1.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
2.
Weston, Connecticut
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Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The population was 10,179 at the 2010 census, the town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the town center. About 19% of the workforce commutes to New York City. Like many towns in southwestern Connecticut, Weston is among the most affluent communities in the United States, data collected in 2011 showed that Weston had the highest median household income in Fairfield County, Connecticut, at US$205,173. In 2011 Connecticut Magazine named Weston as the one town in Connecticut among towns with populations of 10. The rating considers education, crime, economy, cost and leisure, Weston is bordered by Wilton to the west, Redding to the north, Easton to the east, Fairfield to the southeast, and Westport to the south. Aside from a handful of stores that form the town’s center, residential development is limited by two-acre zoning. Most of Devils Den Preserve, a 1, 746-acre nature reserve, in the 17th century, Westons first English settlers were mostly farmers living in the town of Fairfield, Connecticut, the boundaries of which extended to Weston until the late 18th century. The Norfield Parish was created in the now occupied by the towns of Weston and Easton. In 1787, the area was incorporated as the Town of Weston. In 1845, the Town of Easton was split off from Weston, a meteor exploded above the town December 14,1807. Six pieces, totaling 28 pounds, were recovered and examined by scientists and this was the first time that people realized the nature of meteors. Despite rocky soil, farmers in town grew apples, onions, grist, cider, lumber, and fulling mills were built. The town had nine manufacturers by 1850, but two decades later only the Bradley Edge Tool Company still thrived and that factory burned down in 1911. Unlike other nearby towns, Weston never had a railroad built through it, between the Civil War and the Great Depression, the towns population dropped from approximately 1,000 to a low of 670, by 1930. Artists, writers, and actors from New York became attracted to the community in the 1930s, construction of the Merritt Parkway, which arrived to the south of Weston in 1938, resulted in further population growth. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 20.7 square miles, of which 19.8 square miles is land and 0.9 square miles. The Saugatuck River begins to the north in Redding and it flows through the town and ends in Long Island Sound in neighboring Westport
3.
Connecticut
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Connecticut is the southernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Connecticut is also often grouped along with New York and New Jersey as the Tri-State Area and it is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital city is Hartford, and its most populous city is Bridgeport, the state is named for the Connecticut River, a major U. S. river that approximately bisects the state. The word Connecticut is derived from various anglicized spellings of an Algonquian word for long tidal river, Connecticut is the third smallest state by area, the 29th most populous, and the fourth most densely populated of the 50 United States. It is known as the Constitution State, the Nutmeg State, the Provisions State, and it was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States. Connecticuts center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticuts first European settlers were Dutch. They established a small, short-lived settlement in present-day Hartford at the confluence of the Park, initially, half of Connecticut was a part of the Dutch colony New Netherland, which included much of the land between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers. The first major settlements were established in the 1630s by England, the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies established documents of Fundamental Orders, considered the first constitutions in North America. In 1662, the three colonies were merged under a charter, making Connecticut a crown colony. This colony was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, the Connecticut River, Thames River, and ports along the Long Island Sound have given Connecticut a strong maritime tradition which continues today. The state also has a history of hosting the financial services industry, including insurance companies in Hartford. As of the 2010 Census, Connecticut features the highest per-capita income, Human Development Index, and median household income in the United States. Landmarks and Cities of Connecticut Connecticut is bordered on the south by Long Island Sound, on the west by New York, on the north by Massachusetts, and on the east by Rhode Island. The state capital and third largest city is Hartford, and other cities and towns include Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, Greenwich. Connecticut is slightly larger than the country of Montenegro, there are 169 incorporated towns in Connecticut. The highest peak in Connecticut is Bear Mountain in Salisbury in the northwest corner of the state, the highest point is just east of where Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York meet, on the southern slope of Mount Frissell, whose peak lies nearby in Massachusetts. At the opposite extreme, many of the towns have areas that are less than 20 feet above sea level. Connecticut has a maritime history and a reputation based on that history—yet the state has no direct oceanfront
4.
Tallulah Bankhead
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Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress of the stage and screen, and a reputed libertine. Bankhead was known for her voice, outrageous personality. Originating some of the 20th-century theaters preeminent roles in comedy and melodrama, Bankhead became an icon of the tempestuous, flamboyant actress, and her unique voice and mannerisms are often subject to imitation and parody. Tallulah hailed from the Brockman Bankheads, a prominent Alabama political family — her grandfather, senators and her father served as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead did have one hit on film, as well as a brief and she later made appearances on television, some of which have become classics. In her personal life, Bankhead struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction, Bankhead was capable of great kindness and generosity to those in need, supporting disadvantaged foster children and helping several families escape the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Bankhead was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972, upon her death, Bankhead was credited with nearly 300 film, stage, television, and radio roles. She is regarded as one of the 20th century theatres great Leading Ladies, Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was born on January 31,1902, in Huntsville, Alabama to William Brockman Bankhead and Adelaide Eugenia Ada Bankhead. Tallu was named after her grandmother, who in turn was named after Tallulah Falls. Her father hailed from the Bankhead-and-Brockman political family, active in the Democratic Party in the South in general and her father was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936 to 1940. She was the niece of Senator John H. Bankhead II and her mother, Adelaide Ada Eugenia, was a native of Como, Mississippi, and was engaged to another man when she met William Bankhead on a trip to Huntsville, Alabama to buy her wedding dress. The two fell in love at first sight and were married on January 31,1900 in Memphis and their first child, Ada Eugenia, was born on January 24,1901. She was born prematurely and suffered from vision difficulties, the following year, Bankhead was born on her parents wedding anniversary, on the second floor of what is now known as the Isaac Schiffman Building. A marker was erected to commemorate the site, and in 1980 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, Ada died of blood poisoning on February 23,1902, three weeks after Bankheads birth. Coincidentally, her grandmother had died giving birth to her mother. On her deathbed, Ada told her sister-in-law to take care of Eugenia, Bankhead was baptized next to her mothers coffin. Bankhead was devastated by his wifes death, which sent him into a bout of depression, consequently, Tallulah and her sister Eugenia were mostly reared by their paternal grandmother, Tallulah James Brockman Bankhead, at the family estate called Sunset in Jasper, Alabama. As a child, Bankhead was described as extremely homely and overweight, while her sister was slim, as a result, she did everything in her efforts to gain attention, and constantly sought her fathers approval
5.
Alla Nazimova
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Alla Nazimova was a Russian actress who immigrated to the United States in 1905. On Broadway, she was noted for her work in the plays of Ibsen, Chekhov. Her efforts at silent film production were less successful, but a few sound-film performances survive as a record of her art, Nazimova openly conducted relationships with women, and her mansion on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard was believed to be the scene of outlandish parties. She is credited with having originated the phrase ‘sewing circle’ as a code for lesbian or bisexual actresses. She was born Marem-Ides Leventon in Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire and her stage name Alla Nazimova was a combination of Alla and the surname of Nadezhda Nazimova, the heroine of the Russian novel Children of the Streets. She was widely known as just Nazimova, and also went under the name Alia Nasimoff and she was the youngest of three children of Jewish parents Yakov Abramovich Leventon, a pharmacist, and Sofia Lvovna Horowitz, who moved to Yalta in 1870 from Kishinev. She grew up in a family, her parents divorced when she was 8. After her parents separated, she was shuffled among boarding schools, as a teenager she began to pursue an interest in the theatre and took acting lessons at the Academy of Acting in Moscow. She joined Constantin Stanislavskis Moscow Art Theatre using the name of Alla Nazimova for the first time, Nazimovas theater career blossomed early, and by 1903 she was a major star in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. She toured Europe, including London and Berlin, with her boyfriend Pavel Orlenev, in 1905 they moved to New York City and founded a Russian-language theater on the Lower East Side. The venture was unsuccessful, and Orlenev returned to Russia while Nazimova stayed in New York and she was signed up by the American producer Henry Miller and made her Broadway debut in New York City in 1906 to critical and popular success. Her English-language premiere in November 1906 was in the role of Hedda Gabler. She quickly became popular and remained a major Broadway star for years, often acting in the plays of Henrik Ibsen. Dorothy Parker described her as the finest Hedda Gabler she had ever seen, due to her notoriety in a 35-minute 1915 play entitled War Brides, Nazimova made her silent film debut in 1916 in the filmed version of the play, which was produced by Lewis J. Selznick. A young actor with a bit part in the movie was Richard Barthelmess, Nazimova had encouraged him to try out for movies and he later became a star. In 1917, she negotiated a contract with Metro Pictures, a precursor to MGM and she moved from New York to Hollywood, where she made a number of highly successful films for Metro that earned her considerable money. In 1927, she became a citizen of the United States. Nazimova soon felt confident enough in her abilities to begin producing and writing films in which she also starred, in her film adaptations of works by such notable writers as Oscar Wilde and Ibsen, she developed her own filmmaking techniques, which were considered daring at the time
6.
Peter Pan
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Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. In addition to two works by Barrie, the character has been featured in a variety of media and merchandise. These include a 1953 animated film, a 2003 dramatic/live-action film, a TV series and many other works. J. M. Barrie first used Peter Pan as a character in a section of The Little White Bird, an adult novel where he appears as a seven-day-old baby in the chapter entitled Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. He returned to the character of Peter Pan as the centre of his play entitled Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldnt Grow Up. Barrie later adapted and expanded the story line as a novel, published in 1911 as Peter. Barrie never described Peters appearance in detail, even in his novel, leaving it to the imagination of the reader, in the play, Peters outfit is made of autumn leaves and cobwebs. His name and playing the flute or pipes suggest the mythological character Pan, Barrie mentions in Peter and Wendy that Peter Pan still had all his first teeth. He describes him as a boy with a beautiful smile, clad in skeleton leaves. Traditionally, the character has been played on stage by an adult woman. In the original productions in the UK, Peter Pans costume was a tunic and dark green tights. This costume is exhibited in Barries Birthplace, the similar costume worn by Pauline Chase is displayed in the Museum of London. Early editions of adaptations of the story also depict a red costume but a green costume becomes more usual from the 1920s, and more so later after the release of Disneys animated movie. In the Disney films, Peter wears an outfit consists of a short-sleeved green tunic and tights apparently made of cloth. He has pointed ears, brown eyes and his hair is red. In Hook, the character is played as an adult by Robin Williams, with eyes and dark brown hair, in flashbacks to him in his youth. In this film his ears appear pointed only when he is Peter Pan and his Pan attire resembles the Disney outfit. In the live-action 2003 Peter Pan film, he is portrayed by Jeremy Sumpter and his outfit is made of leaves and vines
7.
Hamlet
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brothers widow. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and he almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeares time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The plays structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny, the protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his fathers brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlets widow, Gertrude, Hamlets mother, Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbrass infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian kings son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle and they vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, after the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself, as Poloniuss son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim to thine own self be true. Poloniuss daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, and that night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees and the ghost vanishes, the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to put an antic disposition on and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret. Privately, however, he remains uncertain of the ghosts reliability, soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving crazily. Polonius blames love for Hamlets madness and resolves to inform Claudius, as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlets mood, additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard, messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his fathers battles. The forces that Fortinbras conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlets behavior, and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies
8.
Burgess Meredith
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Oliver Burgess Meredith was an American actor, director, producer, and writer in theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called a virtuosic actor and one of the most accomplished actors of the century. A life member of the Actors Studio by invitation, he won several Emmys, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards. He established himself as a man in Hollywood with critically acclaimed performances as George Milton in Of Mice and Men. Joe, and the narrator of A Walk in the Sun, Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth and Dr. William George Meredith, a Canadian-born physician, of English descent. Meredith graduated from Hoosac School in 1926 and then attended Amherst College and he later served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, reaching the rank of captain. He was discharged in 1944 to work on the movie The Story of G. I, Joe, in which he played the war correspondent Ernie Pyle. In 1929, he became a member of Eva Le Galliennes Civic Repertory Theatre company in New York City, although best known to the larger world audience for his film and television work, Meredith was an influential actor and director for the stage. He made his Broadway debut as Peter in Le Galliennes production of Romeo and Juliet and became a star in Maxwell Andersons Winterset and his early life and theatre work were the subject of a New Yorker profile. He garnered critical acclaim in the 1935 Broadway revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street starring Katharine Cornell and she subsequently cast him in several of her later productions. Other Broadway roles included Van van Dorn in High Tor, Liliom in Liliom, Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World and he created the role of Erie Smith in the English-language premiere of Eugene ONeills Hughie at the Theater Royal in Bath, England in 1963. He played Hamlet in avant garde theatrical and radio productions of the play, a distinguished theatre director, he won a Tony Award nomination for his 1974 Broadway staging of Ulysses in Nighttown, a theatrical adaptation of the Nighttown section of James Joyces Ulysses. Meredith also shared a Special Tony Award with James Thurber for their collaboration on A Thurber Carnival. I and he was featured in many 1940s films, including three — Second Chorus, Diary of a Chambermaid, and On Our Merry Way — co-starring then-wife Paulette Goddard. He was in Stay Away Joe, appearing as the father of Elvis Presleys character. In 1975, he received acclaim for his performance as Harry Greene in The Day of the Locust and received nominations for the BAFTA, Golden Globe. Meredith then played Rocky Balboas trainer, Mickey Goldmill, in the first three Rocky films, though his character died in the third Rocky film, he returned briefly in a flashback in the fifth film, Rocky V. His portrayal in the first film earned him his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Meredith played an old Korean War veteran Captain J. G, williams in The Last Chase with Lee Majors
9.
John Garfield
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John Garfield was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City, in the early 1930s, he became a member of the Group Theater. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner Bros. stars, called to testify before the U. S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities, he denied communist affiliation and refused to name names, some have alleged that the stress of this incident led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is acknowledged as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, in early infancy, a middle name—Julius—was added, and for the rest of his life those who knew him well called him Julie. His father, a presser and part-time cantor, struggled to make a living. When Garfield was five, his brother Max was born and their mother never fully recovered from what was described as a difficult pregnancy. She died two years later, and the boys were sent to live with various relatives, all poor, scattered across the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens. Several of these lived in tenements in a section of East Brooklyn called Brownsville. At school, he was judged a poor reader and speller and he would later say of his time on the streets there, that he learned all the meanness, all the toughness its possible for kids to acquire. His father remarried and moved to the West Bronx, where Garfield joined a series of gangs, much later, he would recall, Every street had its own gang. Thats the way it was in poor sections and he soon became a gang leader. At this time, people started to notice his ability to mimic well-known performers and he also began to hang out and eventually spar at a boxing gym on Jerome Avenue. At some point, he contracted fever, causing permanent damage to his heart. After being expelled three times and expressing a wish to quit school altogether, his parents sent him to P. S,45, a school for difficult children. It was under the guidance of the schools principal—the noted educator Angelo Patri—that he was introduced to acting, noticing Garfields tendency to stammer, Patri assigned him to a speech therapy class taught by a charismatic teacher named Margaret ORyan. She gave him acting exercises and made him memorize and deliver speeches in front of the class and, as he progressed, ORyan thought he had natural talent and cast him in school plays. She encouraged him to sign up for a citywide debating competition sponsored by the New York Times, to his own surprise, he took second prize
10.
Sarah Bernhardt
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Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress. She was referred to as the most famous actress the world has ever known, Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, at the beginning of the Belle Epoque period, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a dramatic actress and tragedienne. In her later career she starred in some of the earliest films ever produced, Sarah Bernhardt was born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt on October 23,1844. She was the daughter of a Dutch-Jewish courtesan, or upper-class prostitute, Judith Bernard. Four different addresses in Paris are claimed as her birthplace,125 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré,5 rue de lEcole-de-Medicine,22 rue de la Michodière and 265 rue Saint-Honoré. The father, whoever he was, left a sum of one hundred francs for her future dowry when she came of age. Sarah lived for months with the nurse and her husband in the tiny apartment of the concierge. While there, the child showed the first signs of tuberculosis. Sarah was discovered on the street by her aunt Rosine, who was passing by, when Sarahs mother finally returned to Paris, Sarah was taken to her apartment at 265 rue Saint-Honoré, where she lived, attended by servants, rarely ever seeing her mother. At the age of eight, Sarah could neither read or writer and her mother sent her away to a school for young ladies in Auteuil run by a Madame Fressard, where for the first time she was with other children her own age. The other children made fun of her appearance and curly hair. During the two years she attended the school, her mother came to see her only twice and she completely forgot all of her lines and fled the stage in tears. At the age of ten, by obtaining the sponsorship of the Duc de Morny, her mother sent Sarah to Grandchamp, at the convent, she was soon on the stage again, performing the part of the Archangel Raphael in the story of Tobias and the Angel. She received her first communion as a Roman Catholic in 1856, however, she never forgot her Jewish heritage. When asked years later by a reporter if she were a Christian, she replied, No, Im a Roman Catholic, Im waiting until Christians become better. At the age of fifteen, her mother withdrew her from the school and her mother summoned a family council, which also included the Duc de Morny, one of her friends. Morny proposed that Sarah should become an actress, an idea which horrified the young girl, Morny arranged for her to attend her first theater performance at the Comedie Française in a party which included her mother, the Duc de Morny, and his friend Alexandre Dumas
11.
Maurice Maeterlinck
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Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life and his plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement. In later life, Maeterlinck committed plagiarism, Maeterlinck was born in Ghent, Belgium, to a wealthy, French-speaking family. His mother, Mathilde Colette Françoise, came from a wealthy family and his father, Polydore, was a notary who enjoyed tending the greenhouses on their property. In September 1874 he was sent to the Jesuit College of Sainte-Barbe and his experiences at this school influenced his distaste for the Catholic Church and organized religion. He had written poems and short novels during his studies, after finishing his law studies at the University of Ghent in 1885, he spent a few months in Paris, France. He met some members of the new Symbolism movement, Villiers de lIsle Adam in particular, Maeterlinck instantly became a public figure when his first play, Princess Maleine, received enthusiastic praise from Octave Mirbeau, the literary critic of Le Figaro in August 1890. In the following years, he wrote a series of symbolist plays characterized by fatalism and mysticism, most importantly Intruder, The Blind and Pelléas and he had a relationship with the singer and actress Georgette Leblanc from 1895 until 1918. Leblanc influenced his work for the two decades. With the play Aglavaine and Sélysette Maeterlinck began to create characters, especially female characters, Leblanc performed these female characters on stage. Even though mysticism and metaphysics influenced his work throughout his career, in 1895, with his parents frowning upon his open relationship with an actress, Maeterlinck and Leblanc moved to the district of Passy in Paris. The Catholic Church was unwilling to grant her a divorce from her Spanish husband and they frequently entertained guests, including Mirbeau, Jean Lorrain, and Paul Fort. They spent their summers in Normandy, during this period, Maeterlinck published his Twelve Songs, The Treasure of the Humble, The Life of the Bee, and Ariadne and Bluebeard. In 1903, Maeterlinck received the Triennial Prize for Dramatic Literature from the Belgian government. During this period, and down to the Great War, he was looked up to, throughout Europe, as a great sage. In 1906, Maeterlinck and Leblanc moved to a villa in Grasse and he spent his hours meditating and walking. As he emotionally pulled away from Leblanc, he entered a state of depression, diagnosed with neurasthenia, he rented the Benedictine Abbey of St. Wandrille in Normandy to help him relax. By renting the abbey he rescued it from the desecration of being sold and used as a chemical factory, Leblanc would often walk around in the garb of an abbess, he would wear roller skates as he moved about the house
12.
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
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