query: Julie Christie starred in Afterglow.

pos: Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie ( born 14 April 1940 ) is an English actress . An icon of the `` swinging London '' era of the 1960s , she has won the Academy , Golden Globe , BAFTA , and Screen Actors Guild Awards , and in 1997 she received the BAFTA Fellowship .   Christie 's breakthrough film role was in Billy Liar ( 1963 ) . She came to international attention in 1965 for her performances in Darling , for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress , and Doctor Zhivago , the eighth highest-grossing film of all time after adjustment for inflation .   In the following years , she starred in Fahrenheit 451 ( 1966 ) , Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1967 ) , Petulia ( 1968 ) , The Go-Between ( 1971 ) , McCabe & Mrs. Miller ( 1971 ) , for which she received her second Oscar nomination , Do n't Look Now ( 1973 ) , Shampoo ( 1975 ) , and Heaven Can Wait ( 1978 ) .   From the early 1980s her appearances in mainstream films reduced , though she held roles as Thetis in Wolfgang Petersen 's historical epic Troy and in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ( both 2004 ) . She has continued to receive significant critical recognition for her work , including Oscar nominations for the independent films Afterglow ( 1997 ) and Away from Her ( 2007 ) .

neg: Afterglow (Soulfire Revolution album) Afterglow is the second studio album by Soulfire Revolution . Dream Records released the album on August 21 , 2015 .

neg: Julie Hébert Julie Hébert ( sometimes credited as Julie Hebert ) is an award-winning writer/director of theater , film and television .

neg: Southern Ontario Gothic Southern Ontario Gothic is a subgenre of the Gothic novel genre and a feature of Canadian literature that comes from Southern Ontario . This region includes Toronto , Southern Ontario 's major industrial cities ( Windsor , London , Hamilton , St. Thomas , Oshawa , St. Catharines ) , and the surrounding countryside . While the genre may also feature other areas of Ontario , Canada , and the world as narrative locales , this region provides the core settings .   The term was first used in Graeme Gibson 's Eleven Canadian Novelists ( 1972 ) to recognize an existing tendency to apply aspects of the Gothic novel to writing based in and around Southern Ontario . In an interview with Timothy Findley , Gibson commented that Findley 's novel The Last of the Crazy People shared similarities with the American Southern Gothic genre , to which Findley replied , '' ... sure , it 's Southern Gothic : Southern Ontario Gothic . ''   Notable writers of this subgenre include Alice Munro , Margaret Atwood , Robertson Davies , Jane Urquhart , Marian Engel , James Reaney and Barbara Gowdy .   Like the Southern Gothic of American writers such as William Faulkner , Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty , Southern Ontario Gothic analyzes and critiques social conditions such as race , gender , religion and politics , but in a Southern Ontario context . Southern Ontario Gothic is generally characterized by a stern realism set against the dour small-town Protestant morality stereotypical of the region , and often has underlying themes of moral hypocrisy . Actions and people that act against humanity , logic , and morality all are portrayed unfavourably , and one or more characters may be suffering from some form of mental illness . In a review of Alice Munro 's Dear Life for Quill & Quire , literary critic James Grainger writes that `` Violence , illness , and reputations ruined by a single indiscretion are accepted in Munro 's secretive , repressed communities as a kind of levelling mechanism , rough justice for those who dare to strive for something finer . ''   The Gothic novel has traditionally examined the role of evil in the human soul , and has incorporated dark or horrific imagery to create the desired setting . Some ( but not all ) writers of Southern Ontario Gothic use supernatural or magic realist elements ; a few deviate from realism entirely , in the manner of the fantastical gothic novel . Virtually all dwell to a certain extent upon the grotesque .   Notable works of the genre include Davies ' Deptford Trilogy , Findley 's Headhunter , Atwood 's Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin , and Munro 's Selected Stories .   The genre has been criticised as having `` little or nothing to distinguish it from everyday , garden-variety type realism . ''

neg: Déjà Vu (2006 film) Déjà Vu ( stylised onscreen without accents ) is a 2006 American science fiction thriller film directed by Tony Scott , written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio , and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer . The film stars Denzel Washington , Paula Patton , Jim Caviezel , Val Kilmer , Adam Goldberg and Bruce Greenwood . It involves an ATF agent who travels back in time in attempts to prevent a domestic terrorist attack that takes place in New Orleans and to save a woman with whom he falls in love . Filming took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina .   The film was premiered in New York City on November 20 , 2006 , and released widely in the United States and Canada two days later on November 22 , 2006 . It received mixed reviews from critics , and earning $ 64 million in the United States and $ 180 million worldwide . It was the 23rd most successful film worldwide for 2006 . The film was nominated for five awards , and also won the Golden Reel Award .

neg: Julie Ann Emery Julie Ann Emery ( born January 16 , 1975 ) is an American actress .

neg: Death on the Nile (2004 film) Death on the Nile is a 2004 British television film , part of the ITV Agatha Christie 's Poirot series , based on the mystery novel Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie . The film was shot almost entirely on location in Egypt .

neg: John and Julie John and Julie ( 1955 ) is a British comedy film , featuring Peter Sellers and Sid James in early screen roles .

neg: A Kiss Before Dying (1956 film) A Kiss Before Dying is a 1956 American color film noir , directed by Gerd Oswald in his directorial debut . The screenplay was written by Lawrence Roman , based on Ira Levin 's 1953 novel of the same name , which won the 1954 Edgar Award for `` Best First Novel . '' The drama stars Robert Wagner , Jeffrey Hunter , Virginia Leith , Joanne Woodward , and Mary Astor . It was remade in 1991 under the same title .   Wagner plays a charming , intelligent man who will stop at nothing to get his life where he wants it to go . His problem is a pregnant woman -- played by Joanne Woodward in one of her first film roles -- who loves him . The solution involves desperate measures .

neg: Sleeping Murder Sleeping Murder : Miss Marple 's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1976 and in the US by Dodd , Mead and Company later in the same year . The UK edition retailed for # 3.50 and the US edition for $ 7.95 .   The book features Miss Marple . It was the last Christie novel , published posthumously , although not the last one Christie wrote featuring Miss Marple . The story is set in the 1930s , though written during the Second World War . She aids a young couple who choose to uncover events in the wife 's past life , and not let sleeping murder lie .

neg: ITV Sunday Night Theatre ITV Sunday Night Theatre , originally titled ITV Saturday Night Theatre , is a UK television anthology series screened on ITV , and produced by London Weekend Television ( LWT ) . Some episodes were produced with Kestrel Productions .   Around 200 episodes aired on ITV from 1969-1974 , including productions of the plays Long Day 's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill , A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen , and Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw . Other episodes included adaptions of the works of William Shakespeare , James Joyce , Wilkie Collins , Simon Gray , Sam Shepard , Israel Horovitz , Arthur Miller , August Strindberg , J.B. Priestley , Lanford Wilson , and John Mortimer .   Among its directors were Michael Lindsay-Hogg , Anthony Page , Mike Newell , Fielder Cook , Ted Kotcheff , Peter Wood , and Vivian Matalon .   The actors involved included Helen Mirren , Laurence Olivier , Sean Connery , Anthony Hopkins , Michael Caine , Paul Scofield , George C. Scott , Laurence Harvey , Ralph Richardson , Diana Rigg , Trevor Howard , Glenda Jackson , Diane Cilento , Alec Guinness , Jane Asher , Martin Sheen , Colleen Dewhurst , Jean Marsh , Shelley Winters , Ian Holm , Richard Chamberlain , Edith Evans , John Gielgud , Shirley Knight , Ian McKellen , George Sanders and Margaret Whiting .

neg: Premonition (2007 film) Premonition is a 2007 American supernatural thriller film directed by Mennan Yapo and starring Sandra Bullock , Julian McMahon , and Amber Valletta . The film 's plot depicts a housewife named Linda who experiences the days surrounding her husband 's death in a non-chronological order , and how she attempts to save him from his impending doom .

neg: Glorious 39 Glorious 39 is a 2009 British war thriller film written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff . Starring Romola Garai , Bill Nighy , Julie Christie , Jeremy Northam , Christopher Lee , David Tennant , Jenny Agutter and Eddie Redmayne . The film was released on 20 November 2009 .   On the eve of World War II , as the formidable Keyes family tries to uphold its traditional way of life , daughter Anne ( Garai ) sees her life dramatically unravel when she stumbles upon secret recordings of the pro-appeasement movement .

neg: Murphy's Law (film) Murphy 's Law is an American 1986 thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Gail Morgan Hickman . It was released by Cannon Films to the United States on April 18 , 1986 . The film stars Charles Bronson and Kathleen Wilhoite in lead roles with a supporting cast that includes Carrie Snodgress , Robert F. Lyons , and Richard Romanus .   The movie marks the sixth collaboration between Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson ( following 1976 's St. Ives , 1977 's The White Buffalo , 1980 's Caboblanco , 1983 's 10 to Midnight , and 1984 's The Evil That Men Do ) .

neg: Morgan Christie Morgan Christie is an Australian film director and music video director , film editor and producer . He is a graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School with specialization in Cinematography and Digital Media and alumni of the Berlinale Talent Campus .

neg: The Secret Life of Words The Secret Life of Words is a 2005 Spanish drama film written and directed by Isabel Coixet and starring Sarah Polley , Tim Robbins , Javier Cámara and Julie Christie . It was released on December 15 , 2006 .

neg: Witness for the Prosecution (1982 film) Witness for the Prosecution is a 1982 television film version of Agatha Christie 's short story and play , and also a remake of the Billy Wilder film Witness for the Prosecution ( 1957 ) .

neg: The Ever After The Ever After is a 2014 American drama film directed by Mark Webber and starring Teresa Palmer , Rosario Dawson , Melissa Leo and Webber .

neg: Aftershocks (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) `` Aftershocks '' is the eleventh episode of the second season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. ( Strategic Homeland Intervention , Enforcement and Logistics Division ) , revolving around the character of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they race to strike back against Hydra after an apparent defeat to the latter , while several characters discover they have gained new abilities following the end of the previous episode . It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) , sharing continuity with the films of the franchise . The episode was written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon , and directed by Billy Gierhart .   Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series , and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen , Brett Dalton , Chloe Bennet , Iain De Caestecker , Elizabeth Henstridge , Nick Blood , and Adrianne Palicki . Palicki was promoted to series regular with this episode , after having a recurring guest role in the first half of the season . The episode also saw the return of Marvel 's `` The Art of ... '' marketing initiative .   `` Aftershocks '' originally aired on ABC on March 3 , 2015 , and according to Nielsen Media Research , was watched by 4.48 million viewers .

neg: Star Over Bethlehem Star Over Bethlehem is an illustrated book of poetry and short stories on a religious theme by crime writer Agatha Christie . It was published under the name `` Agatha Christie Mallowan '' ( whose only other book to be published under this by-line was the 1946 short autobiography Come , Tell Me How You Live ) . It was published in the UK by Collins on 1 November 1965 in an edition priced at thirteen shillings and sixpence ( 13/6 ) and in the US by Dodd , Mead and Company in an edition retailing at $ 4.95 .   The volume contains five poems and six short stories , all on the theme of Christianity . Some of the poems can be taken as comments or epilogues on the short stories ( e.g. Gold , Frankincense and Myrrh refers to the gifts in the stable which The Naughty Donkey in the preceding story attempts to eat ) . Although relatively unknown , this work , when referred to at all , is often stated as being for children ; however the stories it contains are firmly aimed at an adult audience and with adult themes , especially for 1965 . For instance , in the story The Water Bus , Mrs Hargreaves 's cleaner tries to offload her woes to her employer , the main one of which is that her daughter is dying in hospital after an illegal abortion went wrong .   Little is known of the reasons for the writing of the contents of this book , however Christie is known to have retained strong religious beliefs throughout her life . She is also said to have been pleased with Collins ' plans for the publication and its illustrations by Elsie Wrigley and pleased at the reception of the book and , for once , requests for it to be autographed .

neg: After (novel) After is a young adult novel written by Francine Prose . It was first published in 2003 , and the nearby school shooting is reminiscent of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 .   After a school shooting 50 miles away , the new grief and crisis counselor ( Dr. Willner ) attempts to control the students ' lives , using the recent tragedy as an excuse for increasingly restricting their lives . The school gradually is controlled by the grip of the administration , and students who do not comply with the new rules disappear , never to be seen again .   Its plot is reminiscent of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell .   Similarities include the normalization of propaganda and surveillance with the telescreens in 1984 and the TVs on school buses spouting so called educational content that turns out to be blatantly false . These novels also touch on brainwashing , with the nightly emails sent to parents that convince them to send their children away to reform camps from which they never return .   In contrast , After takes place during the reforms , showing how they were allowed to happen , while 1984 only shows the aftermath and its inevitability . The ending of After also shows the main character ( Tom Bishop ) escaping his town with his friends and family , a much lighter closing than 1984 .   Described in the New York Times Book Review as a `` rich parable '' , this novel questions the line that must be drawn when freedom is more important than safety .


query: Francois de Belleforest wrote.

pos: François de Belleforest François de Belleforest ( 1530 -- 1 January 1583 ) was a prolific French author , poet and translator of the Renaissance .   He was born in Comminges , into a poor family , and his father ( a soldier ) was killed when he was seven . He spent some time in the court of Marguerite of Navarre , traveled to Toulouse and Bordeaux ( where he met George Buchanan ) , and then to Paris where he came into contact with members of the young literary generation , including Pierre de Ronsard , Jean Antoine de Baïf , Jean Dorat , Remy Belleau , Antoine Du Verdier and Odet de Turnèbe . In 1568 he became historiographer to the king . He died in Paris .   Belleforest wrote on cosmography , morals , literature and history , and he translated the works of Matteo Bandello , Boccaccio , Antonio de Guevara , Lodovico Guicciardini , Polydore Vergil , Saint Cyprian , Sebastian Münster , Achilles Tatius , Cicero and Demosthenes into French . He is also the author of the first French pastoral novel , La Pyrénée ( or La Pastorale amoureuse ) ( 1571 ) modeled on the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor . His Grandes Annales are a polemic tract against François Hotman . His total output comprises more than 50 volumes .   His most successful work was most likely his translation and adaptation of the `` histoires tragiques '' by the Italian Matteo Bandello , which built on the work of Pierre Boaistuau and eventually amounted to seven volumes ( 1564-1582 ) . One of these tales might be the source for Shakespeare 's Hamlet .

neg: Jean-François de Bastide Jean-François de Bastide ( 15 July 1724 , Marseille -- 4 July 1798 , Milan aged 73 ) was an 18th-century French writer and playwright .   The son of a magistrate from Provence , Bastide was a polygraph : he wrote novels ( Histoire d'une religieuse par elle-même , `` Bibliothèque universelle des romans '' , May 1786 , 24 p. in-16 ) , theatre plays , critics , and was also a journalist and a compilator . As a journalist , he published Le Nouveau spectateur ( 1758 -- 60 ) , Le Monde tel qu'il est ( 1760 -- 61 ) , Journal de Bruxelles ou le Penseur ( 1766 -- 67 ) , etc. . He also directed the `` Bibliothèque universelle des romans '' from 1779 to 1789 .   As a playwright , he composed :  1749 : Le Désenchantement inespéré  1762 : L'Épreuve de la probité  1763 : Les Caractères de la musique  1763 : Les Deux talents , opéra comique presented at Comédie Italienne 11 August ( music by chevalier d'Herbain )  1764 : Le Jeune homme , comedy presented in Bordeaux  1766 : Les Amants opposés , comedy presented in The Hague 11 March  La Majorité , comedy presented the same day in the same theatre  1766 : Le Soldat par amour , opéra comique presented in Brussel , at Théâtre de la Monnaie , 4 November ( music by Pierre Van Maldere and Ignaz Vitzthumb )  Gésoncourt et Clémentine , tragedy presented the same day in the same theatre .  La Petite-Maison , published in Contes de M. de Bastide , Paris , L. Cellot , 1763 , II , 1 , p. 47-88

neg: French colonial empire The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies , protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward . A distinction is generally made between the `` first colonial empire '' , that existed until 1814 , by which time most of it had been lost , and the `` second colonial empire '' , which began with the conquest of Algiers in 1830 . The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam ( 1955 ) and Algeria ( 1962 ) , and peaceful decolonization elsewhere after 1960 .   Competing with Spain , Portugal , the United Provinces , and later Britain , France began to establish colonies in North America , the Caribbean , and India in the 17th century . A series of wars with Great Britain and other European major powers during the 18th century and early 19th century resulted in France losing nearly all of its conquests . France rebuilt a new empire mostly after 1850 , concentrating chiefly in Africa , as well as Indochina and the South Pacific . Republicans , at first hostile to empire , only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire . As it developed the new empire took on roles of trade with France , especially supplying raw materials and purchasing manufactured items , as well as lending prestige to the motherland and spreading French civilization and language , and the Catholic religion . It also provided manpower in the World Wars .   It became a moral mission to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity and French culture . In 1884 the leading proponent of colonialism , Jules Ferry declared ; `` The higher races have a right over the lower races , they have a duty to civilize the inferior races . '' Full citizenship rights -- assimilation -- were offered , although in reality `` assimilation was always receding -LSB- and -RSB- the colonial populations treated like subjects not citizens . '' France sent small numbers of settlers to its empire , contrary to Great Britain , and previously Spain and Portugal , with the only notable exception of Algeria , where the French settlers nonetheless always remained a small minority .   At its apex , it was one of the largest empires in history . Including metropolitan France , the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached 11500000 km2 in 1920 , with a population of 110 million people in 1939 . In World War II , Charles de Gaulle and the Free French used the overseas colonies as bases from which they fought to liberate France . Historian Tony Chafer argues : `` In an effort to restore its world-power status after the humiliation of defeat and occupation , France was eager to maintain its overseas empire at the end of the Second World War . '' However , after 1945 anti-colonial movements began to challenge European authority . The French constitution of October 27 , 1946 ( Fourth Republic ) , established the French Union which endured until 1958 . Newer remnants of the colonial empire were integrated into France as overseas departments and territories within the French Republic . These now total altogether 119,394 km ² ( 46,098 sq. miles ) , which amounts to only 1 % of the pre-1939 French colonial empire 's area , with 2.7 million people living in them in 2013 . By the 1970s , says Robert Aldrich , the last `` vestiges of empire held little interest for the French . '' He argues , `` Except for the traumatic decolonization of Algeria , however , what is remarkable is how few long-lasting effects on France the giving up of empire entailed . ''

neg: Charles Frédéric Dubois Charles Frédéric Dubois ( 28 May 1804 -- 12 November 1867 ) was a Belgian naturalist .   He was the author of Planches colorées des oiseaux de l'Europe ( `` Color plates of the birds of Europe '' ) and Catalogue systématique des Lépidoptères de la Belgique ( `` Systematic catalog of the Lepidoptera of Belgium '' ) , which was completed by his son , Alphonse Joseph Charles Dubois ( 1839 -- 1921 ) , after his death .   The following quote has been widely attributed to Charles Dubois , as on the Favorite Quotes blog : `` The important thing is this : to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become . '' However , its correct attribution appears to be to Charles Du Bos ( 1882-1939 ) , the French critic of French and English literature .   The quote comes from his book Approximations ( 1922 ) : '' ... premier tressaillement vital ; surtout il s ` agit à tout moment de sacrifier ce que nous sommes à ce que nous pouvons devenir . ''

neg: Martin le Franc Martin le Franc ( c. 1410 -- 1461 ) was a French poet of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance .   He was born in Normandy , and studied in Paris . He entered clerical orders , becoming an apostolic prothonotary , and later becoming secretary to both Antipope Felix V and Pope Nicholas V.   He was named provost at Lausanne in 1443 , became canon of the Church of Geneva in 1447 . In 1451 he was employed by the Duke of Savoy , and he became administrator of the abbey of Novalèse in 1459 .   Le Franc 's most famous work was his huge , 24,000-verse composition Le Champion des Dames ( The Champion of Women ) , dedicated to Philip the Good and dating from 1440 or 1442 ( first printed in Lyon in 1485 and again in Paris in 1530 ) . It recounts the nobility and deeds of many women throughout history , including Joan of Arc , and also fiercely attacks corruption in government as well as the hedonistic luxury of the aristocratic class . It was illuminated by Peronet Lamy .   Martin le Franc is famous in music history for penning the phrase `` la contenance angloise '' , the English countenance , a much-debated phrase referring to a characteristically English sound found in the music of composers such as John Dunstaple . The `` countenance '' -- probably consonant , sweet intervals ( 3rds and 6ths ) which were predominant in the music of contemporary English composers -- was massively influential on the music of the Burgundian School during the period that Burgundy was allied with England .   Another long poem by Le Franc is L'Estrif de Fortune et Vertu ( 1447-1448 ) , which was also moralistic and didactic , presenting a debate between Fortune and Virtue .

neg: Louis Marie Fontan Louis Marie Fontan ( November 4 , 1801 -- October 10 , 1839 ) , a French man of letters , was born in Lorient and died in Thiais .   He began his career as a clerk in a government office , but was dismissed for taking part in a political banquet . At the age of nineteen he went to Paris and began to contribute to the Tablettes and the Album . He was brought to trial for political articles written for the latter paper , but defended himself so energetically that he secured indefinite postponement of his trial .   The offending paper was suppressed for a time , and Fontan produced a collection of political poems , Odes et epîtres , and a number of plays , of which Perkins Warbec ( 1828 ) , written in collaboration with MM . Halévy and Drouineau , was the most successful . In 1828 the Album was revived , and in it Fontan published a virulent but witty attack on Charles X , entitled Le Mouton enrage ( June 10 , 1829 ) .   To escape the inevitable prosecution Fontan fled over the frontier , but , finding no safe asylum , he returned to Paris to give himself up to the authorities , and was sentenced to five years ' imprisonment and a heavy fine . He was liberated by the revolution of 1830 , and his Jeanne la folle , performed in the same year , gained a success due perhaps more to sympathy with the author 's political principles than to the merits of the piece itself , a somewhat crude and violent picture of Breton history .   A drama representing the trial of Marshal Ney , which he wrote in collaboration with Charles Dupeuty , Le Proces d'un maréchal de France ( printed 1831 ) , was suppressed on the night of its production . Fontan died in Thiais on 10 October 1839 .   A sympathetic portrait of Fontan as a prisoner , and an analysis of his principal works , are to be found in Jules Janin 's Histoire de la littérature dramatique , vol . i and also in Eugène Briffault 's biographical portrait `` Fontan '' in the collection Nouvelles parisiennes ( 1843 ) .   Category :19 th-century French dramatists and playwrights  Category :19 th-century male writers  Category : People from Lorient  Category :1801 births  Category :1839 deaths

neg: François Villon François Villon ( pronounced -LSB- fʁɑ̃swa vijɔ̃ -RSB- in modern French ; in fifteenth-century French , -LSB- -LSB- frɑnswɛ vilɔn -RSB- -RSB- ) , born in Paris in 1431 and disappeared from view in 1463 , is the best known French poet of the late Middle Ages . A ne'er - do-well who was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities , Villon wrote about some of these experiences in his poems .

neg: Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour ( -LSB- ˈluːi_ləˈmʊr -RSB- 22 March 1908 -- 10 June 1988 ) was an American novelist and short story writer . His books consisted primarily of Western novels ( though he called his work ` frontier stories ' ) ; however , he also wrote historical fiction ( The Walking Drum ) , science fiction ( The Haunted Mesa ) , non-fiction ( Frontier ) , as well as poetry and short-story collections . Many of his stories were made into films and John Wayne once made the dubious assertion that L'Amour was the most interesting man in the world . L'Amour 's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings . At the time of his death almost all of his 105 existing works ( 89 novels , 14 short-story collections , and two full-length works of nonfiction ) were still in print , and he was considered `` one of the world 's most popular writers '' .

neg: Charles Simon Favart Charles Simon Favart ( 13 November 1710 -- 12 May 1792 ) was a French playwright .   Born in Paris , the son of a pastry-cook , he was educated at the college of Louis-le-Grand , and after his father 's death he carried on the business for a time . His first success in literature was La France delivrée par la Pucelle d'Orléans , a poem about Joan of Arc which obtained a prize of the Académie des Jeux Floraux . After the production of his first vaudeville , Les Deux Jumelles ( 1734 ) , circumstances enabled him to relinquish business and devote himself entirely to the drama . He provided many pieces anonymously for the lesser theatres , and first put his name to La Chercheuse d'esprit , which was produced in 1741 .   Among his most successful works were Annette et Lubin , Le Coq du milage ( 1743 ) , Ninette à la cour ( 1753 ) , Les Trois Sultanes ( 1761 ) and L'Anglais de Bordeaux ( 1763 ) . Favart became director of the Opéra-Comique , and in 1745 married Marie Justine Benoîte Duronceray , a beautiful young dancer , singer and actress , who as `` Mlle Chantilly '' had made a successful début the year before . By their united talents and labours , the Opéra-Comique rose to such a height of success that it aroused the jealousy of the rival Comédie-Française and was suppressed .   Favart , left thus without resources , accepted the proposal of Maurice , comte de Saxe , and became director of a troupe of comedians which was to accompany Maurice 's army into Flanders . It was part of his duty to compose from time to time impromptu verses on the events of the campaign , amusing and stimulating the spirits of the men . So popular were Favart and his troupe that the enemy became desirous of hearing his company and sharing his services , and permission was given to gratify them , battles and comedies thus curiously alternating with each other .   The marshal , an admirer of Mme Favart , began to pay her unwanted attentions . To escape him she went to Paris , and the wrath of Saxe fell upon the husband . A lettre de cachet was issued against him , but he fled to Strasbourg and found concealment in a cellar .   Favart survived his wife by twenty years . After the marshal 's death in 1750 he returned to Paris and resumed his pursuits as a dramatist . It was at this time that he became friendly with the abbé de Voisenon , who helped him with his work , to what extent is uncertain . He had grown nearly blind in his last days , and died in Paris .   His plays have been republished in various editions and selections ( 1763-1772 , 12 vols. ; 1810 , 3 vols. ; 1813 ; 1853 ) . His correspondence ( 1759-1763 ) with Count Durazzo , director of theatres at Vienna , was published in 1808 as Mémoires et correspondance littéraire , dramatique et anecdotique de CS Favart . It furnishes valuable information on the state of the literary and theatrical worlds in the 18th century .

neg: Christine de Pizan Christine de Pizan ( also seen as de Pisan ; -LSB- kʁistin də pizɑ̃ -RSB- ; 1364 -- c. 1430 ) was an Italian French late medieval author . She served as a court writer for several dukes ( Louis of Orleans , Philip the Bold of Burgundy , and John the Fearless of Burgundy ) and the French royal court during the reign of Charles VI . She wrote both poetry and prose works such as biographies and books containing practical advice for women . She completed forty-one works during her 30-year career from 1399 to 1429 . She married in 1380 at the age of 15 , and was widowed 10 years later . Much of the impetus for her writing came from her need to earn a living to support her mother , a niece and her two surviving children . She spent most of her childhood and all of her adult life in Paris and then the abbey at Poissy , and wrote entirely in her adopted language , Middle French .   Her early courtly poetry is marked by her knowledge of aristocratic custom and fashion of the day , particularly involving women and the practice of chivalry . Her early and later allegorical and didactic treatises reflect both autobiographical information about her life and views and also her own individualized and humanist approach to the scholastic learned tradition of mythology , legend , and history she inherited from clerical scholars and to the genres and courtly or scholastic subjects of contemporary French and Italian poets she admired . Supported and encouraged by important royal French and English patrons , she influenced 15th-century English poetry . Her success stems from a wide range of innovative writing and rhetorical techniques that critically challenged renowned writers such as Jean de Meun , author of the Romance of the Rose , which she criticized as immoral .   In recent decades , Christine de Pizan 's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard , Earl Jeffrey Richards and Simone de Beauvoir . Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society . This characterization has been challenged by other critics , who say that it is either an anachronistic use of the word or a misinterpretation of her writing and intentions .

neg: Octave Crémazie Octave Crémazie ( April 16 , 1827 -- January 16 , 1879 ) was a French Canadian poet and bookseller born in Quebec City . Recognized both during and after his lifetime for his patriotic verse and his significant role in the cultural development of Quebec , Crémazie has been called `` the father of French Canadian poetry . ''   Octave was the youngest of the four surviving children of Jacques Crémazie and Marie-Anne Miville . From 1836 to 1844 , he was a student at the Seminary of Quebec , where the priest John Holmes ( American priest ) introduced him to the works of the French Romantic writers . Alfred de Musset , Alphonse de Lamartine , and Victor Hugo , in particular , had a profound influence on the future poet .   After finishing his studies at the Seminary of Quebec , Crémazie went into business with his brother Joseph , a bookseller . Their shop in Quebec City , the J. et O. Crémazie bookstore , was instrumental in the North American dissemination of works by many Romantic writers . It was also a meeting place for the members of what would become known as Quebec 's literary movement of 1860 .   While still in his early twenties , Crémazie helped found the Institut canadien , an organization devoted to the promotion of French Canadian culture . He would later serve as the organization 's president ( from 1857 to 1858 ) .   Crémazie 's first published poems appeared in L'Ami de la religion et de la patrie ( edited by his brother Jacques ) and other Quebec City newspapers . Recognition for his poetry grew throughout the 1850s . As French-Canadian literature scholar Odette Condemine writes :   His nostalgic evocation of the happiness that preceded the Conquest and the miseries that followed roused his compatriots ' fervour . `` Le vieux soldat canadien '' ( 1855 ) and Le Drapeau de Carillon ( 1858 ) were enthusiastically received and won Crémazie his title as `` national bard . ''   The longing for a glorious , vanished past and the sense of estrangement from France in Crémazie 's work has prompted the critic Gilles Marcotte to describe it as a poetry of exile .   Despite the popularity of his bookstore , Octave Crémazie 's extravagant taste for foreign commodities led to large debts and trouble with creditors . By 1862 , his financial situation had become so dire that he fled to France in secret , leaving the bookstore bankrupt . He lived at different times in Paris , Bordeaux , and Le Havre under the name of Jules Fontaine , poor and isolated despite having secured a modest job and the support of a few French friends .   Crémazie 's poetic production stopped when he left Quebec . The documents that survive from his later years include his Journal du siège de Paris , a diary detailing the hardship that Parisians and Crémazie himself endured during the siege of the capital in 1870 and 1871 . Many of his letters to close friends and family members also survive , including his correspondence with the priest Raymond Casgrain , to whom Crémazie often expressed his ideas about literature .   Octave Crémazie died in Le Havre on January 16 , 1879 .   Œuvres complètes , a volume of Crémazie 's poems and letters edited by Raymond Casgrain , was published in 1882 by the Beauchemin bookstore in Montreal and the Institut canadien de Québec . The book included the following remarks : `` In a word , the publishers wanted this book to stand as the most enduring monument that could be raised to the memory of the most patriotic , and indeed the most hapless , of our poets . ''   A statue depicting a French Canadian soldier stands in Montreal 's Saint-Louis Square ( Rue de Malines and Saint-Denis ) with Crémazie 's name across the top and the years 1827-1879 ( his years of birth and death ) . Underneath the soldier are the words : Pour mon drapeau je viens ici mourir ( literally : `` For my flag I come here to die '' ) . There is also a Montreal metro station named for him on the orange line , located on the boulevard likewise named in his honour .

neg: Gil Blas (periodical) Gil Blas ( or Le Gil Blas ) was a Parisian literary periodical named for Alain-René Lesage 's novel Gil Blas . It was founded by the sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont in November 1879 .   Gil Blas serialized famous novels such as Émile Zola 's Germinal ( 1884 ) and L'Œuvre ( 1885 ) before they appeared in book form . Guy de Maupassant regularly published short stories in Gil Blas . The journal was also known for its opinionated arts and theatre criticism . Contributors included René Blum , Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești , and Abel Hermant . Théophile Steinlen and Albert Guillaume provided illustrations .   Gil Blas was published regularly until 1914 , when it went on a short hiatus due to the outbreak of World War I. Afterwards , it was published intermittently until 1938 .   In addition to Germinal , Gil Blas serialized the Zola novels L'Argent , Au Bonheur des Dames , and La Joie de vivre . Guy de Maupassant stories which debuted in Gil Blas include '' À vendre , '' `` Imprudence , '' `` L'Inconnue , '' `` La Bête à Maît ' Belhomme , '' `` La Confidence , '' `` La Baptême , '' `` Tribunaux Rustiques '' and perhaps most famously `` Le Horla '' .   Gil Blas critic Louis Vauxcelles 's phrase `` Donatello chez les fauves ! '' ( `` Donatello among the wild beasts '' ) brought notoriety and attention to the works of Henri Matisse and Les Fauves exhibited at the Salon d'Automne of 1905 . Vauxcelles ' comment was printed on 17 October 1905 and passed into popular usage .

neg: Essay of Dramatick Poesie Essay of Dramatic Poesy by John Dryden was published in 1668 . It was probably written during the plague year of 1666 . Dryden takes up the subject that Philip Sidney had set forth in his Defence of Poesie ( 1580 ) and attempts to justify drama as a legitimate form of `` poetry '' comparable to the epic , as well as defend English drama against that of the ancients and the French .   The treatise is a dialogue between four speakers : Eugenius , Crites , Lisideius , and Neander . The four speakers represented , respectively Charles Sackville ( Lord Buchhurst and later sixth Earl of Dorset ) , Sir Robert Howard -LSB- playwright and Dryden 's brother-in-law -RSB- , Sir Charles Sedley ( Edward Malone identified him as Lisideius ) and Dryden himself ( neander means `` new man '' and implies that Dryden , as a respected member of the gentry class , is entitled to join in this dialogue on an equal footing with the three older men who are his social superiors ) . On the day that the English fleet encounters the Dutch at sea near the mouth of the Thames , the four friends take a barge downriver towards the noise from the battle . Rightly concluding , as the noise subsides , that the English have triumphed , they order the bargeman to row them back upriver as they begin a dialogue on the advances made by modern civilization . They agree to measure progress by comparing ancient arts with modern , focusing specifically on the art of drama ( or `` dramatic poesy '' ) . The four men debate a series of three topics : ( 1 ) the relative merit of classical drama ( upheld by Crites ) vs. modern drama ( championed by Eugenius ) ; ( 2 ) whether French drama , as Lisideius maintains , is better than English drama ( supported by Neander , who famously calls Shakespeare `` the greatest soul , ancient or modern '' ) ; and ( 3 ) whether plays in rhyme are an improvement upon blank verse drama -- a proposition that Neander , despite having defended the Elizabethans , now advances against the skeptical Crites ( who also switches from his original position and defends the blank verse tradition of Elizabethan drama ) . Invoking the so-called unities from Aristotle 's Poetics ( as interpreted by Italian and refined by French scholars over the last century ) , the four speakers discuss what makes a play `` a just and lively imitation '' of human nature in action . This definition of a play , supplied by Lisideius/Orrery ( whose rhymed plays had dazzled the court and were a model for the new drama ) , gives the debaters a versatile and richly ambiguous touchstone . To Crites ' argument that the plots of classical drama are more `` just , '' Eugenius can retort that modern plots are more `` lively '' thanks to their variety . Lisideius shows that the French plots carefully preserve Aristotle 's unities of action , place , and time ; Neander replies that English dramatists like Ben Jonson also kept the unities when they wanted to , but that they preferred to develop character and motive . Even Neander 's final argument with Crites over whether rhyme is suitable in drama depends on Aristotle 's Poetics : Neander says that Aristotle demands a verbally artful ( `` lively '' ) imitation of nature , while Crites thinks that dramatic imitation ceases to be `` just '' when it departs from ordinary speech -- i.e. prose or blank verse . A year later , the two brothers-in-law quarreled publicly over this third topic . See Dryden 's `` Defense of An Essay of Dramatic Poesy '' ( 1669 ) , where Dryden tries to persuade the rather literal-minded Howard that audiences expect a play to be an imitation of nature , not a surrogate for nature itself .

neg: Gustave de Romand Gustave , baron de Romand , ( 18 -- - 18 -- ) was a respected amateur French entomologist , a member of the Société entomologique de France . who was prominent in the political arena . He contributed on September 4 , 1837 , a `` Description of the male Epomidiopteron Julii . '' to the Royal Entomological Society of London , but his modest place in the history of entomology is secured by his Tableau de l'aile supérieure des Hyménoptêres ( privately printed in Paris , 1838 ) . In a hand-colored lithograph it presented 28 kinds of Hymenopteran upper wings , their homologous features differently tinted , so that by comparing them the viewer could establish to which family an individual specimen belonged . In an accompanying printed 14-column table , the terms used by previous entomologists to describe Hymnopteran wings are tabulated.are presented for comparison . The Australian paper wasp Ropalidia romandi was named by Élie Jean François Le Guillou to honour him in 1841 .   M. de Roland was more widely known among his contemporaries as a conservative politician , author of the political essay De l'État des partis en France ( 1839 ) , and of an essay on the dictatorial political strength of radical , socialist Paris over the provinces ( De la dictature de Paris sur la France ) in the year of revolution , 1848 . The crisis of 1848 elicited from him several other pamphlets . He was a member of the Corps législatif under the Second Empire ( 1852-1870 ) . He published his Souvenirs politiques et administratifs in 1855 . His father , aide-de-camp of the prince de Polignac and a staunch royalist during the Hundred Days was ennobled by Louis XVIII at the second Bourbon restoration , 1815 , and was made a member of the Legion of Honor .

neg: Conseil du Roi The Conseil du Roi ( -LSB- kɔ̃sɛj dy ʁwa -RSB- ; French for `` The King 's Council '' ) , also known as the is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the king of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice . It should not be confused with the role and title of a `` Conseil du Roi '' , a type of public prosecutor in the French legal system at the same period .   One of the established principles of the French monarchy was that the king could not act without the advice of his council . Under Charles V , it was put forward that the king made decisions only after `` good and careful deliberation '' ( bonne et mûre délibération ) , and this principle was maintained by his successors ; the closing formula of royal acts `` le roi en son conseil '' expressed this deliberative aspect . Even during the period of French absolutism , the expression `` car tel est notre bon plaisir '' ( `` because such is our pleasure '' ) applied to royal decisions made with consultation .   The administration of the French state in the early modern period went through a long evolution , as a truly administrative apparatus -- relying on old nobility , newer chancellor nobility ( `` noblesse de robe '' ) and administrative professionals -- substituted the feudal clientel system . The exact divisions and names of these councils varied over time .

neg: Aristopia Aristopia : A Romance-History of the New World is an 1895 utopian novel by Castello Holford , considered the first novel-length alternate history in English ( and among the earliest alternate histories in general ) .   Though part of the major wave utopian and dystopian literature that distinguished the final decades of the nineteenth century , Holford 's book reverses the normal stance of utopian projection : instead of imagining a better society at a future time or in a far-off place , he supposes that the founding of the United States occurred under different conditions and follows its development forward to a superior society in his own day .   In Aristopia ( Greek for `` the best place '' ) , Ralph Morton , an early settler in Virginia , discovers a reef made of solid gold . He cannily uses his wealth to build a planned society , based on the Utopia of Sir Thomas More , with innovations and adaptations of his own . In Aristopia , all the land is owned by the government , and only leased to businesses and private citizens . Large-scale trade is also monoplized by the state , and inherited wealth is limited . Morton welcomes productive refugees from European conflicts -- Huguenots , Irish fugitives from Cromwell 's wars , and northern Italian and Swiss artisans .   The colony prospers , buys more land from the Indians , and spreads westward . Morton dies at the age of 100 ; his descendants and successors carry his policies forward .   The Aristopians support the American Revolution , and on their own initiative conquer Canada . Aristopia comes to dominate the new nation , eventually ruling all of North America north of Mexico .   Holford loads his description of Aristopia with satirical remedies for what he saw as contemporary problems and circumstances . In Aristopian jurisprudence , for example , the Court for Assessing the Value of Abstract Words and Phrases polices the language to prevent abuses ; it is the largest and busiest function in the Palace of Justice .   The English playwright Henry Arthur Jones was taken with the idea of Aristopia , and used it in his own polemical writings , as in his `` The Tax-Wise Men of Aristopia '' and his My Dear Wells .   Holford was not the first writer in English to employ the term `` Aristopia . '' The eighteenth-century freethinker John Fransham ( 1730 -- 1810 ) left a posthumous manuscript titled Memorablilia Classica , which contains a piece called `` The Code of Aristopia , or Scheme for a Perfect Government . ''

neg: Sibylle Riqueti de Mirabeau Sibylle Aimée Marie-Antoinette Gabrielle de Riquetti de Mirabeau , Comtesse de Martel de Janville ( 16 August 1849 -- 28 June 1932 ) was a French writer who wrote under the pseudonym Gyp .   She was born at the château de Coëtsal near Plumergat , in the département of the Morbihan , in Brittany , her father , Joseph-Arundel de Riquetti , comte de Mirabeau , 1820 -- 1860 , being the great-grandson of Victor de Riquetti , marquis de Mirabeau ( Mirabeau Père ) , noted 18th-century economist , and grandnephew of Honoré Mirabeau the celebrated revolutionary orator . In view of her later opinions , it is interesting to remember that Sibylle was actually descended from Octave Mirabeau 's royalist younger brother , André-Boniface-Louis de Riquetti , vicomte de Mirabeau , ( 1754 -- 1792 ) known as Mirabeau-Tonneau because of his notorious embonpoint , who famously broke his sword in front of France 's Revolutionary Assembly ( where he represented the nobility of the Limousin ) while bitterly crying out : `` now that The King is giving up his kingdom , a nobleman no longer needs a sword to fight for him ! ''   Although , in her memoires , `` Gyp '' stated that she had been born on August 15 , which happens to have been Napoleon Bonaparte 's birthday , her birth certificate reads `` morning of August 16 , 1849 '' , according to her biographer , W. Z. Silvermann . At her father 's request , the name on her birth certificate was revised to read `` Sibylle Aimée Marie Antoinette Gabrielle '' .   Sibylle 's mother , the comtesse de Mirabeau , née de Gonneville ( 1827 -- 1903 ) was also a writer , who contributed to Le Figaro . In 1869 , Sibylle married count Roger de Martel de Janville , by whom she had three children .   Gyp wrote humorous sketches and novels which brazenly denounced her own fashionable society as well as the French republic 's political class . She hated republicanism , populist democracy , and party shenanigans ; supported Boulanger ; and was a fanatical anti-Semite & anti-Dreyfusard ; in fact , while testifying at a court case in 1899 she gave her profession as `` anti-Semite '' rather than `` writer '' . She began with some articles in La Vie parisienne in February 1877 , then in La Revue des Deux Mondes . Starting in 1880 , she began to publish in book form , under the pseudonym of Gyp , a total of more than 120 works , many highly successful : Petit Bob , ( 1882 ) , Les Chasseurs , Un trio turbulent , Autour du mariage ( 1883 ) , Ce que femme veut ( 1883 ) , Sans voiles ( 1885 ) , Autour du divorce ( 1886 ) , Dans le train ( 1886 ) , Mademoiselle Loulou ( 1888 ) , Bob au salon ( 1889 ) , L'éducation d'un prince ( 1890 ) , Passionette ( 1891 ) , Oh ! la grande vie ( 1891 ) , Une Election à Tigre-sur-mer ( 1890 ) , based on Gyp 's experience supporting a boulangiste candidate , Marriage civil ( 1892 ) , Ces bons docteurs ( 1892 ) De haut en bas ( 1893 ) , Le Mariage de Chiffon ( 1894 ) , Leurs âmes ( 1895 ) , Le Cœur d'Ariane ( 1895 ) , Le Bonheur de Ginette ( 1896 ) , Totote ( 1897 ) , Lune de miel ( 1898 ) , Israel ( 1898 ) , L'Entrevue ( 1899 ) , Le Pays des champs ( 1900 ) , Trop de chic ( 1900 ) , Le Friquet ( 1901 ) , La Fée ( 1902 ) , Un Mariage chic ( 1903 ) , Un Ménage dernier cri ( 1903 ) , Maman ( 1904 ) , Le Cœur de Pierrette ( 1905 ) , Les Flanchards ( 1917 ) , Souvenirs d'une petite fille ( 1927 -- 1928 ) , etc. .   Her best-known work is probably Le Mariage de Chiffon , filmed in 1942 by Claude Autant-Lara .   Because of her unpopular opinions , the comtesse was the victim of several attempts on her life as well as of a sensational kidnapping .   Gyp , self-styled `` last of the Mirabeaus '' , died at Neuilly-sur-Seine on 28 June 1932 .

neg: Louis Havet Pierre Antoine Louis Havet ( -LSB- avɛ -RSB- ; 6 January 1849 , Paris -- 26 January 1925 , Paris ) was a French Latinist and Hellenist , an expert on classical Greek and Latin poetry . He was the son of Ernest Havet .   He was professor at Collège de France , where in 1885-1925 he was chairman of the department of Latin philology . Since 1893 he was member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . In 1917 he became the first vice-president of the Association Guillaume Budé .   He was member of the central committee of the Ligue des droits de l'homme ( `` Human Rightl League '' ) , which defended Alfred Dreyfus in the Dreyfus affair .

neg: Françoise de Graffigny Françoise de Graffigny , née d'Issembourg Du Buisson d'Happoncourt ( 11 February 1695 - 12 December 1758 ) , was a French novelist , playwright and salon hostess .   Initially famous as the author of Lettres d'une Péruvienne , a novel published in 1747 , she became the world 's best-known living woman writer after the success of her sentimental comedy , Cénie , in 1750 . Her reputation as a dramatist suffered when her second play at the Comédie-Française , La Fille d'Aristide , was a flop in 1758 , and even her novel fell out of favor after 1830 . From then until the last third of the twentieth century , she was almost forgotten , but thanks to new scholarship and the interest in women writers generated by the feminist movement , Françoise de Graffigny is now regarded as one of the major French writers of the eighteenth century .

neg: François de La Rochefoucauld François de La Rochefoucauld may refer to :   François de La Rochefoucauld ( writer ) ( 1613 -- 1680 ) , French author  François de La Rochefoucauld ( cardinal ) ( 1558 -- 1645 ) , French cardinal of the Catholic Church  François de La Rochefoucauld , marquis de Montendre ( 1672 -- 1739 ) , Field Marshal of the British Army  François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld , Duke of La Rochefoucauld ( 1747 -- 1827 ) , French social reformer  François , duc de La Rochefoucauld ( 1765 -- 1848 )

neg: Marchand-mercier A marchand-mercier is a French term for a type of entrepreneur working outside the guild system of craftsmen but carefully constrained by the regulations of a corporation under rules codified in 1613 . The reduplicative term literally means a merchant of merchandise , but in the 18th century took the connotation of a merchant of objets d'art . Earliest references to this Corps de la Ville de Paris can be found at the close of the 16th century , but in the 18th century marchands-merciers were shopkeepers but they also played an important role in the decoration of Paris homes . In fact , they served as general contractors , designing and commissioning pieces of the most fashionable furniture , and often , in addition , worked outside of their shops as interior decorators , responsible for many aspects of a room 's decor . In Paris , the guild system , in place since the late Middle Ages , prohibited craftsmen from working with any material with which they had not undergone a formal apprenticeship . Only a marchand-mercier who worked outside of the guild system , therefore , could mount Chinese porcelains with gilt-bronze handles and stands , fit the cabinetmaker 's furniture with Japanese lacquer or Sèvres porcelain plaques , and supply furniture with opulent gilt-bronze ( or ormolu ) mounts .   The general lines permitted to their métier were set out under Charles IX , in 1570 , as :  `` Wholesale merchants , drapers and jewelers , in such way that under this status of wholesaler ( estat de grossier ) have been included at all times the merchants of cloth of gold , of silver , of silk ... tapestries , jewellery , spiced goods , textiles , hammered copper , silk thread , hardware and the like , of which it is not permitted to have any manufacture whatsoever , but only to sell , buy , display , bedeck and beautify all kinds of merchandise ''   Thus the marchands-merciers were characterised in the Encyclopédie as `` sellers of everything , makers of nothing '' '' . Jacques Savary des Bruslons elaborated this lapidary remark and revealed the disdain of his generation towards handcrafts :  `` This Corporation is considered the noblest and most excellent of all the Corporations of Merchants , all the more because those who compose it do not labour at all and make no handiwork , if it were not to beautify those things that are already made and manufactured ''   Though they were confined by law to no narrow specialisation , the Parisian marchands-merciers followed narrow fields -- Savary distinguished twenty -- following the usages of their training and their connections , in highly competitive fields dominated by fashion . Among them a small group of marchands-merciers specialised in works of art , catering to an elite circle of connoisseurs and collectors towards the middle of the 18th century , when a vogue for exoticism expressed itself in chinoiserie . Savary 's Dictionnaire detailed the wares of :  `` those who sell pictures , prints , candelabras , wall-lights , girandoles of gilded brass and -LSB- patinated -RSB- bronze , crystal chandeliers , figures of bronze , marble , wood and other material ; cabinets , coffers , armoires , table , little tables , and candlestands put together of wood and gilded , marble tables and other merchandise and curiosities proper for the ornament of lodgings . ''   These entrepreneurs helped guide and even create fashions , such as that for Chinese porcelains , mounted in purely French gilt bronze , transforming a vase into a ewer with rococo lip and handle , or reversing one bowl over another , with an open-work gilt-bronze rim , to function as a perfume-burner . Only a marchand-mercier could marshal the resources required to create such objects . Marchands-merciers bought Japanese lacquer screens and boxes , had them dismantled and their wooden backing shaved down , then commissioned ébénistes like Bernard II Vanrisamberg or Joseph Baumhauer to produce furniture veneered with exotic lacquer panels shaped to fit the complex curves of Louis XV surfaces , and perhaps completed with French imitations , or entirely japanned in Vernis Martin , which might imitate Chinese blue and white porcelain decors , such as the blue-on-white ensemble of furniture Hébert delivered in 1743 for Mme de Mailly   The influence of the marchands-merciers on French porcelain is also considerable . Lazare Duvaux alone bought three-fifths of the total output of Sèvres in 1757 , representing a total of 165,876 livres . Certain forms in the Sèvres archives carry the names of well-known marchands-merciers in their designations .   Membership in the corps was carefully controlled . A new member , born in France , had to undergo an apprenticeship of three years , followed by another three as a compagnon , during which time he was bound to remain unmarried . His master could take on but one apprentice at a time , and the apprenticeships were duly enregistred at the corporation 's offices in rue du Petit-Lion ( rue Quincampoix ) . A sum changed hands , estimated by Guillaume Glorieux as averaging about 1720 500 or 600 livres , and a larger sum was owed to the corporation when the individual was received master ( maîtris ) , some 1700 livres . There were two exceptions to this rule , made for purveyors to the Court -- marchands privilégié suivant le cour -- by decree of the king , and for those who married the daughter of one of the accredited merchants .   The Parisian marchands-merciers congregated in rue Saint-Honoré , marking their establishments with catchy and amusing signs ; there could be found the premises of Hébert , Simon-Philippe Poirier -- and later at the same premises at the sign of the Golden Crown his partner Dominique Daguerre and Martin-Eloi Lignereux -- Mme Dulac , Julliot , Lebrun at the King of the Indies and Tuard au château de Bellevue . Nearby , in rue de la Monnaie , the street where the manufacture royale of Sèvres eventually chose to open its porcelain shop , were Darnault , father and son , at the sign of the King of Spain , and Lazare Duvaux . Edme-François Gersaint , for whom Watteau painted L'Enseigne de Gersaint as a shop sign had premises , following an old tradition , in a house on the Pont Notre-Dame . There , he advertised in 1740 , he  `` Sells all sorts of new and tasteful hardware ( Cainquaillerie ) , trinkets , mirrors , cabinet pictures , pagods , lacquer and porcelain from Japan , shellwork and other specimens of natural history , stones , agates , and generally all curious and exotic merchandise '' .   A newcomer , Granchet , opened premises Au petit Dunkerque , in the Left Bank , Quai Conti at the far end of the Pont Neuf .   Among these entrepreneurial dealers and interior decorators at the apex of their profession , towards the middle of the century Hébert achieved the greatest celebrity , appearing in the popular novel Thémidore ( 1745 ) and marrying his daughter to the son of the Dauphine 's first femme de chambre in 1751 , in a contract signed at Versailles .