator-sized sports games that became the worlds first handheld electronic games. The project began when Michael Katz, Mattels new product category marketing director, told the engineers in the group to design a game the size of a calculator. Our big success was something that I conceptualized—the first handheld game, I asked the design group to see if they could come up with a game that was electronic that was the same size as a calculator. —Michael Katz, former marketing director, Mattel Toys, the result was the 1976 release of Auto Race. Followed by Football later in 1977, the two games were so successful that according to Katz, these simple electronic handheld games turned into a $400 million category, Mattel would later win the honor of being recognized by the industry for innovation in handheld game device displays. Soon, other manufacturers including Coleco, Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley, Entex, in 1979 the LCD-based Microvision, designed by Smith Engineering and distributed by Milton-Bradley, became the first handheld game console and the first to use interchangeable game cartridges. In 1979, Gunpei Yokoi, traveling on a bullet train, Yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time. Starting in 1980, Nintendo began to release a series of games designed by Yokoi called the Game & Watch games. For later, more complicated Game & Watch games, Yokoi invented a cross shaped directional pad or D-pad for control of on-screen characters, the result was the Nintendo Game Boy. In 1982, the Bandai LCD Solarpower was the first solar-powered gaming device, some of its games, such as the horror-themed game Terror House, features two LCD panels, one stacked on the other, for an early 3D effect. In 1983, Takara Tomys Tomytronic 3D simulates 3D by having two LED panels that were lit by light through a window on top of the device
6.
Othello
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Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is based on the story Un Capitano Moro by Cinthio, Roderigo is upset because he loves Desdemona and had asked her father for her hand in marriage. Iago hates Othello for promoting a younger man named Cassio above him, whom Iago considers less capable a soldier than himself, Iago convinces Roderigo to wake Brabantio and tell him about his daughters elopement. Meanwhile, Iago sneaks away to find Othello and warns him that Brabantio is coming for him. Brabantio, provoked by Roderigo, is enraged and will not rest until he has beheaded Othello, but he finds Othellos residence full of the Duke of Venices guards, who prevent violence. News has arrived in Venice that the Turks are going to attack Cyprus, Brabantio has no option but to accompany Othello to the Dukes residence, where he accuses Othello of seducing Desdemona by witchcraft. Othello defends himself before the Duke of Venice, Brabantios kinsmen Lodovico and Gratiano, Othello explains that Desdemona became enamoured of him for the sad and compelling stories he told of his life before Venice, not because of any witchcraft. Iago, still in the room, takes note of Brabantios remark, the party arrives in Cyprus to find that a storm has destroyed the Turkish fleet. Othello orders a celebration and leaves to consummate his marriage with Desdemona. In his absence, Iago gets Cassio drunk, and then persuades Roderigo to draw Cassio into a fight, Montano tries to calm an angry and drunk Cassio down, but end up fighting one another. Montano is injured in the fight, Othello reenters and questions the men as to what happened. Othello blames Cassio for the disturbance and strips him of his rank, Iago persuades Cassio to importune Desdemona to convince her husband to reinstate Cassio. Iago now persuades Othello to be suspicious of Cassio and Desdemona, when Desdemona drops a handkerchief, Emilia finds it, and gives it to her husband Iago, at his request, unaware of what he plans to do with it. Othello reenters and vows with Iago for the death of Desdemona and Cassio, after which he makes Iago his lieutenant. Act III, scene iii, is considered to be the point of the play as it is the scene in which Iago successfully sows the seeds of doubt in Othellos mind. Iago plants the handkerchief in Cassios lodgings, then tells Othello to watch Cassios reactions while Iago questions him. Iago goads Cassio on to talk about his affair with Bianca, a local courtesan, later, Bianca accuses Cassio of giving her a second-hand gift which he had received from another lover. Othello sees this, and Iago convinces him that Cassio received the handkerchief from Desdemona, enraged and hurt, Othello resolves to kill his wife and asks Iago to kill Cassio
7.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
8.
Oliver Twist
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Oliver Twist, or The Parish Boys Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens and was first published as a serial 1837–39. The story is of the orphan Oliver Twist, who starts his life in a workhouse and is sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. He escapes from there and travels to London, where he meets the Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist is notable for its unromantic portrayal by Dickens of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century. The alternate title, The Parish Boys Progress, alludes to Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress, as well as the 18th-century caricature series by William Hogarth, A Rakes Progress and A Harlots Progress. In this early example of the novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labour, the recruitment of children as criminals. The novel may have inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe. It is likely that Dickenss own youthful experiences contributed as well, Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous adaptations for various media, including a highly successful musical play, Oliver. and the multiple Academy Award-winning 1968 motion picture. Disney also put its spin on the novel with the movie called Oliver & Company in 1988, the novel was originally published in monthly installments in the Magazine Bentleys Miscellany from February 1837 to April 1839. It was originally intended to form part of Dickenss serial, The Mudfog Papers, george Cruikshank provided one steel etching per month to illustrate each installment. It included 24 steel-engraved plates by Cruikshank, the first edition was titled, Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boys Progress. Oliver is brought up with food and few comforts. Around the time of Olivers ninth birthday, Mr. Bumble, Oliver, who toils with very little food, remains in the workhouse for six months. One day, the desperately hungry boys decide to draw lots, the loser must ask for another portion of gruel. The task falls to Oliver, who at the next meal tremblingly comes up forward, bowl in hand, the board of well-fed gentlemen who administer the workhouse hypocritically offer £5 to any person wishing to take on the boy as an apprentice. Mr. Gamfield, a chimney sweep, almost claims Oliver. However, when he begs not to be sent away with that dreadful man. Later, Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker employed by the parish and he treats Oliver better and, because of the boys sorrowful countenance, uses him as a mourner at childrens funerals. In trying to bait Oliver, Noah insults Olivers biological mother, calling her a regular right-down bad un. Oliver flies into a rage, once Oliver is sent to his room for the night, he breaks down and weeps, upset at the events which he had faced
9.
Charles Dickens
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Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the worlds best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity, born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Dickenss literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the publication of narrative fiction. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audiences reaction, and he modified his plot. For example, when his wifes chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities and his plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the poor chipped in hapennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age and his 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also adapted, and, like many of his novels. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London, Dickens has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of depth, loose writing. The term Dickensian is used to something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport in Portsea Island and his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily stationed in the district. He asked Christopher Huffam, rigger to His Majestys Navy, gentleman, Huffam is thought to be the inspiration for Paul Dombey, the owner of a shipping company in Dickenss eponymous Dombey and Son. In January 1815 John Dickens was called back to London, when Charles was four, they relocated to Sheerness, and thence to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early life seems to have been idyllic, though he himself a very small. Charles spent time outdoors but also read voraciously, including the novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding, as well as Robinson Crusoe
10.
Louisa May Alcott
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Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jos Boys. Alcotts family suffered financial difficulties, and while she worked to support the family from an early age. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s, early in her career, she sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard, under which she wrote novels for young adults. The novel was well received and is still a popular childrens novel today. Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life and she died in Boston on March 6,1888. Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29,1832, in Germantown, the family moved to Boston in 1834, where Alcotts father established an experimental school and joined the Transcendental Club with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Bronson Alcotts opinions on education and tough views on child-rearing shaped young Alcotts mind with a desire to achieve perfection and his attitudes towards Alcotts wild and independent behavior, and his inability to provide for his family, created conflict between Bronson Alcott and his wife and daughters. In 1840, after several setbacks with the school, the Alcott family moved to a cottage on 2 acres of land, situated along the Sudbury River in Concord, the three years they spent at the rented Hosmer Cottage were described as idyllic. By 1843, the Alcott family moved, along six other members of the Consociate Family. After the collapse of the Utopian Fruitlands, they moved on to rented rooms and finally, with Abigail May Alcotts inheritance and financial help from Emerson and they moved into the home they named Hillside on April 1,1845. She also received instruction from writers and educators such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne. She later described these years in a newspaper sketch entitled Transcendental Wild Oats. The sketch was reprinted in the volume Silver Pitchers, which relates the familys experiment in plain living, poverty made it necessary for Alcott to go to work at an early age as a teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer. Her sisters also supported the family, working as seamstresses, while their mother took on work among the Irish immigrants. Only the youngest, May, was able to attend public school, due to all of these pressures, writing became a creative and emotional outlet for Alcott. Her first book was Flower Fables, a selection of tales written for Ellen Emerson. In 1847, she and her family served as station masters on the Underground Railroad, the 1850s were hard times for the Alcotts. At one point in 1857, unable to work and filled with such despair
11.
Pride and Prejudice
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Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The comedy of the lies in the depiction of manners, education. Mr Bennet of the Longbourn estate has five daughters, but his property is entailed, since his wife had no fortune, it is imperative that one of the girls marries well in order to support the others on his death. However, Jane Austens opening line It is a universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife is a sentence filled with irony. The novel revolves around the necessity of marrying for love, not simply for mercenary reasons despite the pressures to make a good match. Pride and Prejudice retains the fascination of modern readers, consistently appearing near the top of lists of most-loved books among both scholars and the general public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, continuing interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austens memorable characters or themes. The novel opens with Mrs Bennet trying to persuade Mr Bennet to visit an eligible bachelor, Mr Bingley, after some verbal sparring with Mr Bennet baiting his wife, it transpires that this visit has taken place at Netherfield. The visit is followed by an invitation to a ball at the assembly rooms that the whole neighborhood will attend. At the ball, Mr Bingley is open and cheerful, popular with all the guests and his friend, Mr Darcy, is reputed to be twice as wealthy, however, he is haughty and aloof. He declines to dance with Elizabeth, suggesting that she is not pretty enough to tempt him and she finds this amusing and jokes about the statement with her friends. Jane also attracts the attention of Mr Bingleys sister Caroline, who invites her to visit, Jane visits Miss Bingley and is caught in a rain shower on the way, catching a serious cold. Elizabeth, out of concern for her sisters well being. This is the point at which Darcy begins to see the attraction of Elizabeth, Mr Collins, a cousin of Mr Bennet and heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family. He is a pompous and obsequious clergyman because he expects each of the Bennet girls to wish to marry him due to his inheritance and he plans to propose to Elizabeth over Jane as he is led to believe Jane is taken. Elizabeths dislike of Mr Darcy is confirmed, at a ball at which Mr Wickham is not present, Elizabeth dances with Mr Darcy rather against her will. Other than Jane and Elizabeth, all the members of the Bennet family show their lack of decorum, Mrs Bennet states loudly that she expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged and each member of the family exposes the whole to ridicule. The following morning, Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth and she rejects him, to the fury of her mother and the relief of her father
12.
Jane Austen
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Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austens plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of social standing. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. With the publications of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma and she wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. Her novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously, a significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1869, fifty-two years after her death, when her nephews publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider audience. Austen has inspired a number of critical essays and literary anthologies. Her novels have inspired many films, from 1940s Pride and Prejudice to more recent productions, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austens use of biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary have earned her great and historical importance to critics and scholars. The Bank of England has confirmed that the face of the new plastic £10 note will be Austen, the notes are expected to be released in summer 2017. There is little information about Jane Austens life except the few letters that survive. During her lifetime Austen wrote approximately 3,000 letters but only about 160 survive, many of the letters were written to Austens older sister Cassandra, who in 1843 burned the greater part of them and cut pieces out of those she kept. Cassandra believed that in the interest of tact and Janes penchant for forthrightness, the paucity of record of Austens life leaves modern biographers little to work with. The situation was compounded as successive generations of the family expunged and sanitized the already opaque details of Austens biography, Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775. She was born a month later than her parents expected, her father wrote of her arrival in a letter that her mother certainly expected to have brought to bed a month ago. He added that her arrival was particularly welcome as a companion to her sister. The winter of 1776 was particularly harsh and it was not until 5 April that she was baptised at the church with the single name Jane. For much of Janes life, George Austen served as the rector of the Anglican parishes at Steventon, and he came from an old, respected, and wealthy family of wool merchants. Over the centuries as each generation of eldest sons received inheritances their wealth was consolidated and he and his two sisters were orphaned as children and had to be taken in by relatives. His sister Philadelphia went to India to find a husband and George entered St Johns College, Oxford on a fellowship and she came from the prominent Leigh family, her father was rector at All Souls College, Oxford, where she grew up among the gentry
