English literature began in Old English with the epic poem Beowulf, which dates from sometime between the 8th to the 11th centuries. It is not written in language people can understand today, but there are several good translations into modern English. It is the most famous work in Old English, despite being set in Scandinavia. The poem is written with no rhymes but with alliteration. The next important landmark is the works of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400), especially "The Canterbury Tales". That is in Middle English 1066 to the middle/late 1400s. Chaucer introduced into English poetry rhyme royal that is a seven-line stanza rhymed ababbcc.
Modern English literature began in 16th century. Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey wrote first English sonnets. The last-mentioned invented also blank verse. Edmund Spenser wrote "The Faerie Queene", a long epic poem while Philip Sidney wrote a sequence of sonnets Astrophel "and Stella".
The next stage is Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and John Milton, sometimes described as Early Modern English (1470 to 1650).
William Shakespeare is the author of the most famous sentence written in English: "To be, or not to be, that is the question:". It is the first line of prince Hamlet's monologue from drama "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" that was published in 1603.
King James Version of Bible was published in 1611. John Bunyan wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress" which is one of the most popular books ever published.
In 18th century first modern novels were written by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne and Horace Walpole.
William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats,Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens,Robert Browning, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Ted Hughes are all important English writers in modern English.
T.S. Eliot was perhaps the most important poet in 20th century who wrote in English. His best known work is the poem "The Waste Land" that was published in 1922. Another book by him was "The Four Ouarters". The poet himself regarded it as his best work.
Not all English literature was written by writers born in England. Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Hilaire Belloc was French, Emma Lazarus was Jewish, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V. S. Naipaul is Trinidadian, and Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. The greatest Portuguese poet of 20th century, Fernando Pessoa wrote some poems in English, too. In other words, English literature includes all the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world.
English is a language known by many million people. They can read literary works from any country in English translation.
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, "Introduction to the History of English Literature" (1863).
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and writer who updated traditional French cooking methods and made them more popular. He was important in the development of modern French cuisine.
A lot of Escoffier's ideas and ways of working were based on Antoine Carême's. Careme wrote about French "Haute cuisine". Escoffier simplified and modernised Carême's complicated recipes and style.
As well as recording and inventing recipes, Escoffier made cooking a respected profession.
He organised his kitchens into sections run by "chefs de partie". He also carried on Careme's habit of "service à la russe" (serving each dish in the order printed on the menu) instead of "service à la française" (serving all dishes at once).
Gregor Von Görög, Chef to the Royal family at Buckingham Palace, was quick to assume this form of service, and soon all 'High Society' was adopting 'Russian-style' service.
He was born in the village of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice. At thirteen he became an apprentice at his uncle's restaurant, "Le Restaurant Français", in Nice. In 1865 he moved to "Le Petit Moulin Rouge" restaurant in Paris. He stayed there until the start of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, when he became an army chef. His army experience led him to study the ways of canning food.
Some time before 1878 he opened his own restaurant, "Le Faisan d'Or" (The Golden Pheasant) in Cannes. In 1880 he married Delphine Daffis. In 1884 the couple moved to Monte Carlo, where Escoffier took control of the kitchen at the Grand Hotel.
During the summers he ran the kitchen of the Hotel National in Lucerne, where he met César Ritz. At that time the French Riviera was a winter resort.
The two men formed a partnership and in 1890 moved to the Savoy Hotel in London. From the Savoy they started a number of famous hotels, including the Grand Hotel in Rome, and many Ritz Hotels around the world.
At the London Savoy, Escoffier created many famous dishes. For example, in 1893 he invented the Pêche Melba (Peach Melba) in honour of the Australian singer Dame Nellie Melba. Another of his creations was Tournedos Rossini, in honour of the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini. He left the Savoy Hotel after taking money from food suppliers.
In 1898 Escoffier and Ritz opened the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. The Carlton in London followed in 1899, where Escoffier first introduced the practice of the "à la carte" menu. Ritz had a nervous breakdown in 1901, leaving Escoffier to run the Carlton until 1919, shortly after Ritz's death. For a time one of his pupils was Ho Chi Minh who was training as a pastry chef.
In 1903 Escoffier published his first major book, "Le Guide Culinaire". This "Guide to Cooking" had 5,000 recipes. Even today it is used as both a cookbook and textbook for classic cooking.
In 1904 and 1912 Escoffier was hired to plan the kitchens for ships belonging to the steam-ship company Hamburg-Amerika Lines. On the second voyage, Kaiser William II congratulated Escoffier, telling him "I am the Emperor of Germany, but you are the Emperor of chefs."
In the 1920s, Escoffier became the first chef to receive the Legion of Honour and in 1928 was made an Officer of the Legion.
He died at the age of 88 in Monte Carlo a few days after his wife.
29 Amphitrite
29 Amphitrite is one of the biggest S-type asteroids, probably third in diameter after Eunomia and Juno, although Iris and Herculina are similar in size.
It is probably not a fully solid body, since its density is too low for a solid silicate object and much lower than Eunomia or Juno. Its orbit is less eccentric and inclined than those of its bigger cousins - being indeed the most circular of any asteroid found up to that point - and as a consequence it never becomes as bright as Iris or Hebe, especially as it is much farther from the Sun than those asteroids. It can reach magnitudes of around +8.6 at a favorable opposition, but more usually is around the binocular limit of +9.5.
Amphitrite was found by Albert Marth on March 1, 1854. It was the only asteroid he found. It is named after Amphitrite, a sea goddess in Greek mythology.
A moon is suspected based on the lightcurve data.
31 Euphrosyne
31 Euphrosyne is one of the biggest main belt asteroids, found by James Ferguson on September 1, 1854. It was the first asteroid found from North America. It is named after Euphrosyne, one of the Charites in Greek mythology.
It is the eighth biggest main belt asteroid and contains around 1% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt, but is a very dark body near the belt's farther edge. Because of that, Euphrosyne is never visible with binoculars, having a maximum magnitude at the best possible opposition of around +10.2, which is actually fainter than any of the thirty asteroids previously found.