title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Rossini's work in Naples contributed to this stylistic development. The city, which was the cradle of the operas of Cimarosa and Paisiello, had been slow to acknowledge the composer from Pesaro, but Domenico Barbaia invited him in 1815 on a seven-year contract to manage his theatres and compose operas. For the first time, Rossini was able to work over a long period with a company of musicians and singers, including amongst the latter Isabella Colbran, Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David and others, who as Gossett notes "all specialized in florid singing" and "whose vocal talents left an indelible and not wholly positive mark on Rossini's style". Rossini's first operas for Naples, "Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra" and "La gazzetta" were both largely recycled from earlier works, but "Otello" (1816) is marked not only by its virtuoso vocal lines but by its masterfully integrated last act, with its drama underlined by melody, orchestration and tonal colour; here, in Gossett's opinion "Rossini came of age as a dramatic artist." He further comments:


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: By now, Rossini's career was arousing interest across Europe. Others came to Italy to study the revival of Italian opera and used its lessons to advance themselves; amongst these was the Berlin-born Giacomo Meyerbeer who arrived in Italy in 1816, a year after Rossini's establishment at Naples, and lived and worked there until following him to Paris in 1825; he used one of Rossini's librettists, Gaetano Rossi, for five of his seven Italian operas, which were produced at Turin, Venice and Milan. In a letter to his brother of September 1818, he includes a detailed critique of "Otello" from the point of view of a non-Italian informed observer. He is scathing about the self-borrowings in the first two acts, but concedes that the third act "so firmly established Rossini's reputation in Venice that even a thousand follies could not rob him of it. But this act is divinely beautiful, and what is so strange is that [its] beauties ... are blatantly un-Rossinian: outstanding, even passionate recitatives, mysterious accompaniments, lots of local colour."


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Rossini's contract did not prevent him from undertaking other commissions, and before "Otello, Il barbiere di Siviglia", a grand culmination of the "opera buffa" tradition, had been premiered in Rome (February 1816). Richard Osborne catalogues its excellencies:Beyond the physical impact of ... Figaro's "Largo al factotum", there is Rossini's ear for vocal and instrumental timbres of a peculiar astringency and brilliance, his quick-witted word-setting, and his mastery of large musical forms with their often brilliant and explosive internal variations. Add to that what Verdi called the opera's "abundance of true musical ideas", and the reasons for the work's longer-term emergence as Rossini's most popular "opera buffa" are not hard to find.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Apart from "La Cenerentola" (Rome, 1817), and the "pen-and-ink sketch" "farsa" "Adina" (1818, not performed until 1826), Rossini's other works during his contract with Naples were all in the "opera seria" tradition. Amongst the most notable of these, all containing virtuoso singing roles, were "Mosè in Egitto" (1818), "La donna del lago" (1819), "Maometto II" (1820) all staged in Naples, and "Semiramide", his last opera written for Italy, staged at La Fenice in Venice in 1823. The three versions of the opera semiseria "Matilde di Shabran" were written in 1821/1822. Both "Mosè" and "Maometto II" were later to undergo significant reconstruction in Paris (see below).


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Already in 1818, Meyerbeer had heard rumours that Rossini was seeking a lucrative appointment at the Paris Opéra – "Should [his proposals] be accepted, he will go to the French capital, and we will perhaps experience curious things." Some six years were to pass before this prophecy came true.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: In 1824 Rossini, under a contract with the French government, became director of the Théâtre-Italien in Paris, where he introduced Meyerbeer's opera "Il crociato in Egitto", and for which he wrote "Il viaggio a Reims" to celebrate the coronation of Charles X (1825). This was his last opera to an Italian libretto, and was later cannibalised to create his first French opera, "Le comte Ory" (1828). A new contract in 1826 meant he could concentrate on productions at the Opéra and to this end he substantially revised "Maometto II" as "Le siège de Corinthe" (1826) and "Mosé" as "Moïse et Pharaon" (1827). Meeting French taste, the works are extended (each by one act), the vocal lines in the revisions are less florid and the dramatic structure is enhanced, with the proportion of arias reduced. One of the most striking additions was the chorus at the end of Act III of "Moïse", with a crescendo repetition of a diatonic ascending bass line, rising first by a minor third, then by a major third, at each appearance, and a descending chromatic top line, which roused the excitement of audiences.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Rossini's government contract required him to create at least one new ""grand opėra"", and Rossini settled on the story of William Tell, working closely with the librettist Étienne de Jouy. The story in particular enabled him to indulge "an underlying interest in the related genres of folk music, pastoral and the picturesque". This becomes clear from the overture, which is explicitly programmatic in describing weather, scenery and action, and presents a version of the "ranz des vaches", the Swiss cowherd's call, which "undergoes a number of transformations during the opera" and gives it in Richard Osborne's opinion "something of the character of a leitmotif". In the opinion of the music historian Benjamin Walton, Rossini "saturate[s] the work with local colour to such a degree that there is room for little else." Thus, the role of the soloists is significantly reduced compared to other Rossini operas, the hero not even having an aria of his own, whilst the chorus of the Swiss people is consistently in the musical and dramatic foregrounds.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: "Guillaume Tell" premiered in August 1829. Rossini also provided for the Opéra a shorter, three-act version, which incorporated the "pas redoublé" (quick march) final section of the overture in its finale; it was first performed in 1831 and became the basis of the Opéra's future productions. "Tell" was very successful from the start and was frequently revived – in 1868 the composer was present at its 500th performance at the Opéra. The "Globe" had reported enthusiastically at its opening that "a new epoch has opened not only for French opera, but for dramatic music elsewhere." This was an era, it transpired, in which Rossini was not to participate.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Rossini's contract required him to provide five new works for the Opéra over 10 years. After the première of "Tell" he was already considering some opera subjects, including Goethe's "Faust", but the only significant works he completed before abandoning Paris in 1836 were the Stabat Mater, written for a private commission in 1831 (later completed and published in 1841), and the collection of salon vocal music "Soirées musicales" published in 1835. Living in Bologna, he occupied himself teaching singing at the Liceo Musicale, and also created a "pasticcio" of "Tell", "Rodolfo di Sterlinga", for the benefit of the singer , for which Giuseppe Verdi provided some new arias. Continuing demand in Paris resulted in the productions of a "new" French version of "Otello" in 1844 (with which Rossini was not involved) and a "new" opera "Robert Bruce" for which Rossini cooperated with Louis Niedermeyer and others to recast music for "La donna del lago" and others of his works which were little-known in Paris to fit a new libretto. The success of both of these was qualified, to say the least.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: Not until Rossini returned to Paris in 1855 were there signs of a revival of his musical spirits. A stream of pieces, for voices, choir, piano, and chamber ensembles, written for his soirées, the "Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of old age)" were issued in thirteen volumes from 1857 to 1868; of these volumes 4 to 8 comprise "56 semi-comical piano pieces ... dedicated to pianists of the fourth class, to which I have the honour of belonging." These include a mock funeral march, "Marche et reminiscences pour mon dernier voyage (March and reminiscences for my last journey)." Gossett writes of the "Péchés" "Their historical position remains to be assessed but it seems likely that their effect, direct or indirect, on composers like Camille Saint-Saëns and Erik Satie was significant."


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: The most substantial work of Rossini's last decade, the "Petite messe solennelle" (1863), was written for small forces (originally voices, two pianos and harmonium), and therefore unsuited to concert hall performance; and as it included women's voices it was unacceptable for church performances at the time. For these reasons, Richard Osborne suggests, the piece has been somewhat overlooked among Rossini's compositions. It is neither especially "petite" (little) nor entirely "solennelle" (solemn), but is notable for its grace, counterpoint and melody. At the end of the manuscript, the composer wrote: Dear God, here it is finished, this poor little Mass. Is it sacred music I have written, or damned music? I was born for opera buffa, as you know well. A little technique, a little heart, that's all. Be blessed then, and grant me Paradise.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: The popularity of Rossini's melodies led many contemporary virtuosi to create piano transcriptions or fantasies based on them. Examples include Sigismond Thalberg's fantasy on themes from "Moïse", the sets of variations on "Non più mesta" from "La Cenerentola" by Henri Herz, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Hünten, Anton Diabelli and Friedrich Burgmüller, and Liszt's transcriptions of the "William Tell" overture (1838) and the "Soirées musicales".


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: The continuing popularity of his comic operas (and the decline in staging his "opere serie"), the overthrow of the singing and staging styles of his period, and the emerging concept of the composer as "creative artist" rather than craftsman, diminished and distorted Rossini's place in music history even though the forms of Italian opera continued up to the period of verismo to be indebted to his innovations. Rossini's status amongst his contemporary Italian composers is indicated by the "Messa per Rossini", a project initiated by Verdi within a few days of Rossini's death, which he and a dozen other composers created in collaboration.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: If Rossini's principal legacy to Italian opera was in vocal forms and dramatic structure for serious opera, his legacy to French opera was to provide a bridge from opera buffa to the development of "opéra comique" (and thence, via Jacques Offenbach's "opéras bouffes" to the genre of operetta). "Opéras comiques" showing a debt to Rossini's style include François-Adrien Boieldieu's "La dame blanche" (1825) and Daniel Auber's "Fra Diavolo" (1830), as well as works by Ferdinand Hérold, Adolphe Adam and Fromental Halévy. Critical of Rossini's style was Hector Berlioz, who wrote of his "melodic cynicism, his contempt for dramatic and good sense, his endless repetition of a single form of cadence, his eternal puerile crescendo and his brutal bass drum".


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: It was perhaps inevitable that the formidable reputation which Rossini had built in his lifetime would fade thereafter. In 1886, less than twenty years after the composer's death, Bernard Shaw wrote: "The once universal Rossini, whose "Semiramide" appeared to our greener grandfathers a Ninevesque wonder, came at last to be no longer looked upon as a serious musician." In an 1877 review of "Il barbiere", he noted that Adelina Patti sang as an encore in the lesson scene "Home, Sweet Home" but that "the opera proved so intolerably wearisome that some of her audience had already displayed their appreciation of the sentiment of the ballad in the most practical way."


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: In the early 20th century Rossini received tributes from both Ottorino Respighi, who had orchestrated excerpts from the "Péchés de viellesse" both in his ballet "la boutique fantasque" (1918) and in his 1925 suite "Rossiniana", and from Benjamin Britten, who adapted music by Rossini for two suites, "Soirées musicales" (Op. 9) in 1937 and "Matinées musicales" (Op. 24) in 1941. Richard Osborne singles out the three-volume biography of Rossini by Giuseppe Radiciotti (1927–1929) as an important turning-point towards positive appreciation, which may also have been assisted by the trend of neoclassicism in music. A firm re-evaluation of Rossini's significance began only later in the 20th century in the light of study, and the creation of critical editions, of his works. A prime mover in these developments was the "Fondazione G. Rossini" which was created by the city of Pesaro in 1940 using the funds which had been left to the city by the composer. Since 1980 the "Fondazione" has supported the annual Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.


title: Gioachino Rossini

text: In the 21st century, the Rossini repertoire of opera houses around the world remains dominated by "Il barbiere", "La Cenerentola" being the second most popular. Several other operas are regularly produced, including "Le comte Ory", "La donna del lago", "La gazza ladra", "Guillaume Tell", "L'italiana in Algeri", "La scala di seta", "Il turco in Italia" and "Il viaggio a Reims". Other Rossini pieces in the current international repertory, given from time to time, include "Adina", "Armida", "Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra", "Ermione", "Mosé in Egitto" and "Tancredi". The Rossini in Wildbad festival specialises in producing the rarer works. The Operabase performance-listing website records 2,319 performances of 532 productions of Rossini operas in 255 venues across the world in the three years 2017–2019. All of Rossini's operas have been recorded.


title: Covent Garden

text: Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.


title: Covent Garden

text: The area was fields until briefly settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic, then abandoned at the end of the 9th century after which it returned to fields. By 1200 part of it had been walled off by the Abbot of Westminster Abbey for use as arable land and orchards, later referred to as "the garden of the Abbey and Convent", and later "the Convent Garden". Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was granted in 1552 by the young King Edward VI to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c.1485–1555), the trusted adviser to his father King Henry VIII. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build some fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Paul's. The design of the square was new to London and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for new estates as London grew.


title: Covent Garden

text: By 1654 a small open-air fruit-and-vegetable market had developed on the south side of the fashionable square. Gradually, both the market and the surrounding area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses and brothels opened up. By the 18th century it had become notorious for its abundance of brothels. An Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowler's neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The market grew and further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market. By the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980 and is now a tourist location containing cafes, pubs, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market, along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.


title: Covent Garden

text: Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden and the parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. The area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907; the 300 yard journey from Leicester Square tube station is the shortest in London.


title: Covent Garden

text: During the Roman period, what is now the Strand – running along the southern boundary of the area that was to become Covent Garden – was part of the route to Silchester, known as "Iter VII" on the Antonine Itinerary. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a late Roman grave, suggesting the site had been sacred since at least 410 AD. The area to the north of the Strand was long thought to have remained as unsettled fields until the 16th century, but theories by Alan Vince and Martin Biddle that there had been an Anglo-Saxon settlement to the west of the old Roman town of Londinium were borne out by excavations in 1985 and 2005. These revealed that a trading town, called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, stretching from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych, with Covent Garden at the centre. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, and the site returned to fields.


title: Covent Garden

text: The first mention of a walled garden comes from a document, circa 1200 AD, detailing land owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to "the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster". By the 13th century this had become a quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land, lying between modern-day St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane, and Floral Street and Maiden Lane. The use of the name "Covent"—an Anglo-French term for a religious community, equivalent to "monastery" or "convent"—appears in a document in 1515, when the Abbey, which had been letting out parcels of land along the north side of the Strand for inns and market gardens, granted a lease of the walled garden, referring to it as "a garden called Covent Garden". This is how it was recorded from then on.


title: Covent Garden

text: After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 under King Henry VIII, monastic lands in England reverted to the crown, including lands belonging to Westminster Abbey such as the Convent Garden and seven acres to the north called Long Acre. In 1552 King Edward VI granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, his late father's trusted adviser. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in the peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land until 1918.


title: Covent Garden

text: Russell built Bedford House and garden on part of the land, with an entrance on the Strand, the large garden stretching back along the south side of the old walled-off convent garden. In 1630 Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford commissioned the architect Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around a large square or piazza. This had been prompted by King Charles I having taken offence at the poor condition of the road and houses along Long Acre, which were the responsibility of Russell and Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth. Russell and Carey complained that under the 1625 Proclamation concerning Buildings, which restricted building in and around London, they could not build new houses. For a fee of £2,000, the King then granted Russell a licence to build as many new houses on his land as he "shall thinke fitt and convenient".


title: Covent Garden

text: The houses initially attracted the wealthy, though they moved out when a market developed on the south side of the square around 1654, and coffee houses, taverns, and prostitutes moved in.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Bedford Estate was expanded by the inheritance of the former manor of Bloomsbury to the immediate north of Covent Garden following the marriage of William Russell, Lord Russell (1639–1683) (third son of William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire) to Rachel Wriothesley, heiress of Bloomsbury, younger of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (1607-1667). Rachel's son and heir was Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford (1680–1711).


title: Covent Garden

text: By the 18th century, Covent Garden had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes such as Betty Careless and Jane Douglas. Descriptions of the prostitutes and where to find them were provided by "Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies", the "essential guide and accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure". In 1830 a market hall was built to provide a more permanent trading centre. In 1913 Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate for £2 million to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option in 1918 to the Beecham family for £250,000.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Covent Garden Estate was part of Beecham Estates and Pills Limited from 1924 to 1928, after which it was managed by a successor company called Covent Garden Properties, owned by the Beechams and other private investors. This new company sold some properties at Covent Garden, while becoming active in property investment in other parts of London. In 1962 the bulk of the remaining properties in the Covent Garden area, including the market, were sold to the newly established government-owned Covent Garden Authority for £3,925,000.


title: Covent Garden

text: By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion had reached such a level that the use of the square as a modern wholesale distribution market was becoming untenable, and significant redevelopment was planned. Following a public outcry, buildings around the square were protected in 1973, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market moved to a new site in Nine Elms, between Battersea and Vauxhall in south-west London. The square languished until its central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980.


title: Covent Garden

text: After consulting with residents and local businesses, Westminster Council drew up an action plan to improve the area while retaining its historic character in 2004. The market buildings, along with several other properties in Covent Garden, were bought by a Property company in 2006.


title: Covent Garden

text: Historically, the Bedford Estate defined the boundary of Covent Garden, with Drury Lane to the east, the Strand to the south, St Martin's Lane to the west, and Long Acre to the north. However, over time the area regarded as part of Covent Garden has expanded northwards past Long Acre to High Holborn. Since 1971, with the creation of the Covent Garden Conservation Area which incorporated part of the area between St Martin's Lane and Charing Cross Road, Charing Cross Road has sometimes been taken as its western boundary. Long Acre is the main thoroughfare, running north-east from St Martin's Lane to Drury Lane. Shelton Street, running parallel to the north of Long Acre, marks the London borough boundary between Camden and Westminster.


title: Covent Garden

text: The area to the south of Long Acre contains the Royal Opera House, the market and central square, and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum; while the area to the north of Long Acre is largely given over to independent retail units centred on Neal Street, Neal's Yard and Seven Dials; though this area also contains residential buildings such as Odhams Walk, built in 1981 on the site of the Odhams print works, and is home to 7,000 residents.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Covent Garden estate was originally under the control of Westminster Abbey and lay in the parish of St Margaret. During a reorganisation in 1542 it was transferred to St Martin in the Fields, and then in 1645 a new parish was created, splitting governance of the estate between the parishes of St Paul Covent Garden and St Martin, both still within the Liberty of Westminster. St Paul Covent Garden was completely surrounded by the parish of St Martin in the Fields. It was grouped into the Strand District in 1855. In 1900 it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster and was abolished as a civil parish in 1922. The northern reaches of Covent Garden were within the ancient parish of St Giles in the Fields and outside the Liberty of Westminster. They were from 1855 to 1900 part of the St Giles District and from 1900 part of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn.


title: Covent Garden

text: Covent Garden came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works from 1855 and in 1889 became part of the County of London. Since 1965 Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and is in the Parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. For local council elections it falls within the St James's ward for Westminster, and the Holborn and Covent Garden ward for Camden.


title: Covent Garden

text: Covent Garden Market reopened in 1980 as a shopping arcade with restaurants and a pub. The central hall has shops, cafes and bars alongside the Apple Market stalls selling antiques, jewellery, clothing and gifts; there are additional casual stalls in the Jubilee Hall Market on the south side of the square. In 2010, what was then the largest Apple Store in the world opened in The Piazza. Long Acre has clothes shops and boutiques, and Neal Street is noted for its numerous shoe shops. London Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the square. During the late 1970s and 1980s the "Rock Garden" music venue was popular with up and coming punk rock and new wave artists.


title: Covent Garden

text: The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden were bought by CapCo in partnership with GE Real Estate in August 2006 for £421 million, on a 150-year head lease. The buildings are let to the Covent Garden Area Trust, who pay an annual peppercorn rent of one red apple and a posy of flowers for each head lease, and the Trust protects the property from being redeveloped. In March 2007 CapCo also acquired the shops located under the Royal Opera House. The complete Covent Garden Estate owned by CapCo consists of , and has a market value of £650 million.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Royal Opera House, known as "Covent Garden", was constructed as the "Theatre Royal" in 1732 to a design by Edward Shepherd. During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. In 1734, the first ballet was presented; a year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premières here. It has been the home of The Royal Opera since 1945, and the Royal Ballet since 1946.


title: Covent Garden

text: The current building is the third theatre on the site following destructive fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium were designed by Edward Barry, and date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive £178 million reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, previously a part of the old Covent Garden Market, created a large new public gathering place. In 1779 the pavement outside the playhouse was the scene of the murder of Martha Ray, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, by her admirer the Rev. James Hackman.


title: Covent Garden

text: The central square in Covent Garden is simply called "Covent Garden", often marketed as "Covent Garden Piazza" to distinguish it from the eponymous surrounding area. Designed and laid out in 1630, it was the first modern square in London—originally a flat, open space or piazza with low railings. From about 1635 onwards there were many private residents of note, including the nobility, living in the Great Piazza. A casual market started on the south side, and by 1830 the present market hall had been built. The space is popular with street performers, who audition with the site's owners for an allocated slot. The square was originally laid out when the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around the site of a former walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey. Jones's design was informed by his knowledge of modern town planning in Europe, particularly Piazza d'Arme, in Leghorn, Tuscany, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, and the Place des Vosges in Paris. The centrepiece of the project was the large square, the concept of which was new to London, and this had a significant influence on modern town planning as the metropolis grew, acting as the prototype for the design of new estates, such as the Ladbroke Estate and the Grosvenor Estate. Isaac de Caus, the French Huguenot architect, designed the individual houses under Jones's overall design.


title: Covent Garden

text: The church of St Paul's was the first building, and was begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637. Seventeen of the houses had arcaded portico walks organised in groups of four and six either side of James Street on the north side, and three and four either side of Russell Street. These arcades, rather than the square itself, took the name Piazza; the group from James Street to Russell Street became known as the "Great Piazza" and that to the south of Russell Street as the "Little Piazza". None of Inigo Jones's houses remains, though part of the north group was reconstructed in 1877–79 as Bedford Chambers by William Cubitt to a design by Henry Clutton.


title: Covent Garden

text: The first record of a "new market in Covent Garden" is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House. The Earl of Bedford acquired a private charter from Charles II in 1670 for a fruit and vegetable market, permitting him and his heirs to hold a market every day except Sundays and Christmas Day. The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, requested an Act of Parliament in 1813 to regulate it, then commissioned Charles Fowler in 1830 to design the neo-classical market building that is the heart of Covent Garden today. The "greater part of the pillars" were built from granite quarried from Cairngall in today's Aberdeenshire. The contractor was William Cubitt and Company. Further buildings were added—the Floral hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market for foreign flowers was built by Cubitt and Howard.


title: Covent Garden

text: By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was causing problems for the market, which required increasingly large lorries for deliveries and distribution. Redevelopment was considered, but protests from the Covent Garden Community Association in 1973 prompted the Home Secretary, Robert Carr, to give dozens of buildings around the square listed-building status, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market called the Apple Market. Among the first shops to relocate here was Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop. Another market, the Jubilee Market, is held in the Jubilee Hall on the south side of the square. The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden have been owned by the property company Capital & Counties Properties (CapCo) since 2006. In 1980 the London Transport Museum opened in part of the old flower market buildings, and these were refurbished in around 2005 to re-open in 2007.


title: Covent Garden

text: The current Theatre Royal on Drury Lane is the most recent of four incarnations, the first of which opened in 1663, making it the oldest continuously used theatre in London. For much of its first two centuries, it was, along with the Royal Opera House, a patent theatre granted rights in London for the production of drama, and had a claim to be one of London's leading theatres. The first theatre, known as "Theatre Royal, Bridges Street", saw performances by Nell Gwyn and Charles Hart. After it was destroyed by fire in 1672, English dramatist and theatre manager Thomas Killigrew constructed a larger theatre on the same spot, which opened in 1674. Killigrew's theatre lasted nearly 120 years, under leadership including Colley Cibber, David Garrick, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In 1791, under Sheridan's management, the building was demolished to make way for a larger theatre which opened in 1794. However that survived only 15 years, burning down in 1809. The building that stands today opened in 1812. It has been home to actors as diverse as Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, child actress Clara Fisher, comedian Dan Leno, the comedy troupe Monty Python (who recorded a concert album there), and musical composer and performer Ivor Novello. Since November 2008 the theatre has been owned by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and generally stages popular musical theatre. It is a Grade I listed building.


title: Covent Garden

text: The London Transport Museum is in a Victorian iron and glass building on the east side of the market square. It was designed as a dedicated flower market by William Rogers of William Cubitt and Company in 1871, and was first occupied by the museum in 1980. Previously the transport collection had been held at Syon Park and Clapham. The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service. After the LGOC was taken over by the London Electric Railway (LER), the collection was expanded to include rail vehicles. It continued to expand after the LER became part of the London Passenger Transport Board in the 1930s and as the organisation passed through various successor bodies up to TfL, London's transport authority since 2000. The Covent Garden building has on display many examples of buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from the 19th and 20th centuries as well as artefacts and exhibits related to the operation and marketing of passenger services and the impact that the developing transport network has had on the city and its population.


title: Covent Garden

text: St Paul's, commonly known as the Actors' Church, was built in 1633, at a cost of £4,000, though was not consecrated until 1638. In 1645 Covent Garden was made a separate parish and the church was dedicated to St Paul. How much of Jones's original building is left is unclear, as the church was damaged by fire in 1795 during restoration work by Thomas Hardwick; the columns are thought to be original but the rest is mostly Georgian or Victorian reconstruction.


title: Covent Garden

text: The building, opposite the Royal Opera House, was opened in 1881 to house both a Magistrates' Court and a police station. As well as dealing with local petty criminals, a number of high-profile defendants appeared in the court, including Oscar Wilde, Dr Crippen and the Kray twins, and those facing extradition proceedings, such as Augusto Pinochet and James Earl Ray.


title: Covent Garden

text: The police station closed in 1992, with its work moving to the more modern Charing Cross police station. The court building's Grade II listed status meant it was not economic to update it to modern standards and the court closed in July 2006. Sold to developers, planning permission was obtained to convert the building into a hotel and museum. A 91-room hotel and a public restaurant, run by the New York based NoMad chain, opened in May 2021, as did a museum of local police history in the former police station.


title: Covent Garden

text: Freemasons' Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, as well as a meeting place for many Masonic Lodges in the London area. It is in Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden and has been a Masonic meeting place since 1775. Parts of the building are open to the public daily, and its preserved classic Art Deco style, together with its regular use as a film and television location, have made it a tourist destination.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Covent Garden area has long been associated with entertainment and shopping. Covent Garden has 13 theatres, and over 60 pubs and bars, with most south of Long Acre, around the main shopping area of the old market. The Seven Dials area in the north of Covent Garden was home to the punk rock club The Roxy in 1977, and the area remains focused on young people with its trendy mid-market retail outlets.


title: Covent Garden

text: Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys's diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain. Impromptu performances of song and swimming were given by local celebrity William Cussans in the eighteenth century. Covent Garden is licensed for street entertainment, and performers audition for timetabled slots in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only.


title: Covent Garden

text: There are street performances at Covent Garden Market every day of the year, except Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. In March 2008, the market owner, CapCo, proposed to reduce street performances to one 30-minute show each hour.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Covent Garden area has over 60 pubs and bars; several of them are listed buildings, with some also on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors; some, such as The Harp in Chandos Place, have received consumer awards. The Harp's awards include London Pub of the Year in 2008 by the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood, and National Pub of the Year by CAMRA in 2010. It was at one time owned by the Charrington Brewery, when it was known as The Welsh Harp; in 1995 the name was abbreviated to just The Harp, before Charrington sold it to Punch Taverns in 1997. It was eventually purchased by the landlady Binnie Walsh around 2010 then subsequently sold by her to Fuller's Brewery in 2014. It continues to win regular CAMRA pub awards under its new owners.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Lamb and Flag in Rose Street is possibly the oldest pub in the area. The first mention of a pub on the site is 1772 (when it was called the Cooper's Arms – the name changing to Lamb & Flag in 1833); the 1958 brick exterior conceals what may be an early 18th-century frame of a house replacing the original one built in 1638. The pub acquired a reputation for staging bare-knuckle prize fights during the early 19th century when it earned the nickname "Bucket of Blood". The alleyway beside the pub was the scene of an attack on John Dryden in 1679 by thugs hired by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, with whom he had a long-standing conflict.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Salisbury in St Martin's Lane was built as part of a six-storey block around 1899 on the site of an earlier pub that had been known under several names, including the Coach & Horses and Ben Caunt's Head; it is both Grade II listed, and on CAMRA's National Inventory, due to the quality of the etched and polished glass and the carved woodwork, summed up as "good fin de siècle ensemble". The Freemasons Arms on Long Acre is linked with the founding of the Football Association in 1863; however, the meetings took place at The Freemason's Tavern on Great Queen Street, which was replaced in 1909 by the Connaught Rooms.


title: Covent Garden

text: Other Grade II listed pubs include three 19th century rebuilds of 17th century/18th century houses, the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court, the Nag's Head on James Street, and the White Swan on New Row; a Victorian pub built by lessees of the Marquis of Exeter, the Old Bell on the corner of Exeter Street and Wellington Street; and a late 18th or early 19th century pub the Angel and Crown on St Martin's Lane.


title: Covent Garden

text: There is a wide range of restaurants, mainly in Covent Garden's central area around the piazza, and in the St Martin's Lane area bordering the West End; some of these with international reputations. Among the restaurants are the historic theatrical eating places, the oldest of which is Rules, which was founded in 1798, making it the oldest restaurant in London, followed by J. Sheekey, an oyster bar and fish restaurant founded in 1893 by market-stall holder Josef Sheekey in Lord Salisbury's St Martin's Court, and The Ivy, which was founded as an unlicensed Italian cafe by Abel Giandellini in 1917. Other restaurants include Gaby's Deli, a Jewish cafe and restaurant serving falafels and salt beef sandwiches since 1965, and Mon Plaisir, founded in 1943, one of the oldest French restaurants in London. Covent Garden was home to some of London's earliest coffee shops, such as Old Slaughter's Coffee House, which ran from 1692 until 1843, and a Beefsteak Club, the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks, which was co-founded in 1736 by William Hogarth at the Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House).


title: Covent Garden

text: Covent Garden, and especially the market, have appeared in a number of works. It is the place where Job Trotter, character of the Pickwick Papers by Dickens, spends the nights. In 1867, Johann Strauss II from Austria composed "Erinnerung an Covent Garden" (Memory of Covent Garden, op. 329). Eliza Doolittle, the central character in George Bernard Shaw's play, "Pygmalion", and the musical adaptation by Alan Jay Lerner, "My Fair Lady", is a Covent Garden flower seller. Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film "Frenzy" about a Covent Garden fruit vendor who becomes a serial sex killer, was set in the market where his father had been a wholesale greengrocer. The daily activity of the market was the topic of a 1957 Free Cinema documentary by Lindsay Anderson, "Every Day Except Christmas", which won the Grand Prix at the Venice Festival of Shorts and Documentaries.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Covent Garden Festival, also known as the BOC Covent Garden Festival due to sponsorship by BOC, is or was a festival of music and musical theatre staged across various venues in early summer each year. It was run by administrator Kenneth Richardson from 1996 to 2001. Its impending closure was announced in late 2001, owing to lack of sponsorship for 2002. However, official company records show incorporation in 1989 and ongoing registration .


title: Covent Garden

text: Venues used for the festival have included the Bow Street Magistrates Court; the Covent Garden piazza; the Royal Opera House; Cochrane Theatre, Holborn; Peacock Theatre in Kingsway WC2, venues at Lincoln's Inn and The Temple; and the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand.


title: Covent Garden

text: Covent Garden tube station is situated on the corner of Long Acre and James Street. It is served by Piccadilly line trains, which link the area directly to important Central London destinations including King's Cross St Pancras, South Kensington, and Heathrow Airport (). The station opened in 1907, and is one of the few in Central London for which platform access is only by lift or stairs.


title: Covent Garden

text: The journey from Covent Garden to Leicester Square is London's shortest tube journey, at less than 300 yards. Leicester Square tube station is on the Piccadilly and Northern lines. The Northern line links Covent Garden directly to destinations such as Waterloo, Euston, and Camden Town.


title: Covent Garden

text: Other nearby tube stations include Charing Cross, Embankment, and Holborn. Charing Cross is the nearest National Rail ('mainline') station to Covent Garden.


title: Covent Garden

text: More than 30 London Buses routes run along Covent Garden's perimeters, although no routes run directly through Covent Garden following the permanent withdrawal of the RV1 route in 2019.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Quietway 1 cycle route passes through Covent Garden. The route is signposted and runs on quieter roads or contraflow cycle lanes. The route runs northbound towards the Bloomsbury, and southbound to the Strand and Waterloo Bridge, via Bow Street.


title: Covent Garden

text: The Santander Cycles bike sharing scheme operates in Covent Garden, with several docking points throughout the area.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst is a 2015 HBO documentary miniseries about New York real estate heir Robert Durst, a convicted murderer. It was written by Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, and Zac Stuart-Pontier.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: The series was directed by Jarecki, who had previously directed the feature fictional film "All Good Things" (2010), inspired by Durst's biography. Durst had professed admiration for the film "All Good Things" and telephoned Jarecki after its release, offering to be interviewed (this conversation was recorded and incorporated into the documentary). Durst sat with Jarecki for more than 20 hours over several years, despite having never previously cooperated with any journalist.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: "The Jinx" gained widespread exposure when Durst was arrested on first-degree murder charges for the death of his friend Susan Berman, the day before its finale aired.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: The series investigates the unsolved 1982 disappearance of Durst's wife Kathie, the 2000 execution-style killing of writer Susan Berman, and the 2001 death and dismemberment of Durst's neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas. Durst was suspected of involvement in the first two murders and confessed to the third, but claimed self defense and was acquitted at trial. The series incorporates a wide array of existing media including news footage, security footage, police evidence, and archival interviews, combined with footage shot by Jarecki. It is composed of contemporary interviews, visual reenactments (some of which were shot at Jarecki's upstate New York home), and self-reflexive footage of Jarecki's film-making process and odd working relationship with Durst. Its complex editing style and narrative construction emphasize the contradictions within both Durst's life and the bizarre and grisly murders he committed.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: During the conclusion of the fifth episode, Sareb Kaufman, Berman's stepson, contacts the filmmakers asking them to review material that was left by Berman after her murder. In it, he highlights an envelope from Durst to Berman sent in March 1999: the envelope's block letter handwriting matches and contains the same "Beverley Hills" misspelling as an anonymous envelope sent to police in December 2000 to alert them to Berman's murder. The filmmakers, shocked by the revelation, place both envelopes in a safety deposit box, and decide to get a second interview from Durst.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: In the sixth and final episode, the filmmakers visit a forensic document examiner. After analyzing both envelopes and other documents in Durst's block letter writing, he states that the two writings have characteristics that can come from "one person, and only one person". Jarecki attempts to get a second interview with Durst, who suddenly becomes evasive and uninterested in a follow-up. At one point he claims to be in Spain, but Kaufman says that Durst told him he was in Los Angeles. After Durst is arrested for violating a restraining order filed by his brother Douglas, Jarecki convinces Durst to conduct a second interview. During their session, Jarecki confronts Durst about the match in handwriting on the two envelopes - Durst acknowledges the similarity, but denies writing the letter about Berman's murder. After the interview Durst goes to the bathroom. Apparently unaware that his microphone is still recording, he makes a rambling, off-camera statement to himself, ending with, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: Douglas Durst, estranged brother of Robert and head of the Durst Organization, was apprehensive about the documentary's portrayal of the Durst family and, in particular, its use of videotaped depositions that had been subject to a confidentiality agreement. He petitioned the New York Supreme Court in January 2015 to compel Jarecki to reveal his sources. "Douglas Durst is worried [that] "The Jinx" will be a violent broadside against the family name and history,” the petition stated. By showing that Robert or wife Debrah Lee Charatan violated a Westchester County judge's 2006 order sealing the material, Douglas could sue to recover a $65 million family trust settlement. According to "The New York Times", Robert gave filmmakers "unrestricted access" to his personal files, which included the videotaped testimony.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: A lawyer for Douglas argued that "The Jinx" is a "sensationalized docudrama" and that its director is exempt from New York's shield law, designed to protect journalists. Jarecki replied that his use of dramatic reenactments (by actors whose faces were never shown) was not evidence of fictionalization. Despite attempting to "portray Robert Durst as a human being in a fashion that could help explain some of his behavior, rather than as a burlesque figure," Jarecki never promised Durst that his film would ultimately defend his innocence.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: On March 14, 2015, the eve of the final episode's airing, Durst was arrested in New Orleans by the FBI on a first-degree murder warrant obtained by the LAPD in connection to Berman's death. They had undertaken an investigation based on new evidence presented in the miniseries. The Associated Press reported that the 1999 letter written by Durst to Berman, unearthed by the filmmakers, provided "key new evidence" leading to the filing of murder charges. According to "The New York Times", the filmmakers sought legal advice on when to share the letter with law enforcement, weighing journalistic privilege against possible claims of evidentiary inadmissibility in a future trial.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: Interviewed ten days after his brother's arrest, Douglas told "The New York Times" that his brother had stalked him as recently as February 22, 2015, in Palm Beach, Florida. He felt "a tremendous sense of relief" at the turn of events which led to Robert's arrest. Although sharply disputing some assumptions about the Durst family presented in Jarecki's documentary (which he had not seen), and continuing to stress the threat Robert posed to him and others, Douglas sounded a conciliatory note: “I no longer am looking over my shoulder,” he said. “I’m very grateful to ‘The Jinx’ for having brought this about.” Douglas dropped his legal action against Jarecki in late April 2015, and was reportedly considering a move to freeze $74 million of his estranged brother's assets.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: In April 2019, during Durst's trial, a transcript from the series revealed that Durst's final remarks had been edited and presented out of order. According to the transcript filed in court, Durst's complete remarks were as follows:


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: Jarecki, Smerling, and Stuart-Pontier defended the edits as "entirely representative of what Durst said". Documentary filmmaker Mark Jonathan Harris described the edits as "problematic", saying that Durst's statements are "definitely more ambiguous in the transcript" and the edit made them "damning".


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: The theme song is "Fresh Blood" performed by Eels. The original score was composed by West Dylan Thordson with co-composition by John Kusiak. Musical saw, performed by Natalia Paruz, is featured throughout the series.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: "The Jinx" received widespread critical acclaim and media buzz, particularly upon airing its revelatory finale. John Hendrickson at "Esquire" called the series' ending "one of the most jaw-dropping moments in television history." Mike Hale from "The New York Times" said it was "gut-wrenching, remarkable television." Sean T. Collins of "The New York Observer" called the series "a documentarian’s unicorn: a quest for the truth that, it seems, found it, and found it spectacularly," adding that in comparison to usual television true-crime documentary fare, "The Jinx" "pulls an SUV with a vanity plate that reads 'BEVERLEY' up on the curb and mows it all down."


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: Other critics accused the documentary of charting an uncomfortable line between storytelling and journalism. Two days after Durst's arrest and one day after the final installment of "The Jinx" was aired, "The New Yorker" reported that "[t]he filmmakers, having been quizzed on the time line of events as represented, have cancelled forthcoming interviews." Specifically, when challenged over whether Robert Durst's arrest for trespassing on his brother Douglas Durst's property occurred before the filmmakers' second interview with Robert, as implied by "The Jinx", Andrew Jarecki replied, "Yeah, I think I’ve got to get back to you with a proper response on that." Several media outlets questioned how long the filmmakers had sat on evidence damaging to Durst before turning it over to law enforcement.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: “Given that we are likely to be called as witnesses in any case law enforcement may decide to bring against Robert Durst, it is not appropriate for us to comment further on these pending matters. We can confirm that evidence (including the envelope and the washroom recording) was turned over to authorities months ago.”


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: A study of Westchester County case notes by "The Guardian" indicated that, contrary to then-District Attorney Jeanine Pirro's assertions in "The Jinx" that "we were about to speak with" Susan Berman about Kathie Durst's disappearance, New York investigators had not yet scheduled an interview nor funded an investigator to visit Berman in California at the time of her December 23, 2000, murder. Durst said in a 2005 deposition, excerpted in "The Jinx", that Berman called him shortly before her death and said: "The Los Angeles police contacted me. They wanted to talk about Kathie Durst’s disappearance.”


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: Although the Los Angeles Police Department denied any connection between Durst's arrest and HBO's airing of "The Jinx" finale, Dick DeGuerin, Durst's defense attorney, lashed out at the timing. “Do I think this is a coincidence? Hell, no,” he said. “There has been rumor, innuendo and speculation for a number of years, and now we’re going to get our day in court on this.”


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: "The Jinx" was nominated for six and won two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2015: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming. It received nominations for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera), and Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: "The Jinx" was also awarded a 2015 Peabody Award, as well as the TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials from the Television Critics Association. Marc Smerling, Andrew Jarecki, and Jason Blum won the Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television.


title: The Jinx (miniseries)

text: The miniseries premiered in Australia on May 7, 2015, on Showcase. "The Jinx" premiered in India on June 9, 2015, on HBO Defined.


title: Henri Charrière

text: Henri Charrière (; 16 November 1906  – 29 July 1973) was a French writer, convicted in 1931 as a murderer by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote the novel "Papillon", a memoir of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in French Guiana. While Charrière claimed that "Papillon" was largely true, modern researchers believe that much of the book’s material came from other inmates, rather than Charrière himself. Charrière denied committing the murder, although he freely admitted to having committed various other petty crimes prior to his incarceration.


title: Henri Charrière

text: Charrière was born at Saint-Étienne-de-Lugdarès, Ardèche, France. He had two older sisters. His mother died when he was 10. At 17 in 1923, he enlisted in the French Navy and served for two years. After that, he became a member of the Paris underworld. He later married and had a daughter.


title: Henri Charrière

text: The version of his life presented in his semi-biographical novel, "Papillon", claimed that Charrière was convicted on 26 October 1931 of the murder of a pimp named Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strenuously denied. He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard labour. He had married Georgette Fourel at the town hall of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, on December 22, 1929. (They divorced on 8 July 1930 by decision of the Paris High Court.) After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in 1933 to the prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana.


title: Henri Charrière

text: According to the book, he made his first escape on 28 November 1933 and was joined by fellow prisoners André Maturette and Joanes Clousiot, who would accompany him throughout much of his time on the run. Thirty-seven days later, the trio were captured by Colombian police near the village of Riohacha, northern Caribbean Region of Colombia, and were imprisoned. Charrière subsequently escaped during a rainy night and fled to the La Guajira Peninsula, where he was adopted by an indigenous tribe. He spent several months living with the natives, but felt that he had to move on, which was a decision he would ultimately regret. After leaving, he was quickly recaptured and sent back to French Guiana to be put into solitary confinement for the next two years.


title: Henri Charrière

text: After his release from solitary confinement, he spent another seven years in prison. During this period he attempted to escape several more times, resulting in increasingly brutal responses from his captors. He stated that he was then confined to Devil's Island, a labour camp (Devil's Island was not a labour camp so much as an internment camp) that, at the time, was notorious for being inescapable. (French authorities later released penal colony records that contradicted this; amongst other details, Charrière had never been imprisoned on Devil's Island.) However, he finally achieved his permanent liberation in 1941 by using a bag of coconuts as a makeshift raft and, riding the tide out from the island, he escaped with another convict. However, his companion drowned in quicksand when they reached the shore of French Guiana.


title: Henri Charrière

text: After meeting up with some escaped Chinese prisoners on the mainland, they bought a boat and sailed to Georgetown, British Guiana. After almost a year, a bored Charrière then joined another group of escaped convicts in a new boat with the intent of reaching British Honduras. However, after sailing into a cyclone, they only managed to reach Venezuela. They were all arrested and sent to a brutal penal settlement in El Dorado, Bolivar State. After a year of imprisonment, Charrière was released with identity papers on 3 July 1944. Five years later he was given Venezuelan citizenship.


title: Henri Charrière

text: French records of his life from 1933–1944 present a different account: He left the citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré on 29 September 1933 aboard the Martinière and landed on 14 October with the status of "transported" to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. There was little time left in the transportation camp, as he was assigned as a nursing assistant to the André-Bouron Colonial Hospital, where he saw many inmates returning from the run who told him their escape stories, from which he drew inspiration. This place spared him from the work of logging sites or agricultural concessions that annihilated convicts in a few months. He escaped for the first time on September 5, 1934, but failed in Colombia, a country that returned escaped convicts to France. Judged by the Special Maritime Court, he spent two years in the cells of the St. Joseph's Island Seclusion. Several times transferred, he ended up as chief nurse in an Indochinese camp on the Guyanese mainland, the Cascades forest camp, from which he escaped on the night of March 18–19, 1944, along with four companions.


title: Henri Charrière

text: After Charrière had served a year's probationary freedom, he was given his total liberty in 1945. He remained in Venezuela and became a naturalized citizen. He married a Venezuelan woman identified as Rita Bensimon. He opened restaurants in Caracas and Maracaibo. He was subsequently treated as a minor celebrity, even being invited frequently to appear on local television programmes. He finally returned to France, visiting Paris in conjunction with the publication of his memoir "Papillon" (1969). The book sold over 1.5 million copies in France, prompting a French minister to attribute "the moral decline of France" to miniskirts and "Papillon". "Papillon" was first published in the United Kingdom in 1970, in a translation by the novelist Patrick O'Brian. Charrière played the part of a jewel thief in a 1970 film called "Popsy Pop" directed by the French director Jean Vautrin, and released internationally in English as "The Butterfly Affair". He also wrote a sequel to "Papillon" entitled "Banco", in which he describes his life after being released from prison.


title: Henri Charrière

text: Charrière's best-selling book "Papillon" (1970), which he said was "75 percent true", details his alleged numerous escapes, attempted escapes, adventures, and recaptures, from his imprisonment in 1932 to his final escape to Venezuela. The book's title is Charrière's nickname, derived from a butterfly tattoo on his chest ("papillon" being French for butterfly). Modern researchers, however, believe that Charrière got much of his story material from other inmates, and so see the work as more of a work of fiction than a true autobiography.


title: Henri Charrière

text: In his book "Les quatre vérités de Papillon" ( "The Four Truths of Papillon"), Georges Ménager, a former "Paris Match" reporter, claims that Charrière was in fact a police informer and a pimp before his incarceration, and lived off the proceeds of his girlfriend's prostitution, and that he later tried to blame her for the murder of Roland Legrande. Charrière claims to have been incarcerated in Saint Laurent and may have escaped from there, but according to French officials, he never served any time on Devil's Island.


title: Henri Charrière

text: The book and movie both present Devil's Island as having rocky cliffs, when, in fact, although the entire island is rocky, it gently slopes into the surrounding sea. A French justice ministry report said Charrière's book included episodes that were imagined or involved others and "should be divided by at least 10 to get near the truth".


title: Henri Charrière

text: In 2005, a 104-year-old man in Paris, Charles Brunier, claimed to be the real Papillon. He also had a butterfly tattoo, on his left arm.


title: Henri Charrière

text: Critics tend to agree that Charrière's depictions included events that happened to others and that Brunier was at the prison at the same time. Critics claim that the heroic rescue of a guard's young daughter from sharks, which Charrière describes graphically in his book, was in fact carried out by another convict named Alfred Steffen who lost both legs and subsequently died. When some critics questioned the veracity of his story and said he erred on some of the dates, Charrière replied: "I didn't have a typewriter with me." French journalist Gerard de Villiers, author of "Papillon Épinglé" (Butterfly Pinned), maintains: "Only about 10 percent of Charrière's book represents the truth."


title: Jake Weary

text: Jacob Weary (born February 14, 1990) is an American actor, musician, singer-songwriter and music producer. He is known for his role as Luke Snyder in the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns", Vince Keeler in NBC's action-drama series "Chicago Fire", and for his role as Kevin Lebow in "" (2010), its two sequels, and the television adaptation, Nickelodeon's "". He currently stars as Deran Cody in the TNT drama series "Animal Kingdom", based on the Australian film of the same name.


title: Jake Weary

text: Weary initially made a guest appearance on the long-running CBS soap opera "Guiding Light" in 2002, in which his mother, actress Kim Zimmer, portrayed Reva Shayne. After guest appearances on "" and "Listen Up!", he was cast as Luke Snyder on another of CBS's long-running soaps, "As the World Turns". He would remain with the show until December 2005, when actor Van Hansis stepped into the role after Weary left to focus on his schoolwork.


title: Jake Weary

text: After making his film debut as a hall monitor in "Assassination of a High School President" in 2008, Weary was cast as Kevin Lebow, a central antagonist in the films "" (2010), "" (2011), "" (2012), and the Nickelodeon television adaptation, "". Weary has since appeared as Sal in Kaare Anderson's 2010 film "Altitude" and Hugh in the 2015 horror-thriller "It Follows".


title: Jake Weary

text: Weary currently stars as Deran Cody in the TNT criminal drama "Animal Kingdom", based on the 2010 Australian film of the same name.


title: Jake Weary

text: In addition to his acting career, Weary has been writing, producing and recording his own music since the age of 12. Under the pseudonym "Agendas", he released a self-titled EP in July 2011, followed by a sophomore effort titled "Tones" on June 16, 2012. He now currently produces music under his name, with an untitled new album due out in summer 2016.


title: Jake Weary

text: Weary was born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress Kim Zimmer and actor and director Allen Cudney "A.C." Weary. He married his longtime girlfriend Vera Bulder in October 2019.


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." is a six-word story, popularly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, although the link to him is unlikely. It is an example of flash fiction.


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: The claim of Hemingway's authorship originates in an unsubstantiated anecdote about a wager among him and other writers. In a 1991 letter to Canadian humorist John Robert Colombo, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke recounts: "He's [Hemingway] supposed to have won a $10 bet (no small sum in the '20s) from his fellow writers. They paid up without a word. ... Here it is. I still can't think of it without crying— FOR SALE. BABY SHOES. NEVER WORN."


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: The May 16, 1910, edition of "The Spokane Press" had an article titled "Tragedy of Baby's Death is Revealed in Sale of Clothes." At that time, Hemingway would only have been aged ten, and years away from beginning his writing career.


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: In 1917, William R. Kane published a piece in a periodical called "The Editor" where he outlined the basic idea of a grief-stricken woman who had lost her baby and even suggested the title of "Little Shoes, Never Worn". In his version of the story, the shoes are being given away rather than sold. He suggests that this would provide some measure of solace for the owner, as it would mean that another baby would at least benefit directly.


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: By 1921, the story was already being parodied: the July issue of "Judge" that year published a version that used a baby carriage instead of shoes; there, however, the narrator described contacting the seller to offer condolences, only to be told that the sale was due to the birth of twins rather than of a single child.


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: The earliest known connection to Hemingway was in 1991, thirty years after the author's death. This attribution was in a book by Peter Miller called "Get Published! Get Produced!: A Literary Agent's Tips on How to Sell Your Writing". He said he was told the story by a "well-established newspaper syndicator" in 1974. In 1992, John Robert Colombo printed a letter from Arthur C. Clarke that repeated the story, complete with Hemingway having won $10 each from fellow writers.


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: This connection to Hemingway was reinforced by a one-man play called "Papa" by John deGroot, which debuted in 1996. Set during a "Life" magazine photo session in 1959, deGroot has the character utter the phrase as a means of illustrating Hemingway's brevity. In "Playbill", deGroot defended his portrayal of Hemingway by saying, "Everything in the play is based on events as described by Ernest Hemingway, or those who knew him well. Whether or not these things actually happened is something we'll never know truly. But Hemingway and many others claimed they did."


title: For sale: baby shoes, never worn

text: The general concept of trying to tell a story with the absolute minimum of words became known by the general term of flash fiction. The six-word limit in particular has spawned the concept of "Six-Word Memoirs", including a collection published in book form in 2008 by "Smith Magazine", and two sequels published in 2009.


title: Odesza

text: Odesza (; stylized as ODESZA) is an American electronic music duo originating from Bellingham, Washington. It consists of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, known individually as Catacombkid and BeachesBeaches. They formed in 2012, shortly before Mills and Knight graduated from Western Washington University.


title: Odesza

text: Their debut album, "Summer's Gone", was released later in 2012 to acclaim in the underground electronic music community. After their debut extended play (EP), "My Friends Never Die", in 2013, they released their second album, "In Return", on September 9, 2014. It was the duo's debut release on Ninja Tune and its imprint, Counter Records. In 2016, "Say My Name" (RAC mix) gained the duo their first Grammy nomination (Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical) at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. "A Moment Apart", their third studio album, was released on September 8, 2017. It reached number three on the "Billboard" 200, while topping the Top Electronic/Dance Albums Chart. It was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album, with "Line of Sight" also nominated for Best Dance Recording, at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018. ODESZA released their fourth studio album, The Last Goodbye, on July 22, 2022 on Ninja Tune. The album was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album for the 65th Grammy Awards.


title: Odesza

text: The duo was also nominated in 2017 for Producer of the Year at the Electronic Music Awards. They have founded and operated their own record label, Foreign Family Collective, which distributes songs as well as visual art from artists. Furthermore, "Billboard" named Odesza as number 10 on their 2018 ranking of dance musicians, the "Billboard" Dance 100.


title: Odesza

text: Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight met during their freshman year at Western Washington University. The two did not share the same educational interests. Knight studied physics and mathematics while Mills studied graphic design. They did not begin collaborating musically until their senior year in 2012 after befriending their early influence into music, DJ Maul-IE. As a child, Knight was classically trained in piano and later learned guitar.


title: Odesza

text: The band's name is taken from the name of Mills' uncle's sunken vessel, which was named after the Ukrainian city of Odesa. Only his uncle and one other crew mate survived. Since the spelling "Odessa" was already being used by a Scottish synth band, they instead chose to use a form of the Hungarian spelling, replacing the "ss" with "sz". The correct spelling in Hungarian is: Odessza.


title: Odesza

text: Individually Mills is known as Catacombkid, and Knight is known as BeachesBeaches. In reference to how Mills got his nickname, he says, "I got into Aesop Rock and he has a song called 'Catacomb Kids.' I thought it sounded cool." On the other hand, regarding the story behind Knight's nickname, Knight says, "Honestly I was high in my bedroom making music one day…"


title: Odesza

text: The duo quickly released their debut LP, "Summer's Gone", on September 5, 2012. On November 9, 2012, Odesza performed their first show, opening for Teen Daze and Beat Connection in Bellingham, WA. Odesza was booked to open for Pretty Lights on his Analog Future Tour in the fall of 2013. Their first headline tour kicked off on March 12, 2014. On October 17, 2014, Odesza's "In Return" North American tour sold out 28 shows. Thirty-one Odesza tracks have reached the top on Hype Machine, including "How Did I Get Here", "Memories That You Call", "Lights", "All We Need" (Autograf Remix), among others. Their first festival performance at Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Washington was followed by slots at over 20 festivals, including Coachella, SXSW, Hangout Festival, Lightning in a Bottle, Governor's Ball Music Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Firefly Music Festival, Free Press Summer Fest, and Lollapalooza.


title: Odesza

text: In March 2015, Odesza launched Foreign Family Collective, an outlet for musicians and visual artists alike. Their goal is to help upcoming artists gain more exposure by releasing one-off singles. As of December 2017, there have been 29 released singles.


title: Odesza

text: Following their sold out In Return Fall Tour, Odesza released the video for "It's Only" (featuring Zyra) on January 18, 2016.


title: Odesza

text: On April 25, 2017, Odesza released two digital singles, "Late Night" and "Line of Sight" featuring WYNNE and Mansionair. On June 12, 2017, the duo released two additional digital singles ("Meridian" and "Corners of the Earth" featuring RY X), and announced a September 8 release date for their third studio album, "A Moment Apart". An additional single ("Higher Ground" featuring Naomi Wild) was released after having been leaked online. Following the release of the album, a world tour was announced with dates across Australia, Europe, and North America. The 2017 A Moment Apart Tour was met with great response, selling out large venues such as Staples Center and Barclays Center.


title: Odesza

text: Tracks from A "Moment Apart" have been widely used across the media; "Across the Room" (featuring Leon Bridges) was used on "Grey's Anatomy" S14E05, "Danger Zone"; "A Moment Apart" in GoPro Hero6's commercial and as a song on a radio station in Forza Horizon 4; "Late Night" for Acura. "La Ciudad" was used as one of the background tracks to EA Sports’ FIFA 18.


title: Odesza

text: On October 26, 2017, Odesza made their debut television appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" performing "Line of Sight" featuring WYNNE and "Higher Ground" featuring Naomi Wild. On November 28, 2017, "A Moment Apart" was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards; their single "Line of Sight" featuring WYNNE & Mansionair was nominated for Best Dance Recording.


title: Odesza

text: On December 4, 2017, Odesza announced the continuation of their A Moment Apart Tour, kicking off February 2, 2018 at Laneway Festival. On January 2, 2018, Odesza announced they would be joining the Coachella 2018 lineup, playing on Sunday night before Eminem. On January 9, "Corners of the Earth" was chosen to be used as the Winter Olympics Anthem.


title: Odesza

text: On September 12, 2018, Odesza released their 11th single, “Loyal”. “Loyal” is also on A Moment Apart (Delxue Edition). It peaked at 19th on the US dance chart. “Loyal” gained more popularity when it was featured on Apple’s “Apple's Big News in 108 seconds” and "iPhone Xr" advertisements, these adverts also premiered on the same date as Loyal suggesting that Apple and ODESZA had an agreement to release the two at the same time. Additionally, "Loyal" was used in an advertisement for the Nissan Juke.


title: Odesza

text: “Loyal” was also used in the release trailer for the "Fortune Island" expansion of the 2018 video game "Forza Horizon 4".


title: Odesza

text: On October 16, 2018, Foreign Family Collective announced its first Odesza-curated festival, Sundara, held at the all-inclusive Barceló Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The four-day festival ran from March 13–16, and featured major acts like RL Grime, Rüfüs du Sol, Alison Wonderland, Jai Wolf, and many more.


title: Odesza

text: On April 26, 2020, Odesza announced on their social media that they had completed a collaborative album with Australian producer Golden Features. On April 27, it was confirmed that both the project and the album would be titled "Bronson," and that it would be released on July 17, 2020, with the first two tracks "Heart Attack" and "Vaults" available the following day.


title: Odesza

text: On June 30, 2020, the third track "Dawn" was released, with the duo announcing that their album would be pushed back to August 7, 2020.


title: Odesza

text: On February 2, 2022, Odesza released an Instagram clip hinting at further music. Their website was also updated to include a phone number and email entry form which when filled out, had the message "Welcome to The Last Goodbye".


title: Odesza

text: Odesza released their first new music in over four years with the release of their new single "The Last Goodbye" on February 8, 2022, which samples the vocals from Bettye LaVette's 1965 hit song "Let Me Down Easy".


title: Odesza

text: In March 2022, Odesza announced that their fourth studio album was also called "The Last Goodbye", and will be released on July 22, 2022. On June 8, 2022, Odesza released their fifth single, "Wide Awake", off of "The Last Goodbye".


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: The Critique of Pure Reason (; 1781; second edition 1787) is a book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in which the author seeks to determine the limits and scope of metaphysics. Also referred to as Kant's "First Critique", it was followed by his "Critique of Practical Reason" (1788) and "Critique of Judgment" (1790). In the preface to the first edition, Kant explains that by a "critique of pure reason" he means a critique "of the faculty of reason in general, in respect of all knowledge after which it may strive "independently of all experience"" and that he aims to reach a decision about "the possibility or impossibility of metaphysics." The term "critique" is understood to mean a systematic analysis in this context, rather than the colloquial sense of the term.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant builds on the work of empiricist philosophers such as John Locke and David Hume, as well as rationalist philosophers such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. He expounds new ideas on the nature of space and time, and tries to provide solutions to the skepticism of Hume regarding knowledge of the relation of cause and effect and that of René Descartes regarding knowledge of the external world. This is argued through the transcendental idealism of objects (as appearance) and their form of appearance. Kant regards the former "as mere representations and not as things in themselves", and the latter as "only sensible forms of our intuition, but not determinations given for themselves or conditions of objects as things in themselves". This grants the possibility of a priori knowledge, since objects as appearance "must conform to our cognition...which is to establish something about objects before they are given to us." Knowledge independent of experience Kant calls ""a priori"" knowledge, while knowledge obtained through experience is termed ""a posteriori."" According to Kant, a proposition is "a priori" if it is necessary and universal. A proposition is necessary if it could not possibly be false, and so cannot be denied without contradiction. A proposition is universal if it is true in all cases, and so does not admit of any exceptions. Knowledge gained "a posteriori" through the senses, Kant argues, never imparts absolute necessity and universality, because it is always possible that we might encounter an exception.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant further elaborates on the distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" judgments. A proposition is analytic if the content of the "predicate-concept" of the proposition is already contained within the "subject-concept" of that proposition. For example, Kant considers the proposition "All bodies are extended" analytic, since the predicate-concept ('extended') is already contained within—or "thought in"—the subject-concept of the sentence ('body'). The distinctive character of analytic judgements was therefore that they can be known to be true simply by an analysis of the concepts contained in them; they are true by definition. In synthetic propositions, on the other hand, the predicate-concept is not already contained within the subject-concept. For example, Kant considers the proposition "All bodies are heavy" synthetic, since the concept 'body' does not already contain within it the concept 'weight'. Synthetic judgments therefore add something to a concept, whereas analytic judgments only explain what is already contained in the concept.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Prior to Kant, it was thought that all "a priori" knowledge must be analytic. Kant, however, argues that our knowledge of mathematics, of the first principles of natural science, and of metaphysics, is both "a priori" and synthetic. The peculiar nature of this knowledge cries out for explanation. The central problem of the "Critique" is therefore to answer the question: "How are synthetic "a priori" judgements possible?" It is a "matter of life and death" to metaphysics and to human reason, Kant argues, that the grounds of this kind of knowledge be explained.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Though it received little attention when it was first published, the "Critique" later attracted attacks from both empiricist and rationalist critics, and became a source of controversy. It has exerted an enduring influence on Western philosophy, and helped bring about the development of German idealism. The book is considered a culmination of several centuries of early modern philosophy and an inauguration of modern philosophy.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Before Kant, it was generally held that truths of reason must be analytic, meaning that what is stated in the predicate must already be present in the subject (e.g., "An intelligent man is intelligent" or "An intelligent man is a man"). In either case, the judgment is analytic because it is ascertained by analyzing the subject. It was thought that all truths of reason, or necessary truths, are of this kind: that in all of them there is a predicate that is only part of the subject of which it is asserted. If this were so, attempting to deny anything that could be known "a priori" (e.g., "An intelligent man is not intelligent" or "An intelligent man is not a man") would involve a contradiction. It was therefore thought that the law of contradiction is sufficient to establish all "a priori" knowledge.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: David Hume at first accepted the general view of rationalism about "a priori" knowledge. However, upon closer examination of the subject, Hume discovered that some judgments thought to be analytic, especially those related to cause and effect, were actually synthetic (i.e., no analysis of the subject will reveal the predicate). They thus depend exclusively upon experience and are therefore "a posteriori".


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Before Hume, rationalists had held that effect could be deduced from cause; Hume argued that it could not and from this inferred that nothing at all could be known "a priori" in relation to cause and effect. Kant, who was brought up under the auspices of rationalism, was deeply disturbed by Hume's skepticism. "I freely admit that it was the remembrance of David Hume which, many years ago, first interrupted my dogmatic slumber and gave my investigations in the field of speculative philosophy a completely different direction."


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant decided to find an answer and spent at least twelve years thinking about the subject. Although the "Critique of Pure Reason" was set down in written form in just four to five months, while Kant was also lecturing and teaching, the work is a summation of the development of Kant's philosophy throughout that twelve-year period.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant's work was stimulated by his decision to take seriously Hume's skeptical conclusions about such basic principles as cause and effect, which had implications for Kant's grounding in rationalism. In Kant's view, Hume's skepticism rested on the premise that all ideas are presentations of sensory experience. The problem that Hume identified was that basic principles such as causality cannot be derived from sense experience only: experience shows only that one event regularly succeeds another, not that it is caused by it.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: In section VI ("The General Problem of Pure Reason") of the introduction to the "Critique of Pure Reason", Kant explains that Hume stopped short of considering that a synthetic judgment could be made 'a priori'. Kant's goal was to find some way to derive cause and effect without relying on empirical knowledge. Kant rejects analytical methods for this, arguing that analytic reasoning cannot tell us anything that is not already self-evident, so his goal was to find a way to demonstrate how the synthetic a priori is possible.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: To accomplish this goal, Kant argued that it would be necessary to use synthetic reasoning. However, this posed a new problem: how is it possible to have synthetic knowledge that is not based on empirical observation; that is, how are synthetic a priori truths possible? This question is exceedingly important, Kant maintains, because he contends that all important metaphysical knowledge is of synthetic a priori propositions. If it is impossible to determine which synthetic a priori propositions are true, he argues, then metaphysics as a discipline is impossible. The remainder of the "Critique of Pure Reason" is devoted to examining whether and how knowledge of synthetic a priori propositions is possible.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant argues that there are synthetic judgments such as the connection of cause and effect (e.g., "... Every effect has a cause.") where no analysis of the subject will produce the predicate. Kant reasons that statements such as those found in geometry and Newtonian physics are synthetic judgments. Kant uses the classical example of 7 + 5 = 12. No amount of analysis will find 12 in either 7 or 5 and vice versa, since an infinite number of two numbers exist that will give the sum 12. Thus Kant arrives at the conclusion that all pure mathematics is synthetic though "a priori"; the number 7 is seven and the number 5 is five and the number 12 is twelve and the same principle applies to other numerals; in other words, they are universal and necessary. For Kant then, mathematics is synthetic judgment "a priori". Conventional reasoning would have regarded such an equation to be analytic a priori by considering both 7 and 5 to be part of one subject being analyzed, however Kant looked upon 7 and 5 as two separate values, with the value of five being applied to that of 7 and synthetically arriving at the logical conclusion that they equal 12. This conclusion led Kant into a new problem as he wanted to establish how this could be possible: How is pure mathematics possible? This also led him to inquire whether it could be possible to ground synthetic "a priori" knowledge for a study of metaphysics, because most of the principles of metaphysics from Plato through to Kant's immediate predecessors made assertions about the world or about God or about the soul that were not self-evident but which could not be derived from empirical observation (B18-24). For Kant, all post-Cartesian metaphysics is mistaken from its very beginning: the empiricists are mistaken because they assert that it is not possible to go beyond experience and the dogmatists are mistaken because they assert that it is possible to go beyond experience through theoretical reason.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Therefore, Kant proposes a new basis for a science of metaphysics, posing the question: how is a science of metaphysics possible, if at all? According to Kant, only practical reason, the faculty of moral consciousness, the moral law of which everyone is immediately aware, makes it possible to know things as they are. This led to his most influential contribution to metaphysics: the abandonment of the quest to try to know the world as it is "in itself" independent of sense experience. He demonstrated this with a thought experiment, showing that it is not possible to meaningfully conceive of an object that exists outside of time and has no spatial components and is not structured in accordance with the categories of the understanding ("Verstand"), such as substance and causality. Although such an object cannot be conceived, Kant argues, there is no way of showing that such an object does not exist. Therefore, Kant says, the science of metaphysics must not attempt to reach beyond the limits of possible experience but must discuss only those limits, thus furthering the understanding of ourselves as thinking beings. The human mind is incapable of going beyond experience so as to obtain a knowledge of ultimate reality, because no direct advance can be made from pure ideas to objective existence.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant writes: "Since, then, the receptivity of the subject, its capacity to be affected by objects, must necessarily precede all intuitions of these objects, it can readily be understood how the form of all appearances can be given prior to all actual perceptions, and so exist in the mind "a priori"" (A26/B42). Appearance is then, via the faculty of transcendental imagination ("Einbildungskraft"), grounded systematically in accordance with the categories of the understanding. Kant's metaphysical system, which focuses on the operations of cognitive faculties ("Erkenntnisvermögen"), places substantial limits on knowledge not founded in the forms of sensibility ("Sinnlichkeit"). Thus it sees the error of metaphysical systems prior to the Critique as failing to first take into consideration the limitations of the human capacity for knowledge. Transcendental imagination is described in the first edition of the "Critique of Pure Reason" but Kant omits it from the second edition of 1787.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: It is because he takes into account the role of people's cognitive faculties in structuring the known and knowable world that in the second preface to the "Critique of Pure Reason" Kant compares his critical philosophy to Copernicus' revolution in astronomy. Kant (Bxvi) writes: Hitherto it has been assumed that all our knowledge must conform to objects. But all attempts to extend our knowledge of objects by establishing something in regard to them "a priori", by means of concepts, have, on this assumption, ended in failure. We must therefore make trial whether we may not have more success in the tasks of metaphysics, if we suppose that objects must conform to our knowledge.Just as Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by taking the position of the observer into account, Kant's critical philosophy takes into account the position of the knower of the world in general and reveals its impact on the structure of the known world. Kant's view is that in explaining the movement of celestial bodies, Copernicus rejected the idea that the movement is in the stars and accepted it as a part of the spectator. Knowledge does not depend so much on the object of knowledge as on the capacity of the knower.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Kant's transcendental idealism should be distinguished from idealistic systems such as that of George Berkeley. While Kant claimed that phenomena depend upon the conditions of sensibility, space and time, and on the synthesizing activity of the mind manifested in the rule-based structuring of perceptions into a world of objects, this thesis is not equivalent to mind-dependence in the sense of Berkeley's idealism. Kant defines "transcendental idealism":


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: In Kant's view, "a priori" intuitions and concepts provide some "a priori" knowledge, which also provides the framework for "a posteriori" knowledge. Kant also believed that causality is a conceptual organizing principle imposed upon nature, albeit nature understood as the sum of appearances that can be synthesized according to a priori concepts.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: In other words, space and time are a form of perceiving and causality is a form of knowing. Both space and time and conceptual principles and processes pre-structure experience.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: Things as they are "in themselves"—the thing in itself, or "das Ding an sich"—are unknowable. For something to become an object of knowledge, it must be experienced, and experience is structured by the mind—both space and time being the forms of intuition ("Anschauung"; for Kant, intuition is the process of sensing or the act of having a sensation) or perception, and the unifying, structuring activity of concepts. These aspects of mind turn things-in-themselves into the world of experience. There is never passive observation or knowledge.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: According to Kant, the transcendental ego—the "Transcendental Unity of Apperception"—is similarly unknowable. Kant contrasts the transcendental ego to the empirical ego, the active individual self subject to immediate introspection. One is aware that there is an "I," a subject or self that accompanies one's experience and consciousness. Since one experiences it as it manifests itself in time, which Kant proposes is a subjective form of perception, one can know it only indirectly: as object, rather than subject. It is the empirical ego that distinguishes one person from another providing each with a definite character.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: The "Critique of Pure Reason" is arranged around several basic distinctions. After the two Prefaces (the A edition Preface of 1781 and the B edition Preface of 1787) and the Introduction, the book is divided into the Doctrine of Elements and the Doctrine of Method.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: The Doctrine of Elements sets out the "a priori" products of the mind, and the correct and incorrect use of these presentations. Kant further divides the Doctrine of Elements into the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Logic, reflecting his basic distinction between sensibility and the understanding. In the "Transcendental Aesthetic" he argues that space and time are pure forms of intuition inherent in our faculty of sense. The "Transcendental Logic" is separated into the Transcendental Analytic and the Transcendental Dialectic:


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: The Doctrine of Method contains four sections. The first section, "Discipline of Pure Reason", compares mathematical and logical methods of proof, and the second section, "Canon of Pure Reason", distinguishes theoretical from practical reason.


title: Critique of Pure Reason

text: The Transcendental Aesthetic, as the "Critique" notes, deals with "all principles of a priori sensibility." As a further delimitation, it "constitutes the first part of the transcendental doctrine of elements, in contrast to that which contains the principles of pure thinking, and is named transcendental logic". In it, what is aimed at is "pure intuition and the mere form of appearances, which is the only thing that sensibility can make available a priori." It is thus an analytic of the a priori constitution of sensibility; through which "Objects are therefore given to us…, and it alone affords us intuitions." This in itself is an explication of the "pure form of sensible intuitions in general [that] is to be encountered in the mind a priori." Thus, pure form or intuition is the a priori "wherein all of the manifold of appearances is intuited in certain relations." from this, "a science of all principles of a priori sensibility [is called] the transcendental aesthetic." The above stems from the fact that "there are two stems of human cognition…namely sensibility and understanding."