A-Z Browse

Previous Next

Diana Nemorensis, grove of (Roman religion)
The most famous place of worship for the Italian goddess was the grove of Diana Nemorensis (“Diana of the Wood”) on the shores of Lake Nemi at Aricia, near Rome. This was a shrine common to the cities of the Latin League. Associated with Diana at Aricia were Egeria, the spirit of a nearby stream who shared with Diana the guardianship of childbirth, and the hero Virbius (the Italian.....
Diana of the Crossways (novel by Meredith)
novel by George Meredith, 26 chapters of which were published serially in 1884 in the Fortnightly Review. A “considerably enlarged” three-volume book was published in 1885....
Diana Prince (American comic-book character)
American comic-book heroine who was a perennially popular character and a feminist icon....
Diana, princess of Wales (British princess)
former consort (1981–96) of Charles, prince of Wales, and mother of the heir second in line to the British throne, Prince William of Wales (born 1982)....
Diana Ross and the Supremes (American singing group)
American pop-soul vocal group whose tremendous popularity with a broad audience made its members among the most successful performers of the 1960s and the flagship act of Motown Records. The principal members of the group were Diana Ross (byname of Diane Earle; b. March 26, 1944Detroit, M...
Diana, Temple of (temple, Baiae, Italy)
...feet [21.5 metres] in diameter) dates from the late Republic. Reminiscent in its present condition of the Pantheon, it was the swimming pool of a large bath. The “temples” of Venus and Diana are of the Hadrianic period (2nd century ad) and are somewhat larger. Venus, which is 86 feet (26.3 metres) in diameter, was also a bath’s swimming pool, while Diana (almo...
Diana, Temple of (temple, Ephesus, Turkey)
at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The great temple was built by Croesus, king of Lydia, about 550 bce and was rebuilt after being burned by a madman named Herostratus in 356 bce. The Artemesium was famous not only for its great size (over 350 by 180 feet [about 110 by 55 metres]) ...
Diana, The (work by Montemayor)
The main source of the play’s plot was a translation of a long Spanish prose romance titled Los siete libros de la Diana (1559?; The Seven Books of the Diana) by Jorge de Montemayor. Shakespeare is thought to have adapted the relationship of the two gentlemen of the title and the ending of the play from various possible sources, including Richard Edwards’s p...
Dianbour (region, Senegal)
The diverse area situated between Ferlo and the Atlantic and extending from the False Delta in the north to Cape Verde Peninsula in the south was once home to the historical Wolof states of Dianbour, Cayor, Djolof, and Baol. Here the soils are sandy and the winters cool; peanuts are the primary crop. The population is as diverse as the area itself and includes Wolof in the north, Serer in the......
Diancang, Mount (mountain, China)
...a plateau and contains larger areas of rolling uplands than Guizhou, but both parts are distinguished by canyonlike valleys and precipitous mountains. The highest elevations lie in the west, where Mount Diancang (also called Cang Shan) rises to 13,524 feet (4,122 metres). In the valleys of the major rivers, elevations drop to about 1,300 to 1,600 feet (400 to 490 metres). Particularly sharp......
Diane de France, duchesse de Montmorency et Angoulême (French noble)
natural daughter (legitimated) of King Henry II of France by a young Piedmontese, Filippa Duc. (Diane was often thought, however, to have been the illegitimate daughter of Diane de Poitiers.) She was known for her culture and intelligence as well as for her beauty and for the influence that she wielded during the reigns of Henry III and Henry IV....
Diane de Poitiers (work by Clouet)
...a large workshop in which miniaturists, enamel designers, and decorators carried out his projects. In addition to making portraits, he painted genre subjects, including nude figures (e.g., “Diane de Poitiers”) and theatrical scenes—the latter attested by an engraving, as well as by a picture entitled “Scene of the Commedia dell’Arte.” He also sup...
Diane de Poitiers, duchesse de Valentinois (French noble)
mistress of Henry II of France. Throughout his reign she held court as queen of France in all but name, while the real queen, Catherine de Médicis, was forced to live in comparative obscurity. Diane seems to have concerned herself with augmenting her income and with making provisions for her family and protégés rather than with public affairs. A beautiful wo...
Dianetics (American religious movement)
...passes through the body of the person undergoing auditing. According to church teachings, E-meter readings indicate changes in emotional states that allow the identification of stored engrams. In Dianetics the goal was to rid the mind of engrams, and individuals were said to have reached a major goal when they became “Clear.”...
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (work by Hubbard)
...In the 1930s and ’40s he published short stories and novels in a variety of genres, including horror and science fiction. After serving in the navy in World War II, he published Dianetics (1950), which detailed his theories of the human mind. He eventually moved away from Dianetics’ focus on the mind to a more religious approach to...
Diangienda, Joseph (African religious leader)
...in the Belgian Congo and the neighbouring French Congo and Angola. During the African nationalist ferment of the 1950s, Kimbanguists from Nkamba, led by the youngest of the prophet’s three sons, Joseph Diangienda (Diangienda ku Ntima), founded the Kimbanguist church, which received official recognition in September 1959....
Diangienda ku Ntima (African religious leader)
...in the Belgian Congo and the neighbouring French Congo and Angola. During the African nationalist ferment of the 1950s, Kimbanguists from Nkamba, led by the youngest of the prophet’s three sons, Joseph Diangienda (Diangienda ku Ntima), founded the Kimbanguist church, which received official recognition in September 1959....
Dianic Wicca (religion)
...numerous variations on Gardner’s original teachings and rituals. Moreover, new Wiccan groups emerged independent of the Gardnerians, including one led by Alexander Sanders (1926–1988), the Dianic Wiccans who saw Wicca as a woman’s religion, and the parallel Neo-Pagan movement, which also worshipped the Goddess and practiced witchcraft but eschewed the designation witch...
Dianius (bishop of Caesarea)
...bishops at a synod at Constantinople. He had been distressed by the general acceptance of the Arian Creed of the Council of Ariminum the previous year and especially by the fact that his own bishop, Dianius of Caesarea, had supported it. Shortly before the death of Dianius (362), Basil was reconciled to him and later was ordained presbyter (priest) to assist Dianius’ successor, the new c...
Dianthus (plant)
any of several flowering plants of the genus Dianthus in the pink family (Caryophyllaceae), grown widely in garden borders. The approximately 300 species in the genus are nearly all natives of the Eastern Hemisphere and are found chiefly in the ...
Dianthus barbatus (plant)
familiar old-fashioned garden plant, in the pink family (Caryophyllaceae), grown for its clusters of small bright-coloured flowers. It is usually treated as a garden biennial, seed sown the first year producing flowering plants...
Dianthus caryophyllus (plant)
(Dianthus caryophyllus), herbaceous plant of the pink, or carnation, family (Caryophyllaceae), native to the Mediterranean area. It is widely cultivated for its fringe-petaled flowers, which often have a spicy fragrance....
Dianthus sinensis (plant)
(Dianthus caryophyllus), herbaceous plant of the pink, or carnation, family (Caryophyllaceae), native to the Mediterranean area. It is widely cultivated for its fringe-petaled flowers, which often have a spicy fragrance.......
diapason (music)
(from Greek dia pasōn chordōn: “through all the strings”), in medieval music, the interval, or distance between notes, encompassing all degrees of the scale—i.e., the octave. In French, diapason indicates the range of a voice and is also the word for a tuning fork and f...
diapause (biology)
spontaneous interruption of the development of certain animals, marked by reduction of metabolic activity. It is typical of many insects and mites, a few crustaceans and snails, and perhaps certain other animal groups. This period of suspended development is an apparent response to the approach of adverse environmental conditions. It may occur during any life stage but is most common among pupae ...
Diapensiaceae (plant family)
Diapensiaceae is a small family with 6 genera and 18 species. All are perennial herbs or subshrubs that grow in the Arctic and north temperate region, especially in East Asia and the eastern United States. Diapensia (four species) is circumboreal, with the other genera being much more localized. For example, Galax (two species) grows only in the eastern United States;......
diaper (architecture)
in architecture, surface decoration, carved or painted, generally composed of square or lozenge shapes but also of other simple figures, each of which contains a flower, a spray of leaves, or some such device. The pattern is repetitive and is usually based on a square grid. It was a common form of sculptural wall enrichment in Gothic art. An example is the 14th-century pulpitum...
diaper rash
The infant’s skin has a thin epidermis and immature glands and is particularly susceptible to blistering and infection. Diaper, or napkin, rashes, which affect the areas of skin in contact with a wet diaper, are very common and can become severe when additional infection occurs....
Diapheromera femorata (insect)
...are the largest and most abundant. Certain species, such as the Asiatic Palophus and the East Indian Pharnacia, are more than 30 cm (12 inches) in length. The North American species Diapheromera femorata may defoliate oak trees during heavy infestations....
diaphone (siren)
About the beginning of the 20th century, compressed-air fog signals, which sounded a series of blasts, were developed. The most widely used were the siren and the diaphone. The siren consisted of a slotted rotor revolving inside a slotted stator that was located at the throat of a horn. The diaphone worked on the same principle but used a slotted piston reciprocating in a cylinder with matching......
diaphragm (pressure gauge)
Metal bellows and diaphragms are also used as pressure-sensing elements. Because of the large deflections for small pressure changes, bellows instruments are particularly suitable for pressures below atmospheric. Two corrugated diaphragms sealed at their edges to form a capsule, which is evacuated, are used in aneroid barometers to measure atmospheric pressure (see altimeter)....
diaphragm (camera)
In the lens diaphragm a series of leaves increases or decreases the opening to control the light passing through the lens to the film. The diaphragm control ring carries a scale of so-called f-numbers, or stop numbers, in a series: such as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, and 32. The squares of the f-numbers are inversely proportional to the amount of light admitted. In the......
diaphragm (contraceptive)
...be well-informed and willing to use them consistently. All barrier devices prevent sperm from entering the uterus—by sheathing the penis with a condom, by covering the uterine cervix with a diaphragm or cervical cap (used with a spermicidal cream or jelly), or by inserting a female condom (vaginal pouch) or a vaginal sponge permeated with a spermicide. The vaginal sponge is less......
diaphragm (electronics)
...does not correspond in form to the electrical signal. The part of the speaker that converts electrical into mechanical energy is frequently called the motor, or voice coil. The motor vibrates a diaphragm that in turn vibrates the air in immediate contact with it, producing a sound wave corresponding to the pattern of the original speech or music signal. Most frequently the motor consists of......
diaphragm (anatomy)
dome-shaped, muscular and membranous structure that separates the thoracic (chest) and abdominal cavities in mammals; it is the principal muscle of respiration....
diaphragm cell (chemistry)
...be separated, because upon mixing they would react with one another. The chlorine is kept away from the caustic by interposing a diaphragm between the electrodes: such cells are commonly called diaphragm cells....
diaphragm pump (engineering)
The action of a diaphragm pump is similar to that of a piston pump in which the piston is replaced by a pulsating flexible diaphragm. This overcomes the disadvantage of having piston packings in contact with the fluid being pumped. As in the case of piston pumps, fluid enters and leaves the pump through check valves. The diaphragm may be actuated mechanically by a piston directly attached to......
diaphragm shutter (photography)
Modern camera shutters are of two principal types. The leaf shutter, positioned between or just behind the lens components, consists of a number of overlapping metal blades opened and closed either by spring action or electronically. The focal-plane shutter, located directly in front of the image plane, consists of a pair of overlapping blinds that form an adjustable slit or window; driven......
diaphyseal aclasis (pathology)
Osteochondromatosis (also called hereditary multiple exostosis or diaphyseal aclasis) is a relatively common disorder of skeletal development in children in which bony protrusions develop on the long bones, ribs, and vertebrae. If severe, the lesions may halt bone growth, and dwarfing will result. Pressure on tendons, blood vessels, or nerves may cause other disabilities. Normally, such lesions......
diaphyses (anatomy)
Osteonecrosis may involve the shaft (diaphysis) or the ends (epiphyses) of the long bones. Sometimes the bone marrow of the diaphysis is primarily involved, and in osteomyelitis it is usually the compact (cortical) bone of the shaft that undergoes necrosis. For mechanical reasons, and because there is a poorer blood supply to cortical bone than to the cancellous bone of the epiphyses, the......
diaphysis (anatomy)
Osteonecrosis may involve the shaft (diaphysis) or the ends (epiphyses) of the long bones. Sometimes the bone marrow of the diaphysis is primarily involved, and in osteomyelitis it is usually the compact (cortical) bone of the shaft that undergoes necrosis. For mechanical reasons, and because there is a poorer blood supply to cortical bone than to the cancellous bone of the epiphyses, the......
diapir (geology)
(from Greek diapeirein, “to pierce”), geological structure consisting of mobile material that was forced into more brittle surrounding rocks, usually by the upward flow of material from a parent stratum. The flow may be produced by gravitational forces (heavy rocks causing underlying lighter rocks to rise), tectonic forces (mobile rocks being squeezed through less mobile rocks...
diaplectic glass (technology)
...to glass by high rates of shearing (caused, for instance, by a shock wave during an impact), or it may be converted by irradiation with high-energy subatomic particles. The former type are called diaplectic glasses, and the latter type are metamict solids. Some glass fragments gathered from the surface of the Moon may be examples of diaplectic glass formed by meteoroid impacts. Examples of......
Diaporthales (fungi order)
Annotated classification...
diapsid (reptile)
With the possible exception of turtles (which are often labeled anapsids), modern reptiles and most reptiles of the Mesozoic Era are diapsids. One of the most recognizable groups of diapsids is the lepidosauromorphs. This lineage, which is ancestral to today’s tuataras and squamates (lizards and snakes), appeared first during the Late Permian. Assorted squamates or squamate relatives began....
Diapsida (reptile)
With the possible exception of turtles (which are often labeled anapsids), modern reptiles and most reptiles of the Mesozoic Era are diapsids. One of the most recognizable groups of diapsids is the lepidosauromorphs. This lineage, which is ancestral to today’s tuataras and squamates (lizards and snakes), appeared first during the Late Permian. Assorted squamates or squamate relatives began....
diaqi (lacquerwork)
The carved lacquer of China (diaoqi) is particularly noteworthy. In this the lacquer was built up in the method described above, but to a considerable thickness. When several colours were used, successive layers of each colour of uniform thickness were arranged in the order in which they were to predominate. When the whole mass was complete and......
diarchy (British India government system)
system of double government introduced by the Government of India Act (1919) for the provinces of British India. It marked the first introduction of the democratic principle into the executive branch of the British administration of India. Though much-criticized, it signified a breakthro...
diare (poet-singer)
...(plural iggawen) who creates heroic poetry and who plays the lute while singing the songs of the warriors. The diare (plural diarou) is the bard among the Soninke. He goes to battle with the soldiers, urging them, placing their martial activities within the......
Diaries (ancient astrological work)
...late in the period of the Persian domination of Mesopotamia (ending in the 4th century bc). During the later period new efforts were made, in a large number of works called Diaries, to find the correct correlations between celestial phenomena and terrestrial events. Before this development, however, portions of the older omen series were transmitted to Egy...
Diaries and Letters (work by Nicolson)
British diplomat and author of more than 125 books, including political essays, travel accounts, and mystery novels. His three-volume Diaries and Letters (1966–68) is a valuable document of British social and political life from 1930 to 1964....
Diarii, I (work by Sanudo)
Venetian historian whose Diarii is an invaluable source for the history of his period. In his enthusiasm for historical and classical learning, Sanudo collected a notable library of manuscripts, rare books, maps, and ethnographical drawings....
Diário (work by Torga)
Much of Torga’s work—which includes novels, plays, and short stories as well as the poems and his Diário, 16 vol. (1941–93; “Diary”), for which he is best known—has as its subject the search for certainties in a changing world. His diary reveals a deeply religious man with a robust faith in the virtues of humanity. Notable among his fiction a...
“Diario de la guerra del cerdo” (work by Bioy Casares)
...Heroes), Bioy Casares examines the meaning of love and the significance of dreams and memory to future actions. The novel Diario de la guerra del cerdo (1969; Diary of the War of the Pig) is a mixture of science fiction and political satire....
Diário de Notícias (Portuguese newspaper)
...The nationalization of industry that began in 1974 encompassed the leading Lisbon newspapers, which had been owned by banks. Gradual reprivatization began in 1979. The daily Diário de Notícias (founded 1864) was long Portugal’s most prestigious newspaper. With privatization, however, the position of Diário h...
“Diario de un poeta recién casado” (work by Jiménez)
...Shortly after his return to Spain, he published Diario de un poeta recién casado (1917; “Diary of a Poet Recently Married”), which was issued in 1948 under the title Diario de un poeta y mar (“Diary of a Poet and the Sea”). That volume marked his transition to what he called “la poesía desnuda” (“naked......
Diario de un poeta y mar (work by Jiménez)
...Shortly after his return to Spain, he published Diario de un poeta recién casado (1917; “Diary of a Poet Recently Married”), which was issued in 1948 under the title Diario de un poeta y mar (“Diary of a Poet and the Sea”). That volume marked his transition to what he called “la poesía desnuda” (“naked......
Diario de un testigo de la guerra de Africa (work by Alarcón y Ariza)
...off the stage in 1857. The failure so exasperated him that he enlisted as a volunteer in the Moroccan campaign of 1859–60. The expedition provided the material for his eyewitness account Diario de un testigo de la guerra de Africa (1859; “Diary of a Witness of the African War”), a masterpiece in its way as a description of campaigning life. On his return......
diario del aire, El (Spanish-American magazine)
On his return to Guatemala, Asturias founded and edited El diario del aire, a radio magazine. During this period he published several volumes of poetry, beginning with Sonetos (1936; “Sonnets”). In 1946 he embarked upon a diplomatic career, continuing to write while serving in several countries in Central and South America. From 1966 to 1970.....
Diario di un parroco di campagna (work by Lisi)
...of its inhabitants, and in this his lineage can be traced to other Tuscan writers such as Romano Bilenchi (La siccità [1941; “The Drought”]) and Nicola Lisi (Diario di un parroco di campagna [1942; “Diary of a Country Priest”]) or in some respects back to Federigo Tozzi. Especially typical of Cassola’s works are Il taglio...
Diario in pubblico (work by Vittorini)
...al frejus (1947; The Twilight of the Elephant); and another allegory, Le donne di Messina (1949; Women on the Road). Vittorini’s critical writings are collected in Diario in pubblico (1957; “Public Diary”) and the posthumously published Le due tensione: appunti per una ideologia della letteratura (1967; “The Two Tensions: Not...
“Diarios de motocicleta” (film by Salles [2004])
From Argentina, in co-production with Chile and Peru, Walter Salles’s Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) was a richly atmospheric account of the 23-year-old Che Guevara’s discovery of his political conscience in the course of a 1952 motorcycle tour of Latin America. Ana Poliak’s Parapalos (Pin Boy) examined the lives of society’s...
Diarmuid agus Gráinne (play by MacLiammóir)
...and T.C. Murray. Also with Edwards, MacLiammóir organized the Galway Theatre (Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe) in 1928 and acted as its director from 1928 to 1931. There MacLiammóir’s Diarmuid agus Gráinne (1928), a verse-play version, in Gaelic, of a Celtic myth about two famous lovers, was first produced....
diarrhea (pathology)
abnormally swift passage of waste material through the large intestine, with consequent discharge of loose feces from the anus. Diarrhea may be accompanied by cramping. The disorder has a wide range of causes. It may, for example, result from bacterial or viral infection; from dysentery, either amoebic or bacillary; from impaired absorption ...
diarrheic shellfish poisoning (pathology)
...interfere with neuromuscular function. Alexandrium tamarense and Gymnodinium catenatum are the two species most often associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning. Diarrheic shellfish poisoning is caused by okadaic acids that are produced by several kinds of algae, especially species of Dinophysis. Neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, caused by......
diarrhoea (pathology)
abnormally swift passage of waste material through the large intestine, with consequent discharge of loose feces from the anus. Diarrhea may be accompanied by cramping. The disorder has a wide range of causes. It may, for example, result from bacterial or viral infection; from dysentery, either amoebic or bacillary; from impaired absorption ...
Diarthrognathus (fossil genus)
genus of extinct, advanced mammal-like reptiles found as fossils in Early Jurassic terrestrial deposits about 200 million years old in southern Africa. Diarthrognathus was contemporaneous with a host of other mammal relatives but is nearer than many of them to the line leading to the true mammals because of its unspec...
Diarthronomyia hypogaea (insect)
The Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor) is the most serious pest within the family. In Europe and North America the chrysanthemum midge (Diarthronomyia hypogaea) makes small galls in the leaves. The rose midge (Dasyneura rhodophaga) infests the young buds and shoots of roses and is a serious pest in greenhouses but rarely outside. Some other serious pests are the wheat......
diarthrosis (anatomy)
The synovial bursas are closed, thin-walled sacs, lined with synovial membrane. Bursas are found between structures that glide upon each other, and all motion at diarthroses entails some gliding, the amount varying from one joint to another. The bursal fluid, exuded by the synovial membrane, is called synovia, hence the common name for this class of joints. Two or more parts of the bursal wall......
Diary (work by Evelyn)
English country gentleman, author of some 30 books on the fine arts, forestry, and religious topics. His Diary, kept all his life, is considered an invaluable source of information on the social, cultural, religious, and political life of 17th-century England....
Diary (work by Sewall)
British-American colonial merchant and a judge in the Salem witchcraft trials, best remembered for his Diary (Massachusetts Historical Society; 3 vol., 1878–82), which provides a rewarding insight into the mind and life of the late New England Puritan....
diary (literature)
form of autobiographical writing, a regularly kept record of the diarist’s activities and reflections. Written primarily for the writer’s use alone, the diary has a frankness that is unlike writing done for publication. Its ancient lineage is indicated by the existence of the term in Latin, diarium, itself derived from dies (“day”)....
Diary (work by Pepys)
English diarist and naval administrator, celebrated for his Diary (first published in 1825), which gives a fascinating picture of the official and upper-class life of Restoration London from Jan. 1, 1660, to May 31, 1669....
Diary (work by Henslowe)
Henslowe’s famous Diary is one of the most important sources for the English theatrical history of the time. It is actually a manuscript book of miscellaneous accounts and memoranda, playhouse receipts, payments to playwrights, loans or advances to players, payments for materials, costumes, and so on. It was edited (1904–08) by Sir Walter Gregg and was supplemented by Hensl...
Diary from Dixie, A (work by Chesnut)
author of A Diary from Dixie, an insightful view of Southern life and leadership during the American Civil War....
Diary of a Bad Year (novel by Coetzee)
South African-born 2003 Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee, who was living in Australia, addressed numerous social, political, aesthetic, and interpersonal concerns in his latest novel, Diary of a Bad Year, which highlighted the profound problems of millions of people living in democracies throughout the world—all presented in a unique narrative divided into two and then three distinct......
Diary of a Country Priest, The (film by Bresson)
...Emulating his literary idols, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Georges Bernanos—whose works inspired the director’s 1950 masterpiece, Le Journal d’un curé de campagne (The Diary of a Country Priest)—Bresson often fashioned his narratives in the form of a diary or case history. The stories were told exclusively from the viewpoint of the protagonist,......
Diary of a Country Priest, The (work by Bernanos)
novel by Georges Bernanos, published in French as Journal d’un curé de campagne in 1936....
Diary of a Journey Through Syria and Palestine (work by Nāṣir-i Khusraw)
...high literary quality. His philosophical poetry includes the Rawshana’ināme (Book of Lights). Nāṣir’s most celebrated prose work is the Safarnāme (Diary of a Journey Through Syria and Palestine), a diary describing his seven-year journey. It is a valuable record of the scenes and events that he witnessed. He also wrote more t...
Diary of a Lost Girl (film by Pabst)
...(1929; Pandora’s Box). Brooks’s haunting performance in this film and as the 16-year-old girl who is seduced and prostituted in Pabst’s Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1929; Diary of a Lost Girl) marked the summit of her career. Her innocent eroticism, along with her pale, beautiful features and bobbed brunette hair, made her both a film icon and a symbo...
Diary of a Mad Black Woman (film by Perry [2005])
Perry moved to feature films in 2005 by writing, producing, and acting in a screen version of Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Its feel-good narrative, in which Madea counsels her granddaughter through a failed marriage, helped Perry gain a wider audience. He reprised the role of Madea in subsequent film adaptations of his plays, which he also produced and directed. A 2007......
Diary of a Madman (work by Lu Xun)
...and became associated with the nascent Chinese literary movement in 1918. That year, at the urging of friends, he published his now-famous short story Kuangren riji (“Diary of a Madman”). Modeled on the Russian realist Nikolay Gogol’s tale of the same title, the story is a condemnation of traditional Confucian culture, which the madman narrator see...
Diary of a Madman (work by Gogol)
short story by Nikolay Gogol, published in 1835 as Zapiski sumasshedshego....
Diary of a Madman (album by Osbourne)
...with the primary help of guitarist Randy Rhoads, was Blizzard of Ozz (1980). A multiplatinum success, it was followed by the equally popular Diary of a Madman (1981), which sold more than five million copies. A defining moment in Osbourne’s career came on the tour for the album, when, thinking that someone in the audience had......
Diary of a Nobody, The (work by George and Weedon Grossmith)
...Hadrian. The diary form of autobiography was amusingly used by George and Weedon Grossmith to tell the trials and tribulations of their fictional character Charles Pooter in The Diary of a Nobody (1892). In the form of biography this category includes Graves’s Count Belisarius and Hope Muntz’s Golden ...
Diary of a Parish Clerk and Other Stories, The (novella by Blicher)
...fame rests primarily on his short stories and short novels. His best-known work, the novella Brudstykker af en landsbydegns dagbog (1824; trans. in The Diary of a Parish Clerk and Other Stories), is written in masterful prose and shows Blicher’s psychological insight into the Jutlanders’ character. In his stories he ranges from......
Diary of a Superfluous Man, The (work by Turgenev)
...work in the government service, he began to publish short works in prose. These were studies in the “intellectual-without-a-will” so typical of his generation. The most famous was “The Diary of a Superfluous Man” (1850), which supplied the epithet “superfluous man” for so many similar weak-willed intellectual protagonists in Turgenev’s work as we...
Diary of a Writer, The (work by Dostoyevsky)
Three decades later, in The Diary of a Writer, Dostoyevsky recalled the story of his “discovery.” After completing Poor Folk, he gave a copy to his friend, Dmitry Grigorovich, who brought it to the poet Nikolay Nekrasov. Reading Dostoyevsky’s manuscript aloud, these two writers were overwhelmed by the work’s psychological insight and ability to...
Diary of a Young Girl, The (work by Frank)
Friends who had searched the family’s hiding place after their capture later gave Otto Frank the papers left behind by the Gestapo. Among them he found Anne’s diary, which was published as The Diary of a Young Girl (originally in Dutch, 1947). Precocious in style and insight, it traces her emotional growth amid adversity. In it she wrote, “In spite of everything I...
Diary of a Yuppie (novel by Auchincloss)
...The House of Five Talents (1960) and Portrait in Brownstone (1962), examine family relationships over a period of decades. Others, notably The Rector of Justin (1964) and Diary of a Yuppie (1987), are studies of a single character, often from many points of view. Auchincloss frequently linked the stories in his collections by theme or geography, as in, for......
Diary of an Art Dealer (work by Gimpel)
...art, though both firms (which sustained a partnership, E. Gimpel and Wildenstein, in New York from 1902 to 1919) later became important purveyors of Impressionist works. René Gimpel’s Diary of an Art Dealer (1966) provides a first-person account of the heady art scene of the interwar period. Seligmann was, until his death in 1923, the leading dealer in French 18th-cen...
Diary of Anne Frank, The (film by Stevens [1959])
American dramatic film, released in 1959, that depicts the story of Anne Frank, a German Jewish teenager who died in a World War II concentration camp and whose diary is arguably the most famous work about the Holocaust...
“Diary of Anne Frank, The” (work by Frank)
Friends who had searched the family’s hiding place after their capture later gave Otto Frank the papers left behind by the Gestapo. Among them he found Anne’s diary, which was published as The Diary of a Young Girl (originally in Dutch, 1947). Precocious in style and insight, it traces her emotional growth amid adversity. In it she wrote, “In spite of everything I...
Diary of Gideon Welles (work by Welles)
...the Liberal Republicans in 1872 and Democrat Samuel Tilden in 1876. He spent his final years writing magazine articles and a book, Lincoln and Seward (1874). Long after his death the Diary of Gideon Welles (1911) was published, a work highly regarded by historians for its insights into the people and events of the Civil War era....
Diary of Izumi Shikibu, The (work by Murasaki Shikibu)
...in her masterpiece Genji monogatari (c. 1010; The Tale of Genji) and in Izumi Shikibu nikki (The Diary of Izumi Shikibu), which is less a diary than a short story liberally ornamented with poetry....
Diary of My Times, A (work by Bernanos)
...bien-pensants, a polemic on the materialism of the middle classes (1931; “The Great Fear of Right-Thinking People”), and Les Grands Cimetières sous la lune (1938; A Diary of My Times, 1938), a fierce attack on Fascist excesses during the Spanish Civil War and on the church dignitaries who supported them....
Diary of the War of the Pig (work by Bioy Casares)
...Heroes), Bioy Casares examines the meaning of love and the significance of dreams and memory to future actions. The novel Diario de la guerra del cerdo (1969; Diary of the War of the Pig) is a mixture of science fiction and political satire....
diaryl sulfone (chemical compound)
...the skin in this way. It has some use in veterinary medicine, particularly in treating lameness in horses. Sulfones are usually colourless crystalline solids. Dimethyl sulfone is water soluble. The diaryl sulfones (p-H2NC6H4SO2C6H4NH2-p; e.g., dapsone) and related compounds have been used in the treatment...
Dias, Antônio Gonçalves (Brazilian poet)
Romantic poet generally regarded as the national poet of Brazil. His Canção do Exílio (1843; “Song of Exile”), beginning “Minha terra tem palmeiras” (“My land has palm trees”), is known to every Brazilian schoolchild....
Dias, Bartolomeu (Portuguese explorer)
Portuguese navigator and explorer who led the first European expedition to round the Cape of Good Hope (1488), opening the sea route to Asia via the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He is usually considered to be the greatest of the Portuguese pioneers who explored the Atlantic during the 15th century....