Lérins, group of four small islands, Alpes-Maritimes dept., SE France, in the Mediterranean Sea SE of Cannes. Sainte-Marguerite is the largest island. On Saint-Honorat is the oldest monastery ...

Riviera, narrow coastal strip between the Alps and the Mediterranean, extending, roughly, from La Spezia (Italy) to Hyères (France). Famous for its scenic beauty and for its mild winter climat...

Deledda, Grazia, 1875–1936, Italian novelist, b. Sardinia. Her first work, a collection of short stories, was published when she was 19. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1926. Deledda's work...

Zidane, Zinédine, 1972–, French soccer player. The son of Algerian immigrants, Zidane, nicknamed Zizou, was an attacking midfielder and one of the finest contemporary footballers. He played fo...

Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, 1778–1868, British statesman, b. Edinburgh. As a young lawyer in Scotland he helped to found (1802) the Edinburgh Review and contributed man...

Almodóvar, Pedro, 1951–, Spanish film director. Almodóvar began to make films in the mid-1970s and released his first feature, Pepi, Luci, Bon y otras chicas del montón, in 1980. In post-Franc...

Rathenau, Walther, 1867–1922, German industrialist, social theorist, and statesman. Son of Emil Rathenau (1838–1915), founder of the German public utilities company Allgemeine Elektrizitätsges...

Ray, Satyajit, 1921–92, Indian film director, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata). His subtle, austere, and delicately lyrical films made him one of the outstanding filmmakers of the 20th cent.; he was ...

Sembene, Ousmane, 1923–2007, Senegalese author and film director who wrote and made films in French and Wolof, often regarded as the father of sub-Saharan African cinema. He left school at 15 ...

Napoleon I, 1769–1821, emperor of the French, b. Ajaccio, Corsica, known as the Little Corporal. The son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte (or Buonaparte; see under Bonaparte, family), young Napo...