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The Custom Of The Country
''The Custom of the Country'' is a 1913 tragicomedy of manners novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It is a sharp and biting satire about consumerism that tells the story of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern young woman who attempts to ascend the social ladder through ruthlessness, seduction, vanity, and manipulation in early 20th century New York City society. Plot Summary The story opens in the early 20th century introducing the Spraggs, a family of newly wealthy midwesterners from Apex City (a fictional city in Wisconsin), arrive in New York City to advantageously marry off their beautiful, ambitious, and temperamental daughter Undine. Attracted to glamour and extravagance Undine has a hard time making inroads into the high status old money social circles she wishes to enter. Her beauty catches the attention of several men who offer her a tantalizing glimpse into their world. Ralph Marvell, who is descended from the Dagonets, an old money family, becomes attracted to Undin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edith Wharton
Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel ''The Age of Innocence''. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Her other well-known works are ''The House of Mirth'', the novella ''Ethan Frome'', and several notable ghost stories. Biography Early life Edith Newbold Jones was born on January 24, 1862, to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, at their brownstone at 14 West Twenty-third Street in New York City. To her friends and family, she was known as "Pussy Jones". She had two elder brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. Frederic married Mary Cadwalader Rawle Jones, Mary Cadwalader Rawle; their daughter was landscape architect Beatri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher (December 1579 – August 1625) was an English playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the Stuart Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's. Fletcher collaborated in writing plays, chiefly with Francis Beaumont or Philip Massinger, but also with Shakespeare and others. Although his reputation has subsequently declined, he remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration. Early life Fletcher was born in December 1579 (baptised 20 December) in Rye, Sussex, and died of the plague in August 1625 (buried 29 August in St. Saviour's, Southwark). His father Richard Fletcher was an ambitious and successful cleric who was in turn Dean of Peterborough, Bishop of Bristol, Bishop of Worcester and Bishop of London (shortly before his death), as well as ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paracelsus
Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "Medical Renaissance, medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the "father of toxicology". Paracelsus also had a substantial influence as a prophet or diviner, his "Prognostications" being studied by Rosicrucians in the 17th century. Paracelsianism is the early modern medical movement inspired by the study of his works. Biography Paracelsus was born in Einsiedeln, a village close to the Etzel Pass in Einsiedeln, canton of Schwyz, Schwyz. He was born in a house next to a bridge across the Sihl river. His father Wilhelm (d. 1534) was a chemist and physician, an illegitimate descendant of the Duchy of Swabia, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York Times''. Together with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann, they established the F-R Publishing Company and set up the magazine's first office in Manhattan. Ross remained the editor until his death in 1951, shaping the magazine's editorial tone and standards. ''The New Yorker''s fact-checking operation is widely recognized among journalists as one of its strengths. Although its reviews and events listings often focused on the Culture of New York City, cultural life of New York City, ''The New Yorker'' gained a reputation for publishing serious essays, long-form journalism, well-regarded fiction, and humor for a national and international audience, including work by writers such as Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, and Alice Munro. In the late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence Pugh
Florence Pugh ( ; born 3 January 1996) is an English actress. Her accolades include a British Independent Film Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards. After making her acting debut in the drama film '' The Falling'' (2014), Pugh gained praise for starring in the independent drama ''Lady Macbeth'' (2016) and the miniseries '' The Little Drummer Girl'' (2018). Her international breakthrough came in 2019 with her portrayals of professional wrestler Paige in the sports film '' Fighting with My Family'', a despondent American woman in the horror film '' Midsommar'', and Amy March in the period drama ''Little Women''. For the last of these, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Pugh has played Yelena Belova in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in the films '' Black Widow'' (2021) and '' Thunderbolts*'' (2025), as well as the Disney+ miniseries ''Hawkeye'' (2021). In her highest-grossing releases, she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola ( , ; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and former actress. She has List of awards and nominations received by Sofia Coppola, won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director, Cannes Film Festival Award. She was also nominated for three British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Awards, as well as a Primetime Emmy Awards, Primetime Emmy Award. Her parents are filmmakers Eleanor Coppola, Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, and she made her acting debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed crime drama ''The Godfather'' (1972). Coppola later appeared in several music videos and had a supporting role in the fantasy comedy film ''Peggy Sue Got Married'' (1986). She then portrayed Mary Corleone, the daughter of Michael Corleone, in the sequel ''The Godfather Part III'' (1990). Coppola transitioned into filmmaking with her feature-length directorial debut in the coming-of-age drama ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palliser Novels
The Palliser novels are six novels written in series by Anthony Trollope. They were more commonly known as the Parliamentary novels prior to their 1974 television dramatisation by the BBC broadcast as '' The Pallisers''. Marketed as "polite literature" during their initial publication, the novels encompass several literary genres including: family saga, bildungsroman, picaresque, as well as satire and parody of Victorian (or English) life, and criticism of the British government's predilection for attracting corrupt and corruptible people to power. The common characters throughout the series are the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser, and his wife, Lady Glencora. The plots involve British and Irish politics in varying degrees, specifically in and around Parliament. The Pallisers themselves do not always play major roles, and in '' The Eustace Diamonds'' they merely comment on the main action. The series overlaps with Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scarlett O'Hara
Katie Scarlett O'Hara is the protagonist of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 in literature, 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' and the 1939 Gone with the Wind (film), film of the same name, where she is portrayed by Vivien Leigh. She also is the main character in the 1970 musical ''Scarlett (musical), Scarlett'' and the 1991 book ''Scarlett (Ripley novel), Scarlett'', a sequel to ''Gone with the Wind'' that was written by Alexandra Ripley and adapted for a television mini-series in 1994. During early drafts of the original novel, Mitchell referred to her heroine as "Pansy", and did not decide on the name "Scarlett" until just before the novel went to print. PBS has called O'Hara "quite possibly the most famous female character in American history..." Biography Scarlett O'Hara is the oldest living child of Gerald O'Hara and Ellen O'Hara (née Robillard). She was born in 1845 on her family's plantation Tara (plantation), Tara in Georgia (U.S. State), Georgia. Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Becky Sharp
Rebecca "Becky" Sharp, later describing herself as Rebecca, Lady Crawley, is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel '' Vanity Fair''. She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate and seduce upper-class men. This is in contrast with the clinging, dependent Amelia Sedley, her friend from school. Becky then uses Amelia as a stepping stone to gain social position. Sharp functions as a ''picara''—a picaresque heroine—by being a social outsider who is able to expose the manners of the gentry to ridicule. The book—and Sharp's career—begins in a traditional manner of Victorian fiction, that of a young orphan (Sharp) with no source of income who has to make her own way in the world. Thackeray twisted the Victorian tradition, however, and quickly turned her into a young woman who knew what she wanted from life—fine clothes, money and a social position—and knew how to get them. The route was to be by marriage, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downton Abbey
''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV (TV network), ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece (TV series), ''Masterpiece Classic'' anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials. The series, set on the fictional Yorkshire English country house, country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicts the lives of the Aristocracy (class), aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era, and the effects the great events of the time have on their lives and on the Social class in the United Kingdom, British social hierarchy. These events include news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, sinking of the ''Titanic'' (first series); the outbreak of the First Wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian Fellowes
Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, writer, producer, film director, and Conservative peer. He has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and two Emmy Awards as well as nominations for four BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, two Olivier Awards, and a Tony Award. Fellowes won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the murder mystery film '' Gosford Park'' (2001). He gained renown as the creator, writer and executive producer of the multiple award-winning ITV television series ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2015) and the HBO series '' The Gilded Age'' (2022–present). He also wrote books for stage musicals, including ''Mary Poppins'' (2006) and '' School of Rock'' (2015). Early life and education Fellowes was born into a family of the British landed gentry in Cairo, Egypt, the youngest of four boys, to Peregrine Edwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Droit Du Seigneur
('right of the lord'), also known as ('right of the first night'), sometimes referred to as ''prima nocta'', was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with any female subject, particularly on her wedding night. There are many references to the alleged custom throughout the centuries. Terminology The French expression translates as "right of the lord", but modern French usage prefers (, from , 'leg') or, more commonly, (, from , 'thigh'). The term is often used synonymously with , Latin for "right of the first night". Ancient times The Greek historian Herodotus mentions a similar custom among the Adyrmachidae in ancient Libya: "They are also the only tribe with whom the custom obtains of bringing all women about to become brides before the king, that he may choose such as are agreeable to him." When the plebeians of the Etruscan city of Volsinii rebelled against the aristocrats in 280 BC, "They took their wives for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
