title: Scandal (TV series)

text: On June 14, 2013, Scott Foley was promoted to regular as of the third season. Casting for Lisa Kudrow was announced on August 28, and was revealed to be playing Congresswoman Josephine Marcus for multiple episodes. "Private Practice" alum Paul Adelstein was announced to join the cast as Leo Bergen, however at the time of the announcement, details on who he would play were kept under wraps. On September 23, 2013, it was announced that Sally Pressman would be playing a recurring role on the show, which turned out to be the sister of Congresswoman Josephine Marcus, played by Lisa Kudrow. Jack Coleman joined the cast in a recurring role as Daniel Douglas, the husband to Vice President Sally Langston.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: On November 5, 2013, Khandi Alexander was cast in a recurring role as Olivia's mother for a multiple episode arc. On December 3, 2013, it was announced that the show was casting for a new role as a "handsome, charismatic fella" named Andrew, who would be a love interest for Bellamy Young's character, Mellie. A few days later, on December 6, 2013, actor Jon Tenney was announced to have landed the role of Andrew. On January 28, 2014, it was announced that Scandal was casting the guest-starring roles of Jerry Grant and Karen Grant, Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young's characters' children. A week later, on February 6, 2014, it was reported that the guest-starring roles of Jerry and Karen had been landed by Dylan Minnette and Madeline Carroll. The duo appeared in the fifteenth episode in addition to the season finale.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: On April 25, 2014, it was announced that Columbus Short would not return for the fourth season due to personal reasons. In an interview with the show's creator Shonda Rhimes, she revealed that Short's character Harrison Wright would be killed off. Television host Ellen DeGeneres revealed on Twitter that her wife, Portia de Rossi, had been cast in a multiple-episode "top secret arc".


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: On July 30, 2014, it was announced Kelen Coleman would appear in the season four premiere. On August 12, 2014, Mary McCormack and Josh Randall were cast as a couple in the season's second episode. "Lost" alum Sonya Walger was cast in a recurring role, which was announced on August 18, 2014. On August 22, 2014, Entertainment Weekly announced that Matthew Del Negro would play a recurring role. It was announced that the role of Karen Grant, one of the Grant family's children, would be recast, and on September 5, 2014, Mary Mouser was revealed to be taking over the role. Jasika Nicole returned as Huck's estranged wife in the fourth season, with her return beginning in the fifth episode. Stephen Collins announced on Twitter that he would be returning to "Scandal" for an episode. However, after news broke about sexual abuse allegations made about the actor, his footage was cut from the episode per ABC's request.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Two alumni from the Shondaland-produced television show "Private Practice" appeared in the fourth season. It was announced on September 16, 2014, that Brian Benben had landed a guest-starring role. In addition, Paul Adelstein returned as Leo Bergen in an episode which aired in November.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: It was reported on October 21, 2014, that Michael Trucco had been cast as Charles Putney, Abby's abusive ex-husband. Information about his character was that he is the youngest son of former Virginia Gov. James Putney and the ex-husband of Abby Whelan after he physically assaulted her in a drunken rage. He appeared in at least one episode of the fourth season. On November 4, 2014, it was announced that Khandi Alexander was going to return as Maya Lewis in the winter finale. Alexander's role was initially meant for only one episode as a guest star, but was upgraded to recurring on November 14, 2014. Jason Butler Harner was cast for the show in a recurring role, and first appeared in the winter premiere, playing Ian Woods. On February 20, 2015, it was reported that comedian Lena Dunham had been cast in an unknown guest role, and would appear in the sixteenth episode. She ultimately portrayed Susanne Thomas, a young woman who writes a scandalous memoir about some of D.C.'s top politicians.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: It was announced on February 4, 2016, that Ricardo Chavira would join the show in a recurring role, and would first appear in the eleventh episode. Annabeth Gish was announced on February 8, 2016, to have been cast in a recurring role. "The Hollywood Reporter" announced on February 18, 2016, that Joe Morton who plays Rowan "Eli" Pope had been promoted to a series regular, and was credited as a regular cast member for the first time in the twelfth episode of Season 5. "TVLine" announced on August 6, 2016, that "Glee" alum Jessalyn Gilsig would replace Joelle Carter as Vanessa Moss, Jake Ballard's wife.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: "TVLine" announced on May 15, 2017, that George Newbern, who plays Charlie, was promoted to a main cast member for Season 7, after having appeared in over fifty episodes as a recurring cast member.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Production started at the beginning of July, as Rhimes tweeted that the writers were hard at work collaborating ideas and mapping out the fourth season. Scouting for the season began a few days later. The table read for the first episode was on July 24, 2014, and Rhimes revealed the title of the premiere the same day. Filming for the fourth season began on July 28, 2014, and ended on April 28, 2015.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Scouting began in the beginning of July. Kerry Washington announced the first table read would happen July 14, 2015. The title of the season premiere, "Heavy is the Head" was revealed on August 8, 2015, by its director Tom Verica on Twitter. Filming for the season began on July 16, 2015.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Several actors working on Shondaland-produced shows directed an episode for the fifth season. Tony Goldwyn from "Scandal" directed the second and 17th episode, making it the fourth and fifth episode he has directed on the show. Chandra Wilson who plays Dr. Miranda Bailey on "Grey's Anatomy" directed her first "Scandal" episode, which was the sixth episode "Get Out of Jail, Free". Scott Foley from "Scandal" also directed his first "Scandal" episode, the 16th named "The Miseducation of Susan Ross". Foley and executive producer Tom Verica announced Foley's debut as director on Twitter. For the seventh season, both Kerry Washington and Darby Stanchfield were set to direct their first "Scandal" episodes, with Stanchfield having previously directed all episodes of the web series.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Chad Fischer was the composer for the show for its entire run. For his work he won the BMI TV Music Award six times from 2013 to 2018.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Two soundtrack albums for Scandal were released. The first one was 2013 "Songs from Scandal: Music for Gladiators" featuring songs from the first two seasons of the show. The second one titled "Scandal: Original Television Series Soundtrack" was released in 2018 and consisted entirely of Chad Fischer's music from the show.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: In the United States "Scandal" aired on ABC on Thursday nights at 9pm/8pm CT. The program aired at the same time in Canada through the City television system with simsubbing of the ABC feed.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: The series airs in Australia on the Seven Network with reruns airing on SoHo, Canal Sony in Latin America, ZFB-TV in Bermuda, Miami's WPLG in the Bahamas (via cable from the United States mainland), and on TVB Pearl in Hong Kong. The first two seasons originally aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. In 2014 the show was picked up by rival broadcaster Sky Living who continued airing it from season three onwards. In New Zealand it first aired on TV One but now airs on TV2.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: It aired in South Africa on multiple television channels; first run episodes were aired on DStv premium channel M-net the day after their ABC run, along with reruns on rival satellite channel StarSat and SABC3 as of May 2014. The show has since moved to the free-to-air channel E.tv, with the 5th season commencing in April 2020. The series is re-titled in South Africa as "The Fixer" to avert confusion with the domestic soap opera entitled "Scandal!".


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: On July 15, 2013, BET and ABC announced an early syndication agreement, which saw BET carrying a marathon of the first two seasons on August 10 and 17, 2013, then in two-hour blocks on Wednesdays before the show's season three premiere on October 3. BET airs new episodes after an eight-day delay.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: The show has been met with generally favorable reviews, with a collective score of 64/100 based on 28 critics from Metacritic. Based on advanced screeners sent before the show's premiere, Alan Sepinwall of "HitFix" stated:


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: To be perfectly honest, after watching four episodes of "Scandal", I'm not 100 percent clear on what it is that Olivia and her team (most of them fellow lawyers who don't practice law) do, nor on exactly what the show is. I'm also not entirely sure that it matters. "Scandal" is a good example of what a show is about being far less important than how it's about it.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: IndieWire, a daily news site reviewed the first season of "Scandal", comparing it to the FX show "Damages". Stating that the premise was similar and that "Damages" is a hell of a show, and worthy of all the accolades; but it's what "Scandal" could be, if the envelope was pushed a bit more, and if the show took more risks."


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: All the tropes, cliches and (especially) soap conventions series creator Shonda Rhimes has poured so generously into "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" over the years have been poured right back into this Beltway potboiler. The hairpin plot twists. The whiplash character reveals. The bumptious moralizing. The Strong Woman/Wronged Woman character type, and its direct corollary, Weak, Middle-Aged, Married Man Who Secretly Likes Hookers. It's all here!


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: The show however received many more positive reviews during its second season. In 2013, "The A.V. Club"s Ryan McGee compared the show to "House of Cards", stating:


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: "Scandal" has quite a bit to say about how people in general operate. By extension, it also has a lot to say about the type of television people respond to in this ever-splintered viewing environment. In a year in which almost all ratings are down, "Scandal" has gone up. Its insane storytelling really isn't insane at all. Many want to dub "House of Cards" the future of television as a whole. In terms of distribution, this may be true. But by giving audiences what they want, and then giving them so much more than they ever expected, "Scandal" is the show those looking toward the future of television should be aiming to actually produce, regardless of the medium in which it is viewed.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: When "Scandal" debuted last spring, I wasn't sure what to make of it, beyond recognizing that Kerry Washington had the goods to carry a series and Shonda Rhimes had fashioned an excellent role for her.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: This season, though, Rhimes has kicked the show up to another level by ditching the Crisis of the Week procedural format in favor of reinventing "Scandal" as a gonzo hybrid of conspiracy thriller and high-stakes soap opera, involving election rigging, a presidential assassination attempt, a failed internal White House coup, and all sorts of other crazy shenanigans. It's ludicrous on virtually every level; it's also an enormous amount of fun, thanks to the writing and the performances.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: In 2016, a "New York Times" study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "Scandal" "displays the classic pattern of a show popular with a black audience". The show does well among an African American female audience. Ratings grew significantly over the second season, reaching a series high with the season finale which increased 25% in total viewers and 39% in Adult 18–49 compared to the first season's finale.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: The season 3 premiere had 10.5 million total viewers, up 71 percent from last season's start in September 2012. The season finale had 10.5 million total viewers, up 15% from last season's finale in May 2013. The third season had an average of 11.5 million in Total Viewers, up 39% from the second season which had a total of 8.3 million. It also went up in Adults 18–49 with 43% with an average of 4.0/12, while the previous season had a 2.8/8. This qualifies Scandal as TV's fastest growing returning series.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: The fourth-season premiere also scored a series high in Total Viewers with 11.96 millions and in adults 18–49 with a 3.8/11. The series was its ratings increase from week to week compared to its broadcasting last year. The mid-season premiere "Run" was equaled the series's 2nd-highest-ever rating in adults 18–49. The fourth season saw a decrease in the 18–49 key demographic by 5.4 percent to a 2.9, but an increase in total viewers by .86 percent with an average of 9.19 million viewers.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: "Scandal" is one of the most popular shows on social media. The cast tweets with their fans when the show is airing on television. During the season three premiere, the show topped Nielsen's Twitter TV Ratings Top 10, with 713,000 tweets that mentioned the show and were seen by an audience of 3.7 million users. The show has also the most loyal Twitter followers according to Nielsen Social.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: "Scandal" has been acknowledged by the ALMA Awards, Image Awards, BET Awards, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Critics' Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards and People's Choice Awards as well as honored by the American Film Institute and the Peabody Awards.


title: Scandal (TV series)

text: Kerry Washington, Columbus Short, Guillermo Díaz, Bellamy Young, and Tony Goldwyn have been recognized for their performances. The production team has been honored by the Costume Designers Guild, Society of Camera Operators, BMI Awards and the California on Location (COLA) Awards.


title: Jay Cutler (bodybuilder)

text: Jason Isaac Cutler (born August 3, 1973) is an American retired professional bodybuilder. Cutler is a four-time Mr. Olympia winner, having won in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010; and a six-time runner-up. He is considered to be one of the top pro bodybuilders in history, and was known for his quadriceps and the quad-stomp pose.


title: Jay Cutler (bodybuilder)

text: Jason Isaac Cutler was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on August 3, 1973. He grew up in nearby Sterling and attended Wachusett Regional High School in Holden. He began working in his brother's concrete construction business, Cutler Bros. Concrete, when he was 11 years old. He started training to be a bodybuilder at the age of 18. He graduated from Quinsigamond Community College in 1993 with a degree in criminal justice, intending to work as a corrections officer for a maximum security prison.


title: Jay Cutler (bodybuilder)

text: Cutler was inspired to enter bodybuilding by personal trainer Marcos Rodriguez. Desiring to be one of the largest competitors ever, he had his first overall win at the 1993 Iron Bodies Invitational. His first contest was the 1992 Gold's Gym Worcester Bodybuilding Championships, at which he took second place. As he established a name for himself in the bodybuilding scene, he often appeared in bodybuilding-related videos including Battle for the Olympia 2001, a pre-contest documentary video directed by Mitsuru Okabe that highlighted many competitors as they prepared for the 2001 Mr. Olympia Competition. He went on to win consecutive Arnold Classic titles in 2002, 2003, and 2004, and placed second to Ronnie Coleman in the Mr. Olympia competition four times before claiming the title for the first time in 2006.


title: Jay Cutler (bodybuilder)

text: At the 2001 Mr. Olympia, Cutler tested positive for banned diuretics, but sued and had his second-place finish reinstated. He won the Olympia for a second consecutive year in 2007. He became the third Mr. Olympia in history (after Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu) to win the title in non-consecutive years after defeating the reigning champion Dexter Jackson in 2009. In 2010, he won his fourth Mr. Olympia title, defeating Phil Heath. In 2011, he was runner-up to Heath at the Mr. Olympia. In 2012, he was unable to compete at the Mr. Olympia due to a biceps injury. He placed sixth in the 2013 Olympia.


title: Jay Cutler (bodybuilder)

text: Throughout his career, Cutler has been on the cover of fitness magazines such as "Muscle and Fitness", "Flex", and "Muscular Development". He has not competed since 2013 and has instead focused on Cutler Nutrition, his bodybuilding supplement business, as well as other business ventures through social media.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy (; ; ; from Old French , plural of "Normant", originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy comprises mainland Normandy (a part of France) and the Channel Islands (mostly the British Crown Dependencies). It covers . Its population is 3,499,280. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans, and the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language. Large settlements include Rouen, Caen, Le Havre and Cherbourg.


title: Normandy

text: The cultural region of Normandy is roughly similar to the historical Duchy of Normandy, which includes small areas now part of the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe. The Channel Islands (French: "Îles Anglo-Normandes") are also historically part of Normandy; they cover and comprise two bailiwicks: Guernsey and Jersey, which are British Crown Dependencies.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by Vikings ("Northmen") starting in the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking "jarl" Rollo. For almost 150 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England.


title: Normandy

text: Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Normandy has also many megalithic monuments.


title: Normandy

text: Celts (also known as Belgae and Gauls) have populated Normandy since at least the Bronze Age. When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (58–50 BC), there were nine different Celtic tribes living in this part of Gaul.


title: Normandy

text: The Romanisation of this region partly included in the "Gallia Celtica" and in the "Gallia Belgica" (the Seine being more or less the limit between them) was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Classicists mention many Gallo-Roman villas and archeology found their traces in the past 30 years. In the Late Roman Empire a new province was created and called "Lugdunensis Secunda", it sketched the later ecclesiastical province of Rouen, with the "Metropolis civitas Rotomagensium"


title: Normandy

text: (Rouen), "Civitas Baiocassium" ("Augustodorum", Bayeux), "Civitas Abrincatum" ("Ingena", Avranches), "Civitas Ebroicorum" ("Mediolanum", Évreux), "Civitas Saiorum" (Sées), "Civitas Lexoviorum" ("Noviomagus", Lisieux / Lieuvin) and "Civitas Constantia" (Coutances).


title: Normandy

text: In the late 3rd century AD, Germanic raids devastated ″Lugdunensis Secunda″ as the modern area of Normandy was known as at the time. The Romans built a system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English channel. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, that finally settled mainly in the Bessin region. Modern archeology reveals their presence in different Merovingian cemeteries excavated east of Caen. Christianity also began to enter the area during this period and Rouen already had a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century. The ecclesiastical province of Rouen was based on the frame of the Roman "Lugdunensis Secunda", whose limits corresponded almost exactly to the future duchy of Normandy. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, followed by dispersed settlements mainly in pays de Bray, pays de Caux and Vexin. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis.


title: Normandy

text: Vikings started to raid along the river Seine during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader "Hrólfr", known in Medieval Latin as "Rollo". Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory that he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (i.e. "Norseman") origins.


title: Normandy

text: The descendants of "Rollo" and his followers created an aristocracy that step by step adopted the local Gallo-Romance language, intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Frankish inhabitants, and adopted Christianity. Nevertheless, the first generations of Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlers brought slaves, mainly from the British Isles, and often turned the women into "frilla", a Scandinavian tradition which became known as "more Danico", medieval Latin meaning "Danish marriage". The first counts of Rouen and the dukes of Normandy had concubines too. While very little archeological excavations about the Vikings were done in Normandy, the Norman toponymy retains a large Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian heritage, due to a constant use of Old Norse during four or five generations in certain parts of Normandy.


title: Normandy

text: They then became the Normans – a Norman French-speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Gallo-Franks.


title: Normandy

text: Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, at the Battle of Hastings, while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants.


title: Normandy

text: Aside from the conquest of England and the subsequent invasions of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas. Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades.


title: Normandy

text: The Drengot lineage, de Hauteville's sons William Iron Arm, Drogo, and Humphrey, Robert Guiscard and Roger the Great Count progressively claimed territories in southern Italy until founding the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor and the Holy Land.


title: Normandy

text: The 14th-century explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands in 1404. He received the title King of the Canary Islands from Pope Innocent VII but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord, who had provided him with military and financial aid during the conquest.


title: Normandy

text: In 1204, during the reign of John of England, mainland Normandy was taken from the English kingdom by the King of France Philip II, that ended with this conquest some 293 years of relative Norman independence from the French crown. Insular Normandy (the Channel Islands) remained, however, under control of the king of England and still attached to the ecclesiastical province of Rouen. In 1259, Henry III of England recognized the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under the Treaty of Paris. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of their ancient fiefdom.


title: Normandy

text: The "Charte aux Normands" granted by Louis X of France in 1315 (and later re-confirmed in 1339) – like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204 – guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy.


title: Normandy

text: French Normandy was devastated by the civil wars and conflicts against the English power during the Hundred Years' War. Between 1419 and 1450 strong English forces occupied Normandy, except the Mont-Saint-Michel, and made of Rouen, the seat of their power in France. It explains why Joan of Arc was burnt in Rouen, but not in Paris. Normandy lost three-quarters of its population during the war. Afterwards, prosperity returned to Normandy until the Wars of Religion. When many Norman towns (Alençon, Rouen, Caen, Coutances, Bayeux) joined the Protestant Reformation, battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the English Civil War.


title: Normandy

text: Samuel de Champlain left the port of Honfleur in 1604 and founded Acadia. Four years later, he founded the City of Québec. From then onwards, Normans engaged in a policy of expansion in North America. They continued the exploration of the New World: René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle travelled in the area of the Great Lakes, then on the Mississippi River. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Lemoyne de Bienville founded Louisiana, Biloxi, Mobile and New Orleans. Territories located between Québec and the Mississippi Delta were opened up to establish Canada and Louisiana. Colonists from Normandy were among the most active in New France, comprising Acadia, Canada, and Louisiana.


title: Normandy

text: Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, sugar refining, ceramics, and shipbuilding were introduced and developed.


title: Normandy

text: In the 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the "Ancien Régime" struck Normandy as well as other parts of the nation, leading to the French Revolution. Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the Eden Agreement signed in 1786 affected employment and the economy of the province. Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden.


title: Normandy

text: The Normans reacted little to the many political upheavals which characterized the 19th century. Overall they warily accepted the changes of régime (First French Empire, Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy, French Second Republic, Second French Empire, French Third Republic).


title: Normandy

text: Following the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815) there was an economic revival that included the mechanization of textile manufacturing and the introduction of the first trains.


title: Normandy

text: During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940, continental Normandy was part of the German occupied zone of France. The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The town of Dieppe was the site of the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid by Canadian and British armed forces.


title: Normandy

text: The Allies, in this case involving Britain, the United States, Canada and Free France, coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord. The Germans were dug into fortified emplacements above the beaches. Caen, Cherbourg, Carentan, Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the Battle of Normandy, which continued until the closing of the so-called Falaise gap between Chambois and Mont Ormel. The liberation of Le Havre followed. This was a significant turning point in the war and led to the restoration of the French Republic.


title: Normandy

text: The remainder of Normandy was liberated only on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the Channel Island occupation effectively ended.


title: Normandy

text: The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent duchy occupying the lower Seine area, the Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the Pays d'Auge as far as the Cotentin Peninsula and Channel Islands.


title: Normandy

text: Western Normandy belongs to the Armorican Massif, while most of the region lies in the Paris Basin. France's oldest rocks are exposed in Jobourg, on the Cotentin peninsula. The region is bounded to the north and west by the English Channel. There are granite cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the centre of the region. The "bocage" typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the Battle of Normandy. A notable feature of the landscape is created by the meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy is sparsely forested: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has the most cover, at 21%, while Manche has the least, at 4%, a characteristic shared with the Channel Islands.


title: Normandy

text: The Channel Islands are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy. However, they are British Crown Dependencies, and are not part of the modern French administrative region of Normandy,


title: Normandy

text: Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy, France, and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey) remain Crown Dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is "Le Roi, notre Duc" ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to "not" be the Duke with regards to mainland Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259, the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs.


title: Normandy

text: The modern region of Normandy was created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 by the merger of Lower Normandy, and Upper Normandy. The new region took effect on 1 January 2016, after the regional elections in December 2015.


title: Normandy

text: The Regional Council has 102 members who are elected under a system of proportional representation. The executive consists of a president and vice-presidents. Hervé Morin from the Centre party was elected president of the council in January 2016.


title: Normandy

text: The Channel Islands are not part of French territory, but are instead British Crown Dependencies. They are self-governing, each having its own parliament, government and legal system. The head of state of both territories is Charles III and each have an appointed Lieutenant-Governor.


title: Normandy

text: The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions: Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. Administratively, Herm forms part of Guernsey.


title: Normandy

text: Much of Normandy is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The "bocage" is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Areas near the Seine (the former Upper Normandy region) contain a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider-producing region, and also produces calvados, a distilled cider or apple brandy. Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations.


title: Normandy

text: There is also easy access to and from the UK using the ports of Cherbourg, Caen (Ouistreham), Le Havre and Dieppe. Jersey and Guernsey are often considered to be tax havens, due to having large financial services sectors and low tax rates.


title: Normandy

text: In January 2006 the population of French Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne "département" but excluding the Channel Islands) was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km, just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy. The population of the Channel Islands is estimated around 174,000 (2021).


title: Normandy

text: The main cities (population given from the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 in the metropolitan area), the capital since 2016 of the province and formerly of Upper Normandy; Caen (420,000 in the metropolitan area) and formerly the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 in the metropolitan area).


title: Normandy

text: The traditional provincial flag of Normandy, "gules, two leopards passant or", is used in the region and its predecessors. The three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as "les treis cats", "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who support cultural links with the Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces.


title: Normandy

text: The Norman language, including its insular variations Jèrriais and Guernésiais, is a regional language, spoken by a minority of the population on the continent and the islands, with a concentration in the Cotentin Peninsula in the far west (the Cotentinais dialect), and in the Pays de Caux in the East (the Cauchois dialect).


title: Normandy

text: Many words and place names demonstrate the Old English and Norse (Anglo-Scandinavian) influence in this Oïl language; for example, words : "mauve" (seagull), "fifotte" (starfish), "hâ" (catshark), "mucre" (humid, wet), "(é)griller" (slide, slip), "fale" (throat), etc. place-names : "-bec" (stream), "-fleur" (river), "-hou" (island), "-tot" (homestead), "-dal" / "-dalle" (valley), "Hogue" / "Hougue" (hill, mound), "-lon" / "-londe" (grove, wood), "-vy" / "-vic" (bay, cove), "-mare" (pond), "-beuf" (booth, cabin), etc. French is the only official language in continental Normandy and English is also an official language in the Channel Islands.


title: Normandy

text: Architecturally, Norman cathedrals, abbeys (such as the Abbey of Bec) and castles characterise the former duchy in a way that mirrors the similar pattern of Norman architecture in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066.


title: Normandy

text: Domestic architecture in upper Normandy is typified by half-timbered buildings that also recall vernacular English architecture, although the farm enclosures of the more harshly landscaped Pays de Caux are a more idiosyncratic response to socio-economic and climatic imperatives. Much urban architectural heritage was destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944 – post-war urban reconstruction, such as in Le Havre and Saint-Lô, could be said to demonstrate both the virtues and vices of modernist and brutalist trends of the 1950s and 1960s. Le Havre, the city rebuilt by Auguste Perret, was added to Unesco's World Heritage List in 2005.


title: Normandy

text: Vernacular architecture in lower Normandy takes its form from granite, the predominant local building material. The Channel Islands also share this influence – Chausey was for many years a source of quarried granite, including that used for the construction of Mont Saint-Michel.


title: Normandy

text: The south part of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne is filled with bourgeois villas in "Belle Époque" style with polychrome façades, bow windows and unique roofing. This area, built between 1886 and 1914, has an authentic “Bagnolese” style and is typical of high-society country vacation of the time. The Chapel of Saint Germanus ("Chapelle Saint-Germain") at Querqueville with its trefoil floorplan incorporates elements of one of the earliest surviving places of Christian worship in the Cotentin – perhaps second only to the Gallo-Roman baptistry at Port-Bail. It is dedicated to Germanus of Normandy.


title: Normandy

text: Parts of Normandy consist of rolling countryside typified by pasture for dairy cattle and apple orchards. A wide range of dairy products are produced and exported. Norman cheeses include Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Évêque, Brillat-Savarin, Neufchâtel, Petit Suisse and Boursin. Normandy butter and Normandy cream are lavishly used in gastronomic specialties. Jersey and Guernsey cattle are famous cattle breeds worldwide, especially to North America.


title: Normandy

text: Turbot and oysters from the Cotentin Peninsula are major delicacies throughout France. Normandy is the chief oyster-cultivating, scallop-exporting, and mussel-raising region in France.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy is a major cider-producing region (very little wine is produced). Perry is also produced, but in less significant quantities. Apple brandy, of which the most famous variety is calvados, is also popular. The mealtime "trou normand", or "Norman hole", is a pause between meal courses in which diners partake of a glassful of calvados in order to improve the appetite and make room for the next course, and this is still observed in many homes and restaurants. "Pommeau" is an "apéritif" produced by blending unfermented cider and apple brandy. Another aperitif is the "kir normand", a measure of crème de cassis topped up with cider. "Bénédictine" is produced in Fécamp.


title: Normandy

text: Other regional specialities include "tripes à la mode de Caen", "andouilles" and "andouillettes", salade cauchoise, salt meadow ("pré salé") lamb, seafood (mussels, scallops, lobsters, mackerel...), and "teurgoule" (spiced rice pudding).


title: Normandy

text: Normandy dishes include duckling "à la rouennaise", sautéed chicken "yvetois", and goose "en daube". Rabbit is cooked with morels, or "à la havraise" (stuffed with truffled pigs' trotters). Other dishes are sheep's trotters "à la rouennaise", casseroled veal, larded calf's liver braised with carrots, and veal (or turkey) in cream and mushrooms.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy is also noted for its pastries. Normandy turns out "douillons" (pears baked in pastry), "craquelins", "roulettes" in Rouen, "fouaces" in Caen, "fallues" in Lisieux, "sablés" in Lisieux. It is the birthplace of brioches (especially those from Évreux and Gisors). Confectionery of the region includes Rouen apple sugar, Isigny caramels, Bayeux mint chews, Falaise berlingots, Le Havre marzipans, Argentan "croquettes", and Rouen macaroons.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy is the native land of Taillevent, cook of the kings of France Charles V and Charles VI. He wrote the earliest French cookery book named "Le Viandier". "Confiture de lait" was also made in Normandy around the 14th century.


title: Normandy

text: The dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. Wace, Orderic Vitalis and Stephen of Rouen were among those who wrote in the service of the dukes. After the division of 1204, French literature provided the model for the development of literature in Normandy. Olivier Basselin wrote of the Vaux de Vire, the origin of literary "vaudeville". Notable Norman writers include Jean Marot, Rémy Belleau, Guy de Maupassant, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Gustave Flaubert, Octave Mirbeau, and Remy de Gourmont, and Alexis de Tocqueville. The Corneille brothers, Pierre and Thomas, born in Rouen, were great figures of French classical literature.


title: Normandy

text: David Ferrand (1591–1660) in his "Muse Normande" established a landmark of Norman language literature. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the "parler purin". At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century a new movement arose in the Channel Islands, led by writers such as George Métivier, which sparked a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland. In exile in Jersey and then Guernsey, Victor Hugo took an interest in the vernacular literature. "Les Travailleurs de la mer" is a well-known novel by Hugo set in the Channel Islands. The boom in insular literature in the early 19th century encouraged production especially in La Hague and around Cherbourg, where Alfred Rossel, Louis Beuve and Côtis-Capel became active. The typical medium for literary expression in Norman has traditionally been newspaper columns and almanacs. The novel "Zabeth" by André Louis which appeared in 1969 was the first novel published in Norman.


title: Normandy

text: In the 17th century some major French painters were Normans like Nicolas Poussin, born in Les Andelys and Jean Jouvenet.


title: Normandy

text: Romanticism drew painters to the Channel coasts of Normandy. Richard Parkes Bonington and J. M. W. Turner crossed the Channel from Great Britain, attracted by the light and landscapes. Théodore Géricault, a native of Rouen, was a notable figure in the Romantic movement, its famous "Radeau de la Méduse" being considered come the breakthrough of pictorial romanticism in France when it was officially presented at the 1819 Salon. The competing Realist tendency was represented by Jean-François Millet, a native of La Hague. The landscape painter Eugène Boudin, born in Honfleur, was a determining influence on the impressionists and was highly considered by Monet.


title: Normandy

text: Breaking away from the more formalised and classical themes of the early part of the 19th century, Impressionist painters preferred to paint outdoors, in natural light, and to concentrate on landscapes, towns and scenes of daily life.


title: Normandy

text: Leader of the movement and father of modern painting, Claude Monet is one of the best known Impressionists and a major character in Normandy's artistic heritage. His house and gardens at Giverny are one of the region's major tourist sites, much visited for their beauty and their water lilies, as well as for their importance to Monet's artistic inspiration. Normandy was at the heart of his creation, from the paintings of Rouen's cathedral to the famous depictions of the cliffs at Étretat, the beach and port at Fécamp and the sunrise at Le Havre. It was "Impression, Sunrise", Monet's painting of Le Havre, that led to the movement being dubbed Impressionism. After Monet, all the main avant-garde painters of the 1870s and 1880s came to Normandy to paint its landscapes and its changing lights, concentrating along the Seine valley and the Norman coast.


title: Normandy

text: Landscapes and scenes of daily life were also immortalised on canvas by artists that have included : William Turner, Gustave Courbet, the Honfleur born Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Eugène Chigot, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. While Monet's work adorns galleries and collections all over the world, a remarkable quantity of Impressionist works can be found in galleries throughout Normandy, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen, the Musée Eugène Boudin in Honfleur or the André Malraux Museum in Le Havre.


title: Normandy

text: Maurice Denis, one of the leaders and theoricists of the Nabis movement in the 1890s, was a native of Granville, in the department of Manche. Marie-Thérèse Auffray, an expressionist painter and member of the French resistance during WWII, lived and painted in the village of Échauffour.


title: Normandy

text: The "Société Normande de Peinture Moderne" was founded in 1909 by Pierre Dumont, Robert Antoine Pinchon, Yvonne Barbier and Eugène Tirvert. Among members were Raoul Dufy, a native of Le Havre, Albert Marquet, Francis Picabia and Maurice Utrillo. Also in this movement were the Duchamp brothers, Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp, considered one of the father of modern art, also natives of Normandy. Jean Dubuffet, one of the leading French artist of the 1940s and the 1950s was born in Le Havre.


title: Normandy

text: Christian missionaries implanted monastic communities in the territory in the 5th and 6th centuries. Some of these missionaries came from across the Channel. The influence of Celtic Christianity can still be found in the Cotentin. By the terms of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo, a Viking pagan, accepted Christianity and was baptised. The Duchy of Normandy was therefore formally a Christian state from its foundation. The cathedrals of Normandy have exerted influence down the centuries in matters of both faith and politics. King Henry II of England, did penance at the cathedral of Avranches on 21 May 1172 and was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of Thomas Becket. Mont Saint-Michel is a historic pilgrimage site.


title: Normandy

text: Normandy does not have one generally agreed patron saint, although this title has been ascribed to Saint Michael, and to Saint Ouen. Many saints have been revered in Normandy down the centuries, including:


title: Normandy

text: Since the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State there is no established church in mainland Normandy. In the Channel Islands, the Church of England is the established church.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: From Dusk till Dawn is a 1996 American action horror film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino from a concept and story by Robert Kurtzman. Starring Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Ernest Liu, and Juliette Lewis, the plot follows a pair of American criminal brothers (Clooney and Tarantino) who take a family as hostages (Keitel, Liu, and Lewis) in order to cross into Mexico, but ultimately find themselves trapped in a saloon frequented by vampires.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: The film was released on January 17, 1996, and received mixed reviews from critics, who described the film as well-made if overly violent. After enjoying financial success at the box office, "From Dusk till Dawn" has since become a cult film and spawned a media franchise of sequel films, a video game and other media adaptations.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: Fugitive bank robber brothers Seth and Richie Gecko hold up a liquor store, killing clerk Pete Bottoms and Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in a shootout. They inadvertently destroy the building as they leave. At an inn room where they are hiding out, Seth returns from getting food to find Richie has raped and murdered a bank clerk they had taken hostage, much to his anger.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: Jacob Fuller, a pastor experiencing a crisis of faith brought on by the death of his wife, is on vacation with his teenage children Scott and Kate in their RV. They stop at the inn and are kidnapped by the Gecko brothers, who force the Fuller family to smuggle them over the Mexican border. In Mexico, they arrive at the Titty Twister, a strip club in the desert, where the Gecko brothers will be met by their contact, Carlos, at dawn. Carlos will escort them to the sanctuary at "El Rey", a place of safety for fugitives from justice whose admission fee is 30 percent of everything they have. When Richie complains to Seth that this is too high, Seth tells him it is non-negotiable.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: During a bar fight, the bar employees reveal themselves as vampires and kill most of the patrons. Richie is bitten by a stripper, Santanico Pandemonium, and dies, but Seth manages to kill her by shooting at a chandelier above her that impales her. Only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine, and Frost—a Vietnam War veteran—survive. The others are reborn as vampires, including Richie, forcing the survivors to kill them all. When an army of vampires, in bat form, assembles outside, the survivors lock themselves inside, but Sex Machine is bitten, becomes a vampire, and bites Frost and Jacob. Frost throws Sex Machine through the door, allowing the vampires to enter while Frost turns into a vampire.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: Seth, Kate, and Scott escape to a storeroom, followed shortly by an injured but still alive Jacob, brandishing a shotgun. In the storeroom, they fashion weapons from truck cargo the vampires have looted from past victims, including a stake mounted on a pneumatic drill, a crossbow, and holy water, which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless. Jacob, knowing he will soon become a vampire, makes Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: The group makes their final assault on the undead. Sex Machine mutates into a large rat-like creature and attacks Seth, but is killed. Jacob becomes a vampire but Scott hesitates to kill him, allowing Jacob to bite him. Scott hits Jacob with holy water and shoots him. Scott is overwhelmed by vampires, who begin to devour him; he begs for death and Kate shoots and kills him. As vampires surround Kate and Seth, streams of morning light enter through bullet holes in the building, making the vampires back away. Carlos arrives and his bodyguards blast open the door, letting in the sunlight which kills the vampires.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: Seth chastises Carlos for his poor choice of meeting place and negotiates a smaller tribute for his admission to El Rey. Kate asks Seth if he wants her to go with him to El Rey, but he refuses, apparently concerned for her safety, leaving her with some cash. Kate drives away in the RV, leaving the Titty Twister behind, which is revealed to be the top of an eight-level partially buried Aztec temple.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: "From Dusk till Dawn" was conceived by Robert Kurtzman, who hired Tarantino to write the script as his first paid writing assignment. Universal Pictures originally considered Tarantino's screenplay for "From Dusk till Dawn" as the follow-up to "Demon Knight" and the second in a proposed "Tales from the Crypt" film trilogy, but ultimately produced another vampire film, "Bordello of Blood", instead.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: Earl McGraw became a recurring character in Rodriguez and Tarantino's works, later appearing in "Kill Bill", "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof", appearing as an Easter Egg. Chango Beer and Sex Machine's codpiece gun are references to Rodriguez's 1995 film "Desperado". Seth also returns to the hotel with Big Kahuna Burgers, which were used in "Pulp Fiction" and mentioned in "Death Proof". Seth Gecko also says the line "All right, Ramblers. Let's get ramblin'!", a quote from Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs". Scott's T-shirt decoration reads "Precinct 13", a reference to John Carpenter's 1976 film, "Assault on Precinct 13".


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: As with many of Rodriguez's films, "From Dusk till Dawn" employed a non-union production crew, which is unusual for a production with a budget above $15 million.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: "From Dusk till Dawn" had its world premiere on January 17, 1996. On its first week, the film grossed $10,240,805 in the United States making it the highest-grossing film of the week. The next week, the film fell to third highest in the box office where it grossed $4,851,921 being beaten by "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Bed of Roses". "From Dusk till Dawn" grossed $25,836,616 in the United States and $33,500,000 internationally, for a worldwide gross of $59,336,616.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: On May 1, 1996, the film was banned in Ireland; Irish Film Censor Board head Sheamus Smith cited its "irresponsible and totally gratuitous" violence, which he felt was particularly untimely in the wake of the then-recent Dunblane and Port Arthur massacres. On January 27, 2004, the video release was passed with an 18 certificate.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and described it as "a skillful meat-and-potatoes action extravaganza with some added neat touches". In her review for "The New York Times", Janet Maslin wrote: "The latter part of "From Dusk till Dawn" is so relentless that it's as if a spigot has been turned on and then broken. Though some of the tricks are entertainingly staged, the film loses its clever edge when its action heats up so gruesomely and exploitatively that there's no time for talk". "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote: "Rodriguez and Tarantino have taken the let-'em-eat-trash cynicism of modern corporate moviemaking and repackaged it as junk-conscious 'attitude'. In "From Dusk till Dawn", they put on such a show of cooking up popcorn that they make pandering to the audience seem hip". However, in his review for "The Washington Post", Desson Howe wrote: "The movie, which treats you with contempt for even watching it, is a monument to its own lack of imagination. It's a triumph of vile over content; mindless nihilism posing as hipness". "Cinefantastique" magazine's Steve Biodrowski wrote: "Whereas one might reasonably have expected that the combo of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez would yield a critical mass of nuclear proportions, instead of an atomic fireball's worth of entertainment, we get a long fuse, quite a bit of fizzle, and a rather minor blast". In his review for the "San Francisco Chronicle", Mick LaSalle called the film "an ugly, unpleasant criminals-on-the-lam film that midway turns into a boring and completely repellent vampire 'comedy'. If it's not one of the worst films of 1996 it will have been one miserable year". In Marc Savlov's review for the "Austin Chronicle", he wrote: "Fans of Merchant Ivory will do well to steer clear of Rodriguez's newest opus, but both action and horror film fans have cause for celebration after what seems like a particularly long splatter-drought. This is horror with a wink and a nod to drive-in theatres and sweaty back seats. This is how it's done".


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: The soundtrack features mainly Texas blues by such artists as ZZ Top and brothers Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan on separate tracks. The Chicano rock band Tito & Tarantula, who portrayed the band in the Titty Twister, appears on the soundtrack as well. The film's score is by Graeme Revell. "Dark Night" by The Blasters plays over the film's opening and closing credits.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: A video game of the same name was released for Windows in 2001. It is based on events that transpire directly after the end of the film.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: "From Dusk till Dawn" was followed by two direct-to-video installments, a sequel "" (1999) and prequel "" (2000). They were both received poorly by critics. Danny Trejo is the only actor to appear in all three, although Michael Parks appears in both "From Dusk till Dawn" and "The Hangman's Daughter". Rodriguez, Tarantino and Lawrence Bender served as producers on all three movies.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: A inspired by the films premiered on the El Rey network in March 2014, produced and directed by Rodriguez. The show was intended to explore and expand on the characters and story from the film, providing a wider scope and richer Aztec mythology.


title: From Dusk till Dawn

text: The series ended production in 2016 with "Deadline Hollywood" reporting that the actors have been released from their contracts as of October 31.


title: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

text: , also known as for short, and with English subtitle Familia Myth, is a Japanese light novel series written by Fujino Ōmori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda. SB Creative has published seventeen volumes since January 2013 under their GA Bunko imprint.


text: It has received two manga adaptations as well as an anime television adaptation by J.C.Staff, which aired from April to June 2015. An OVA was released on December 7, 2016. A second anime season and an original anime film adaptation were both announced in February 2018. The film, titled "" premiered on February 15, 2019. The second season aired from July to September 2019. A third anime season and an OVA episode were both announced on September 27, 2019. The third season was slated to air in July 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The third season aired from October to December 2020. A fourth season premiered in July 2022.


text: Additionally, a spin-off light novel series titled "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria" began in January 2014, and another spin-off light novel series titled "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Familia Chronicle" (illustrated by Nilitsu) began in March 2017. Both spinoffs have also received manga adaptations, and an anime television adaptation of "Sword Oratoria" aired from April to June 2017.


text: The story takes place in the fictional city of Orario. The city is home to a number of gods who, seeking excitement, chose to limit their divine powers in order to experience the hardships of those who reside on the mortal world. Each god maintains a retinue of adventurers and support personnel drawn from the people of the city known as a . The primary activity of these organisations is exploring the labyrinth under the city known as the in order to battle monsters and harvest the crystal shards they leave behind when destroyed. These shards are used to craft magic items and other treasures; however, they can also be exchanged directly for the world's currency. In a fashion typical of role playing games, the power of an adventurer is quantified by their level and a number of ability scores. By defeating more powerful monsters, an adventurer is able to increase their own level and ability scores, as well as unlock special powers known as skills.


text: The story follows the adventures of Bell Cranel, a 14-year-old rookie adventurer and sole member of the Hestia Familia. He looks up to Ais Wallenstein, a famous and powerful swordswoman of the Loki Familia, and vows to become as strong as her following a chance encounter where she saves his life from a powerful monster. While Ais is the object of Bell's romantic affection, several other girls, deities and mortals alike, have similar feelings for him; most notably, Hestia herself.


text: Fujino Ōmori wrote the story under the title "Familia Myth" as his entry for the 4th GA Bunko Award, where he won the Great Prize and received an offer for publication. The first light novel volume was published on January 15, 2013, by SB Creative under their GA Bunko imprint. As of April 22, 2021, seventeen volumes have been published. The series has estimated sales of over 9 million copies as of January 2018. Yen Press has licensed the series in North America and released the first volume under the Yen On imprint in December 2014. The light novel ranked at No. 4 in 2014 in Takarajimasha's annual light novel guide book "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!".


text: The series has been adapted into three manga series. The one based on the novels is illustrated by Kunieda and started serialization in Square Enix's "seinen" manga magazine "Young Gangan" from August 2, 2013. It has been collected in ten "tankōbon" volumes. Yen Press announced at their New York Comic Con 2014 panel the rights to publish the manga in North America.


text: The "Episode Ryu" manga series is a special story focused on character Ryu Lion from the main series.


text: A four-panel manga series titled by Masaya Takamura began serialization in Square Enix's online manga magazine "Gangan Online" from August 14, 2014.


text: An anime television series adaptation by J.C.Staff began airing the broadcast night of April 3, 2015. The opening theme is "Hey World" by Yuka Iguchi, and the ending theme is "Right Light Rise" by Kanon Wakeshima. Crunchyroll had previously streamed the series internationally outside Asia. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime for digital and home video release in North America with an English dub released in March 2017. In Southeast Asia, the anime is licensed by Muse Communication and airs on Aniplus Asia. An original video animation was released on December 7, 2016.


text: A second season of the anime and an original film adaptation titled were announced on February 18, 2018, during the GA Bunko 2018 Happyō Stage at Wonder Festival. The film was directed by Katsushi Sakurabi, written by Fujino Ōmori, with animation by J.C.Staff and music by Keiji Inai. The film was released on February 15, 2019, in Japan. The second season aired from July 13 to September 28, 2019. Hideki Tachibana replaced Yoshiki Yamakawa as the director of the second season. The rest of the cast and staff reprised their roles. The opening theme for the second season is "HELLO to DREAM" by Iguchi, and the ending theme is "Sayakana Shukusai" by Sora tob sakana. HIDIVE streamed a Dubcast for the second season.


text: A third season of the anime series and an OVA episode were both announced on September 27, 2019. The second OVA episode was released on January 29, 2020. The third season was originally scheduled to start broadcasting in July 2020, but the anime production committee delayed the broadcast to "October or later" due to the effects of COVID-19. On July 4, 2020, it was announced that the third season was rescheduled to broadcast in October 2020. The third season aired from October 3 to December 19, 2020, and ran for 12 episodes. The opening theme for the third season is "Over and Over" by Iguchi, and the ending theme is "Evergreen" by sajou no hana. On December 18, 2020, a third OVA episode was announced, which was released on April 28, 2021.


text: A fourth season of the anime series was announced at GA FES 2021 on January 31, 2021. The main staff from previous seasons are reprising their roles. Fujino Ōmori, the original author, will supervise the scripts alongside Hideki Shirane. The fourth season premiered on July 23, 2022. The first opening theme for the fourth season is "Tentō" by sajou no hana, and the first ending theme is "Guide" by Saori Hayami. It will continue on January 5, 2023 with a new subtitle "Late Arc: Disaster" and the addition of eleven new characters. The second opening theme is "Shikō" by Saori Hayami, and the second ending theme is "Kirikizu" by sajou no hana.


text: After the acquisition of Crunchyroll by Sony Pictures Television, the parent company of Funimation in 2021, "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?", among several Sentai titles, was dropped from the Crunchyroll streaming service on March 31, 2022.


text: 5pb. announced that they are developing a "dungeon action RPG" based on the light novels titled "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Infinite Combate" or "DanMachi: Infinite Combate", released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows on November 28, 2019. The PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC versions was released in North America for August 11, 2020, and Europe for August 7, 2020.


text: "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Memoria Freese" or "DanMachi: Memoria Freese" is a role-playing mobile game for the iOS and Android platforms, released in Japan on June 19, 2017, North America on March 30, 2018 and Europe in 2019. The game sold over 3million copies in its first month, and has about 35million registered users and more than 1million subscribers as of March 2018. The game's earnings are 40% higher in the United States than in Japan. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, the voice actor of Bell Cranell, was recognized as the Guinness World Record holder for "the largest number of lines performed by a single voice actor in a mobile game" with this game in June 2019. While the game contains many noncanon stories, it has also seen debuts of several major stories written by the Fujino Ōmori himself, such as prequel stories "Argonaut" and "Astrea Record", which have been credited with expanding the series mythology and world-building.


text: , or "Sword Oratoria" for short, is a Japanese light novel side story series, written by Fujino Ōmori and illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura (based on the designs by Suzuhito Yasuda). The story focuses on the character Ais Wallenstein from the parent "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" series. It has been adapted into a manga series and an anime television series.


title: Santana (band)

text: Santana is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1966 by American guitarist Carlos Santana. The band has undergone multiple recording and performing line-ups in its history, with Santana the only consistent member. After signing with Columbia Records, the band's appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 increased their profile and went on to record the commercially successful and critically-acclaimed albums "Santana" (1969), "Abraxas" (1970), and "Santana III" (1971). These were recorded by the group's "classic" line-up, featuring Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello, Michael Shrieve, David Brown, and José "Chepito" Areas. Hit songs of this period include "Evil Ways", "Black Magic Woman", "Oye Como Va", and the instrumental "Samba Pa Ti".


title: Santana (band)

text: Following a change in line-up and musical direction in 1972, the band experimented with elements of jazz fusion on "Caravanserai" (1972), "Welcome" (1973), and "Borboletta" (1974). Santana reached a new peak of commercial and critical success with "Supernatural" (1999) and its singles "Smooth", featuring singer Rob Thomas, and "Maria Maria" featuring The Product G&B. The album reached No. 1 in eleven countries and sold 12 million copies in the US alone. In 2014, the "classic" line-up reunited for "Santana IV" (2016) and the group continue to perform and record.


title: Santana (band)

text: Santana is one of the best-selling groups of all time with over 47 million certified albums sold in the US, and an estimated 100 million sold worldwide. Its discography includes 25 studio albums, 14 of which reached the US top 10. In 1998, the line-up of Santana, Rolie, Carabello, Shrieve, Brown, and Areas was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2000, the band won eight Grammy Awards in one night, a record tied with Michael Jackson, and three Latin Grammy Awards.


title: Santana (band)

text: In 1966, Santana left Mexico for San Francisco, where he discovered the hippie and counterculture movement and found himself "wanting to be part of this new wave." Later that year, he began to assemble his own band, the first line-up of which included Sergio "Gus" Rodriguez on bass, Danny Haro on drums, and Michael Carabello on percussion. In January 1967, the four were granted an audition spot for concert promoter Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium on a bill with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Charles Lloyd Quartet, and named themselves the Santana Blues Band. Within a month, the group expanded with the addition of Tom Fraser on guitar and vocals, who also brought in Gregg Rolie on organ and vocals. The band stalled for several weeks, however, after Carlos was hospitalised with tuberculosis. In June 1967, Graham fired the group from performing at the Fillmore after some members turned up late for a gig supporting The Who and Loading Zone. The incident drove Carlos to bring in new and committed musicians, keeping Rolie with him. By the year's end, the band adopted the shorter name of Santana. Until early 1969, the band were joined by Marcus Malone on percussion, who left the group after being convicted of manslaughter.


title: Santana (band)

text: In late 1968, the group secured a record deal with Columbia Records, following a successful audition opening for The Grateful Dead. The band had caught the interest of Columbia and Atlantic Records, and an audition was organised for both labels, but Carlos refused to perform for Atlantic as he wanted to be on the same label as Miles Davis and Bob Dylan. In December, Santana performed a series of concerts at the Fillmore that were recorded for a proposed live album. Biographer Simon Leng said it marked Santana moving away from its blues and R&B roots towards the "Santana sound" with the addition of Afro-Cuban and jazz numbers into their sets. After several line-up changes, the group finally stabilised in May 1969 with Santana, Rolie, Carabello, David Brown on bass, Michael Shrieve on drums, and Jose "Chepito" Areas on percussion, which became known as the "classic" line-up.


title: Santana (band)

text: The band recorded their debut album, "Santana", in San Francisco in May 1969. It was their third go at recording an album, after previous attempts failed to produce results, they wanted. The sessions featured Alberto Gianquinto on piano, who also helped with the arrangements of the tracks. He quickly noticed the group's main problem: the solo spots were too long. Graham agreed, and advised that the band needed to cut the lengthy jams and begin constructing songs. He also got the band to listen to Willie Bobo's version of "Evil Ways", and suggested they record their own version. With the album recorded, Graham arranged for Santana to tour the Midwest as openers for Crosby, Stills and Nash, which expanded the group's profile outside the West Coast. Around this time, Graham had been asked to help organise the upcoming Woodstock Festival, agreed to promote it on the condition that Santana would be added to the bill. Graham persisted, and the band were assigned a 45-minute set in the afternoon of August 16, the second day, for $2,500. The performance launched the group to international fame, and "Santana", released on August 30, peaked at No. 4 on the US "Billboard" 200. The first single, "Jingo", was followed by "Evil Ways", which peaked at No. 9 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In October 1969, Graham had Santana perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show", further increasing the group's nationwide exposure.


title: Santana (band)

text: In April 1970, Santana returned to the studio to record its second album, "Abraxas". The album, highlighted by a reworking of "Black Magic Woman" by Fleetwood Mac that peaked at No. 4 in the US "Billboard" Hot 100, was released in September 1970 and rose to number 1 on the US "Billboard" 200.


title: Santana (band)

text: By 1971, the group were still struggling to maintain a strong musical direction. From January to July they recorded "Santana III". Released in September 1971, the album also reached number 1 on the US "Billboard" 200. At the peak of the band's popularity, the album was the last to feature its classic Woodstock era line-up. Santana explained that there was a lot of unnecessary internal resentment and that managerial problems contributed to the problem, leading to Graham's dismissal. That year, they performed at a concert in Accra to commemorate Ghana's 14th Independence Day. The concert was filmed and released in theaters as "Soul to Soul". Matters came to a head shortly before the "Santana III" tour in September 1971 began, when Carlos wanted Carabello to leave the group, otherwise he would. The band started the tour without Carlos, performing amidst shouts from the audience for the guitarist. After several gigs, Carlos reunited with the band to find Carabello, Areas, and manager/promoter Stan Marcum had quit, leaving the band to perform without percussionists. James "Mingo" Lewis was quickly brought in as a temporary replacement after he saw the band live and offered his services. Santana's gig in Lima, Peru in December 1971 brought further trouble, as the outbreak of violence resulted in their equipment being confistacted and the band deported from the country. The incident was a wake up call for Carlos, who was determined to "bring the madness to an end."


title: Santana (band)

text: In 1972, Santana had been increasingly influenced by the music of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Joe Zawinul, who had explored jazz fusion by this time. The fourth album, "Caravanserai" (1972), marked a number of line-up changes; bassist David Brown left in 1971 before recording started and was replaced by Doug Rauch and Tom Rutley. Carabello was replaced with two percussionists, Armando Peraza and Mingo Lewis. Rolie was replaced by Tom Coster on a few songs. "Caravanserai" debuted at number 8 in the US.


title: Santana (band)

text: 13 months after "Caravanserai", Santana released "Welcome". "Welcome" was the first of four consecutive albums to achieve gold certification, as opposed to the previous four, which all at least reached platinum status. The album peaked at number 25 on the "Billboard" 200, the lowest of the band's career so far. The next few albums contained a more experimental style than their previous work, beginning with "Borboletta", which fared arguably worse than its predecessor, despite climbing five spots higher on the Billboard album charts in the US.


title: Santana (band)

text: The group's 1976 release, "Amigos", was far more successful. Reaching number 10 on the US charts, and also hitting the top 10 in France, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and the Netherlands, it was a return to the success of their early albums. "Festival", did not obtain the same new-found success, but was followed by another successful album, "Moonflower", released in 1977. The album was possibly the most successful since "Santana III", achieving 2× platinum in the US, and being the first album since 1974's "Borboletta", to break the top 10 in the UK. It was characterized by a stylistic shift for the band, as it contained heavier influences from the more conventional sound of the group's early work, while still maintaining the experimental sound of their last few albums.


title: Santana (band)

text: Their next two releases, "Inner Secrets" and "Marathon", released in 1978 and '79, respectively, were a further musical shift for the band, moving away from the Latin-fused rock music that had characterized their work in the late 1960s and the majority of the '70s, to move towards a more album-oriented, conventional rock sound. These albums, however, fared poorly commercially, although both achieved gold status in the US.


title: Santana (band)

text: The 1980s started relatively brightly for Santana, with 1981's platinum-selling "Zebop!", which also reached the top 20 in several countries, and continued the more conventional rock sound. The following year, "Shangó" was released; this album marked a steep decline in the band's commercial fortunes, although it still achieved gold status.


title: Santana (band)

text: The group waited another three years to release the follow-up, the longest break for them so far. 1985's "Beyond Appearances" was a commercial failure, and their first album not to achieve gold certification. Their following three releases all continued this commercial decline, with the last of these failing to break the "Billboard" top 100. In the midst of this commercial pitfall, the band stopped recording material for an unprecedented seven years but continued to tour.


title: Santana (band)

text: In 1998, Santana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year, their album "Supernatural" (1999) debuted at number 19 on the "Billboard" 200 and reached No. 1 after eighteen weeks. Also reaching No. 1 were two singles: "Smooth", recorded with Rob Thomas, and "Maria Maria" featuring The Product G&B. The album was certified platinum 15 times by the RIAA and sold 30 million copies worldwide. Santana's previous number one album had been "Santana III" in 1971. According to "Guinness World Records", this is the longest gap between number one albums.


title: Santana (band)

text: "Supernatural" won nine Grammy Awards, including the award for Album of the Year, and also won three Latin Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year.


title: Santana (band)

text: The follow-up to "Supernatural" came three years later and was highly anticipated by international media and fans alike. On October 22, 2002, "Shaman" was released worldwide. Although it initially sold briskly (298,973 copies in the US in its first week) and debuted at number 1 on the "Billboard" 200, the album's appeal quickly wore off and it soon slid down the charts. Despite this, it went on to sell 2× platinum in the US, and achieved platinum status in several other countries including Australia. The first single released from the album, "The Game of Love", which featured vocals from Michelle Branch, debuted at number 5 on the Hot 100. The album's next four singles failed to chart in most countries, but the final single, "Why Don't You & I", featuring the vocals of Alex Band, reached number 8 on the Hot 100. Musically, the album was a return to a more conventional sound for the group, with a mainly Latin rock-based sound.


title: Santana (band)

text: With their renewed appeal worn off, another three-year wait saw the release of 2005's "All That I Am". The album debuted at number 2 on the "Billboard" 200 but fared worse internationally, and quickly lost appeal. The album, a continuation of the Latin-rock influenced sound of "Shaman", achieved gold certification in the US. A five-year break from recording saw the release of another studio album, "Guitar Heaven" (2010). Musically it was a drastic change for the band, with a far heavier sound at its core and strong heavy metal influences. It debuted at number 5 on the "Billboard" 200 but marked another decline for the band, failing to achieve gold status.


title: Santana (band)

text: In 2012 the group released "Shape Shifter", which returned to the conventional Latin rock sound and was completely album-oriented, as no singles were released from it. It debuted at number 16 on the Billboard 200.


title: Santana (band)

text: On 2 February 2013, Carlos Santana confirmed that he would reunite his classic line-up, most of whom played Woodstock with him in 1969. Santana stated that he was reuniting the group with the intention of recording new music. Confirmed for the reunion were Neal Schon, who was in the band in the early 1970s where he traded lead guitar work with Santana before leaving with founding Santana singer-organist Gregg Rolie in 1973 to form Journey; drummer Mike Shrieve and percussionist Mike Carabello. Santana said of Rolie, who played with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band for the last two years, "I'm pretty sure Gregg's going to do it." In February 2013, Rolie told Radio.com, "it's (the reunion) just a matter of putting it together and going and doing it. I would do it. I think it's a great idea. People would love it. It could be great!"


title: Santana (band)

text: In the meantime, on 6 May 2014 Santana released a new studio album entitled "Corazón" and on 9 September 2014, "Corazón – Live from Mexico: Live It to Believe It", a new live album (on CD, DVD and Blu-ray) of their show on 14 December 2013 in Guadalajara, Mexico.


title: Santana (band)

text: On 15 April 2016, Santana released "Santana IV", the wildly anticipated studio album that reunited the early 1970s classic lineup of Carlos Santana (guitar, vocals), Gregg Rolie (keyboards, lead vocals), Neal Schon (guitar, vocals), Michael Carabello (percussion) and Michael Shrieve (drums). The album marked the first time in 45 years – since 1971's multi-platinum classic "Santana III" – that the quintet had recorded together.


title: Santana (band)

text: The origins for the reunion go back several years, when Schon suggested that he and Carlos Santana record together. Santana liked the idea but went one better, proposing that they recruit Rolie, Shrieve and Carabello for what would be called "Santana IV". After initial writing sessions and rehearsals took place in 2013, the group recorded throughout 2014 and 2015, amassing 16 new tracks that combined all their signature elements – Afro-Latin rhythms, soaring vocals, electrifying blues-psychedelic guitar solos, and irrepressible jubilant percussion work.


title: Santana (band)

text: About the "Santana IV" team, Santana stated: "It was magical, we didn't have to try to force the vibe – it was immense. From there, we then needed to come up with a balance of songs and jams that people would immediately identify as Santana."


title: Santana (band)

text: "Santana IV" features 16 all-new tracks written and produced by the band. Joining the core "Santana IV" band in the studio are current Santana members Karl Perazzo (percussion) and Benny Rietveld (bass), with vocalist Ronald Isley guesting on two cuts.


title: Santana (band)

text: The first single from "Santana IV", entitled "Anywhere You Want to Go", was released on 5 February 2016.


title: Santana (band)

text: On 21 October 2016, Santana released "Santana IV: Live at the House of Blues Las Vegas" on Eagle Rock Entertainment, a new (151 minutes) live album (on DVD/Blu-ray/2CD) of their concert on 21 March 2016 at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada.


title: Santana (band)

text: In early January 2019, Santana signed with Concord Records and on 25 January, they released "In Search of Mona Lisa", a new (5-track) EP. The day before, they also released a video for new single, "Do You Remember Me." In March 2019, the band announced plans to release on June 7, 2019, "Africa Speaks", their new full-length album produced by Rick Rubin.


title: Santana (band)

text: 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of Carlos Santana's album, "Supernatural", and the 50th anniversary of his performance at Woodstock. Santana headlined a multi-year residency at House of Blues. The band was expected to headline at both Woodstock 50 (which was cancelled) and Bethel Woods' half-centennial celebration in Bethel, NY, in August 2019. The band toured in support of the latest album, from April to November 2019.


title: Santana (band)

text: On 18 and 20 August 2021, "Move" and "She's Fire", the first and second singles taken from Santana's (then) forthcoming new album "Blessings and Miracles", were released, and it was announced that the album would be released on 15 October 2021 via BMG Entertainment.


title: Santana (band)

text: Santana has won numerous awards, including eight Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998; two of Santana's albums have been inducted the Grammy Hall of Fame ("Abraxas" in 1999 and the original "Santana" in 2012); and one song has been inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame ("Oye Como Va" in 2001).


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; ; ) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era. He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow. His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. His maternal great-grandfather was Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem "Ode to Liberty", one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I. While under the strict surveillance of the Emperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, "Boris Godunov". His novel in verse, "Eugene Onegin", was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife's alleged lover and her sister's husband, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Pushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848), was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkin's mother, Nadezhda (Nadya) Ossipovna Gannibal (1775–1836), was descended through her paternal grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility. She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife, Maria Alekseyevna Pushkina (1745–1818).


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, Pushkin's great-grandfather, was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), an African page kidnapped to Constantinople as a gift to the Ottoman Sultan and later transferred to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great. Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of "Lagon". Largely on the basis of a mythical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law Rotkirkh, some historians concluded from this that Gannibal was born in a village called Geza-Lamza in the Seraye province of Mdre Bahri kingdom in today's Eritrea.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Vladimir Nabokov, when researching "Eugene Onegin", cast serious doubt on this origin theory. Later research by the scholars Dieudonné Gnammankou and Hugh Barnes eventually conclusively established that Gannibal was instead born in Central Africa, in an area bordering Lake Chad in modern-day Cameroon. After education in France as a military engineer, Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chef (the third most senior army rank) in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Born in Moscow, Pushkin was entrusted to nursemaids and French tutors, and spoke mostly French until the age of ten. He became acquainted with the Russian language through communication with household serfs and his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, whom he loved dearly and to whom he was more attached than to his own mother.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: He published his first poem at the age of 15. When he finished school, as part of the first graduating class of the prestigious Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo, near Saint Petersburg, his talent was already widely recognized on the Russian literary scene. At the Lyceum, he was a student of David Mara, known in Russia as , a younger brother of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat. At After school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of St. Petersburg, which was then the capital of the Russian Empire. In 1820, he published his first long poem, "Ruslan and Ludmila", with much controversy about its subject and style.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: While at the Lyceum, Pushkin was heavily influenced by the Kantian liberal individualist teachings of Alexander Petrovich Kunitsyn, whom Pushkin would later commemorate in his poem "19 October". Pushkin also immersed himself in the thought of the French Enlightenment, to which he would remain permanently indebted throughout his life, especially Voltaire, whom he described as "the first to follow the new road, and to bring the lamp of philosophy into the dark archives of history".


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform, and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820. He went to the Caucasus and to Crimea and then to Kamianka and Chișinău in Bessarabia, where he became a Freemason.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: He joined the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Empire broke out, he kept a diary recording the events of the national uprising.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems, which brought him acclaim: "The Captive of the Caucasus" and "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray". In 1823, Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile on his mother's rural estate of Mikhailovskoye, near Pskov, from 1824 to 1826.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife of Malorossia's General-Governor. Then Pushkin worked on his verse-novel "Eugene Onegin".


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote the poem "To***". It is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern, but there are other opinions. Poet Mikhail Dudin believed that the poem was dedicated to the serf Olga Kalashnikova. Pushkinist Kira Victorova believed that the poem was dedicated to the Empress Elizaveta Alekseyevna. Vadim Nikolayev argued that the idea about the Empress was marginal and refused to discuss it, while trying to prove that poem had been dedicated to Tatyana Larina, the heroine of "Eugene Onegin".


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Authorities summoned Pushkin to Moscow after his poem "Ode to Liberty" was found among the belongings of the rebels from the Decembrist Uprising (1825). After his exile in 1820, Pushkin's friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meeting with Emperor Alexander I and then Emperor Nicholas I on the heels of the Decembrist Uprising. Upon meeting with Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin obtained his release from exile and began to work as the emperor's Titular Counsel of the National Archives. However, because insurgents in the Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of Pushkin's earlier political poems, the emperor retained strict control of everything Pushkin published and he was banned from travelling at will.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: During that same year (1825), Pushkin also wrote what would become his most famous play, the drama "Boris Godunov", while at his mother's estate. He could not however, gain permission to publish it until five years later. The original and uncensored version of the drama was not staged until 2007.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Around 1825–1829 he met and befriended the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, during exile in central Russia. In 1829 he travelled through the Caucasus to Erzurum to visit friends fighting in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish War. In the end of 1829 Pushkin wanted to set off on a journey abroad, the desire reflected in his poem "Let's go, I'm ready". He applied for permission for the journey, but received negative response from Nicholas I, on 17 January 1830.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Around 1828, Pushkin met Natalia Goncharova, then 16 years old and one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow. After much hesitation, Natalia accepted a proposal of marriage from Pushkin in April 1830, but not before she received assurances that the Tsarist government had no intentions to persecute the libertarian poet. Later, Pushkin and his wife became regulars of court society. They officially became engaged on 6 May 1830, and sent out wedding invitations. Due to an outbreak of cholera and other circumstances, the wedding was delayed for a year. The ceremony took place on 18 February 1831 (Old Style) in the Great Ascension Church on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: When the Emperor gave Pushkin the lowest court title, Gentleman of the Chamber, the poet became enraged, feeling that the Emperor intended to humiliate him by implying that Pushkin was being admitted to court not on his own merits but solely so that his wife, who had many admirers including the Emperor himself, could properly attend court balls. Pushkin's marriage to Goncharova was largely a happy one, but his wife’s characteristic flirtatiousness and frivolity would lead to his fatal duel seven years later, for Pushkin had a highly jealous temperament.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: In 1831, during the period of Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met one of Russia's other great early writers, Nikolai Gogol. After reading Gogol's 1831–1832 volume of short stories "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka", Pushkin supported him and would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories in the magazine "The Contemporary", which he founded in 1836.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and faced scandalous rumours that his wife was having a love affair. On 4 November, he sent a challenge to a duel to Georges d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern. Jacob van Heeckeren, d'Anthès' adoptive father, asked that the duel be delayed by two weeks. With efforts by the poet's friends, the duel was cancelled.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: On 17 November, d'Anthès made a proposal to Natalia Goncharova's sister, Ekaterina. The marriage did not resolve the conflict. D'Anthès continued to pursue Natalia Goncharova in public, and rumours that d'Anthès had married Natalia's sister just to save her reputation circulated.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: On 26 January (7 February in the Gregorian calendar) of 1837, Pushkin sent a "highly insulting letter" to Gekkern. The only answer to that letter could be a challenge to a duel, as Pushkin knew. Pushkin received the formal challenge to a duel through his sister-in-law, Ekaterina Gekkerna, approved by d'Anthès, on the same day through the attaché of the French Embassy, Viscount d'Archiac.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Pushkin asked Arthur Magenis, then attaché to the British Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg, to be his second. Magenis did not formally accept, but on 26 January (7 February), approached Viscount d'Archiac to attempt a reconciliation; however, d'Archiac refused to speak with him as he was not yet officially Pushkin's second. Magenis, unable to find Pushkin in the evening, sent him a letter through a messenger at 2 o'clock in the morning, declining to be his second as the possibility of a peaceful settlement had already been quashed, and the traditional first task of the second was to try to bring about a reconciliation.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: The pistol duel with d'Anthès took place on 27 January (8 February) at the Black River, without the presence of a second for Pushkin. The duel they fought was of a kind known as a "barrier duel". The rules of this type dictated that the duellists began at an agreed distance. After the signal to begin, they walked towards each other, closing the distance. They could fire at any time they wished, but the duellist that shot first was required to stand still and wait for the other to shoot back at his leisure.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen. D'Anthès was only lightly wounded in the right arm by Pushkin's shot. Two days later, on 29 January (10 February) at 14:45, Pushkin died of peritonitis.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: At Pushkin's wife's request, he was put in the coffin in evening dress, not in chamber-cadet uniform, the uniform provided by the emperor. The funeral service was initially assigned to the St Isaac's Cathedral, but was moved to Konyushennaya church. Many people attended. After the funeral, the coffin was lowered into the basement, where it stayed until 3 February, when it was removed to Pskov province. Pushkin was buried on the grounds of the Svyatogorsky monastery in present-day Pushkinskiye Gory, near Pskov, beside his mother. His last home is now a museum.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Pushkin had four children from his marriage to Natalia: Maria (b. 1832), Alexander (b. 1833), Grigory (b. 1835) and Natalia (b. 1836), the last of whom married morganatically with Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and was granted the title of Countess of Merenberg. Her daughter Sophie married Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Only the lines of Alexander and Natalia still remain. Natalia's granddaughter, Nadejda, married into the extended British royal family, her husband was the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and is the grandmother of the present Marquess of Milford Haven. Descendants of the poet now live around the globe in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United States.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Critics consider many of his works masterpieces, such as the poem "The Bronze Horseman" and the drama "The Stone Guest", a tale of the fall of Don Juan. His poetic short drama "Mozart and Salieri" (like "The Stone Guest", one of the so-called four "Little Tragedies", a collective characterization by Pushkin himself in 1830 letter to Pyotr Pletnyov) was the inspiration for Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" as well as providing the libretto (almost verbatim) to Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "Mozart and Salieri".


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: Pushkin is also known for his short stories. In particular his cycle "The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin", including "The Shot", were well received. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "the narrative logic and the plausibility of that which is narrated, together with the precision, conciseness – economy of the presentation of reality – all of the above is achieved in "Tales of Belkin", especially, and most of all in the story "The Stationmaster". Pushkin is the progenitor of the long and fruitful development of Russian realist literature, for he manages to attain the realist ideal of a concise presentation of reality". Pushkin himself preferred his verse novel "Eugene Onegin", which he wrote over the course of his life and which, starting a tradition of great Russian novels, follows a few central characters but varies widely in tone and focus.


title: Alexander Pushkin

text: "Onegin" is a work of such complexity that, though it is only about a hundred pages long, translator Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning in English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so, Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers like Henry James.