Faun us Vfo-n3s\ Ancient Italian rural deity, the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Pan. The grandson of Saturn, he was depicted as half-man, half-goat, like a satyr. He was first worshiped as a god who bestowed fertility on fields and flocks, but he ended as a woodland deity. His com¬ panions were known as fauns.
Faure Vfor\, (Francois-) Felix (b. Jan. 30, 1841, Paris, France—d. Feb. 16, 1899, Paris) President of the French Third Republic (1895-99). A successful industrialist in Le Havre, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (1881). After serving in several cabinet posts, he was elected president of France in an unexpected victory that was a rebuff - to the political left. He opposed reopening the case of Alfred Dreyfus, the domi¬ nating issue of his presidency, and his position encouraged agitation from both left and right political factions. He died suddenly, and his funeral was the scene of a confrontation between pro- and anti-Dreyfus groups.
Faure \fo-'ra\, Gabriel (-Urbain) (b. May 12,1845, Pamiers, Ariege, Fr.—d. Nov. 4, 1924, Paris) French composer. Born into the minor aris¬ tocracy, he enrolled at age nine in a Paris music school, where he studied with Camille Saint-Saens and remained 11 years. He held the pres¬ tigious organist positions at the churches of Saint-Sulpice (1871-74) and the Madeleine (1896-1905). In 1896 he also became professor of composition at the Paris Conserva¬ tory, where he taught students such as Maurice Ravel and Nadia Bou¬ langer. He served as its director 1905-20. In 1909 he accepted the presidency of the Societe Musicale Independante, a group of dissident young composers. His works include the operas Promethee (1900), Pene¬ lope (1913), and Masques et berga- masques (1919), the orchestral suite Pelleas et Melisande (1898), two piano quartets (1879, 1886), numerous piano nocturnes and barcaroles, a famous Requiem (1900), and many beautiful songs.
Gabriel Faure, portrait by John Singer Sargent; in a private collection.
GIRAUDON/ART RESOURCE, NEW VORK
Fauset Vfo-s3t\, Jessie Redmon (b. April 27, 1882, Snow Hill, N.J., U.S.—d. April 30, 1961, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. novelist, critic, poet, and
editor. Fauset studied at Cornell and literary editor of The Crisis (1919— 26), she discovered and encouraged writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer. In her own works, including her best-known novel. Comedy: American Style (1933), she portrayed mostly middle-class black characters forced to deal with self-hate as well as racial prejudice.
Faust Vfaust\ Legendary German necromancer or astrologer who sold his soul to the devil for knowledge and power. There was a historical Faust (perhaps two; both died c. 1540), who traveled widely perform-
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Faust, detail from the title page of the 1616 edition of The Tragicall History of D. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY; PHOTOGRAPH, R.B. FLEMING
ing magic, referred to the devil as his crony, and had a wide reputation for evil. The Faustbuch (1587), a collection of tales purportedly by Faust, told of such reputed wizards as Merlin and Albertus Magnus. It was widely translated; an English version inspired Christopher Marlowe’s Tragicall History of D. Faustus (1604), which emphasized Faust’s eternal damna¬ tion. Magic manuals bearing Faust’s name did a brisk business; the clas¬ sic Magia naturalis et innaturalis was known to Johann W. von Goethe, who, like Gotthold Lessing, saw Faust’s pursuit of knowledge as noble; in Goethe’s great Faust the hero is redeemed. Inspired by Goethe, many artists took up the story, including Hector Berlioz (in the dramatic cantata The Damnation of Faust) and Charles Gounod (in the opera Faust).
Fauvism Vfo-.vi-zomX Style of painting that flourished in France c. 1898-1908, characterized by the use of intensely vivid colour and turbu¬ lent emotionalism. The dominant figure of the group was Henri Matisse; others were Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Raoul Dufy, Georges Braque, and Georges Rouault. The name derives from the judgment of a critic who visited their first exhibit in Paris (1905) and referred to the artists disparagingly as “les fauves” (“wild beasts”). They were influenced by the masters of Post-Impressionism, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Fauvism was a transitional phase for most of the artists, who by 1908, having renewed their interest in Paul Cezanne’s vision of order and struc¬ ture, abandoned Fauvism for Cubism. Matisse alone continued on the course he had pioneered.
favela \f3-'ve-b\ In Brazil, a slum or shantytown. A favela comes into being when squatters occupy vacant land at the edge of a city and con¬ struct shanties of salvaged or stolen materials. Communities form over time, often developing an array of social and religious organizations and forming associations to obtain such services as running water and elec¬ tricity. Sometimes the residents (favelados) manage to gain title to the land and then are able to improve their homes. Because of crowding, unsanitary conditions, poor nutrition, and pollution, disease is rampant in the poorer favelas, and infant mortality rates are high.
Fawkes, Guy (b. 1570, York, Eng.—d. Jan. 31, 1606, London) Brit¬ ish conspirator. A convert to Roman Catholicism and a religious zealot, Fawkes joined the Spanish army in the Netherlands in 1593 and became noted for his military skill. In 1604 he returned to England and joined a group of Catholic zealots intent on blowing up the Parliament building. When details of this Gunpowder Plot were discovered—Fawkes had planted and camouflaged at least 20 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the Parliament building—Fawkes was arrested on Nov. 4, 1605. After being tortured to reveal the names of his accomplices, he was tried and executed opposite the Parliament building. England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 with fireworks, masked children begging “a penny for the guy,” and the burning of Fawkes in effigy.
fax in full facsimile Device for the transmission and reproduction of documents by digitized signals sent over telephone lines. Fax machines scan printed text and graphics and convert the image into a digital code: 1 for dark areas, 0 for white areas. The code is transmitted through the telephone network to similar devices, where the documents are repro¬ duced in close to their original form. Though the concepts for fax tech¬ nology were developed in the 19th century, widespread use did not occur until the 1970s, when inexpensive means of adapting digitized informa¬ tion to telephone circuits became common.
Faxa Bay \'fak-sa\ Inlet of the northern Atlantic Ocean, southwestern coast of Iceland. At 30 mi (50 km) deep and 50 mi (80 km) long, it is the largest in Iceland. The main ports along the bay are Akranes and Reyk¬ javik, Iceland’s capital. A U.S. air base is at Keflavfk on the southern shore.
Faxian or Fa-hsien \'fa-'shyen\ orig. Sehi (fl. 399-414) Chinese Bud¬ dhist monk who initiated relations with India. Eager to learn of his religion at its source, he traveled to India in 402 and spent a decade visiting the major Buddhist shrines and seats of learning, especially sites in eastern India, including Kapilavastu, Bodh Gaya, and Pataliputra. He deepened his knowledge by conversing with monks and gathered sacred texts that had not yet been translated into Chinese. He returned to China by sea in 412, after spending two years in Sri Lanka. His Record of Buddhist Kingdoms contains valuable information about Indian Buddhism in this era.
fayd \'fid\ In Islamic philosophy, the emanation of created things from God. The term is not used in the Qur’an, but Muslim philosophers such as al-FARABi and Avicenna borrowed the notion from Neoplatonism. They conceived of creation as a gradual process arising from God’s superabun-