title: District attorney

text: This term for a prosecutor originates with the traditional use of the term "district" for multi-county prosecutorial jurisdictions in several U.S. states. For example, New York appointed prosecutors to multi-county districts prior to 1813. Even after those states broke up such districts and started appointing or electing prosecutors for individual counties, they continued to use the title "district attorney" for the most senior prosecutor in a county rather than switch to "county attorney".


title: District attorney

text: The principal duties of the district attorney are usually mandated by law and include representing the State in all criminal trials for crimes which occurred in the district attorney's geographical jurisdiction. The geographical jurisdiction of a district attorney may be delineated by the boundaries of a county, judicial circuit, or judicial district.


title: District attorney

text: Their duties generally include charging crimes through informations and/or grand jury indictments. After levying criminal charges, the state's attorney will then prosecute those charged with a crime. This includes conducting discovery, plea bargaining, and trial.


title: District attorney

text: In some jurisdictions, the district attorney may act as chief counsel for city police, county police, state police and all state law enforcement agencies within the state's attorney's jurisdiction.


title: District attorney

text: In some jurisdictions, the district attorney oversees the operations of local prosecutors with respect to violations of county ordinances. In other jurisdictions, the district attorney prosecutes traffic matters and/or misdemeanors. In some states the district attorney prosecutes violations of state laws to the extent that the state permits local prosecution of these. District attorneys do not prosecute federal crimes, which are the jurisdiction of a United States Attorney.


title: District attorney

text: Many district attorneys also bear responsibilities not related to criminal prosecution. These include defending the county against civil suits, occasionally initiating such suits on behalf of the county, preparing or reviewing contracts entered into by the county and providing legal advice and counsel to local government. In some jurisdictions, the county attorney does not handle any criminal matters at all, but serves only as the legal counsel to the county.


title: District attorney

text: For example, in Arizona, Missouri, Montana, and Minnesota a county attorney represents the county and state within their county, prosecutes all felonies occurring within the county, and prosecutes misdemeanors occurring within unincorporated areas of the county. Minnesota county attorneys also prosecute all juvenile cases, regardless of severity. In Ohio a county prosecutor represents the county and state within their county, prosecutes all crimes within the county, and is legal adviser to the board of county commissioners, board of elections, and all other county officers and boards. On the other hand, county attorneys in Kentucky and Virginia prosecute only certain misdemeanors and sometimes traffic matters and serve as legal counsel for their county, with felony prosecutions and prosecutions of offenses not handled by the county attorney being the responsibility of the commonwealth's attorney for the given county.


title: District attorney

text: The district attorney usually divides their services into several departments that handle different areas of criminal law. Each department is staffed by several duly appointed and sworn ASAs. The departments of a large district attorney's office may include but are not limited to: felony, misdemeanor, domestic violence, traffic, juvenile, charging (or case filing), drug prosecution, forfeitures, civil affairs such as eminent domain, child advocacy, child support, victim assistance, appeals, career criminal prosecution, homicide, investigations, organized crime/gang, and administration.


title: District attorney

text: The name of the role of local prosecutor may vary by state or jurisdiction based on whether they serve a county or a multi-county district, the responsibility to represent the state or county in addition to prosecution, or local historical customs.


title: District attorney

text: "District attorney" and "assistant district attorney" are the most common titles for state prosecutors, and are used by jurisdictions within the United States including California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.


title: District attorney

text: "State's attorney" or "state attorney" is used in Connecticut, Florida (state attorney), Illinois, Maryland, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont. In Maryland, the roles of Assistant and Deputy are reversed from those used in "District Attorney" jurisdictions, with Deputy State's Attorney being the primary subordinate to the elected State's Attorney and Assistant State's Attorneys (ASA) being the line-level prosecutors of the office.


title: District attorney

text: In Kentucky and Virginia, the title is commonwealth's attorney. Commonwealth's attorneys are elected in their respective jurisdictions in both Virginia and Kentucky for terms of four years and six years, respectively.


title: District attorney

text: In St. Louis, Missouri, the title is "circuit attorney", while in St. Louis County, Missouri, the title is "prosecuting attorney".


title: District attorney

text: The assistant district attorney (assistant DA, ADA) (or state prosecutor or assistant state's attorney) is a law enforcement official who represents the state government on behalf of the district attorney in investigating and prosecuting individuals alleged to have committed a crime. In carrying out their duties to enforce state and local laws, ADA have the authority to investigate persons, issue subpoenas, file formal criminal charges, plea bargain with defendants, and grant immunity to witnesses and accused criminals.


title: District attorney

text: "Administrative assistant district attorney" (admin ADA), "executive assistant district attorney" (exec ADA), "chief assistant district attorney" (chief ADA), or "first assistant district attorney" (First ADA) are some of the titles given to the senior ADA leadership working under the DA. The chief ADA, Executive ADA, or first ADA, depending on the office, is generally considered the second-in-command, and usually reports directly to the DA. The exact roles and job assignments for each title vary with each individual office, but generally include management of the daily activities and supervision of specialized divisions within the office. Often, a senior ADA may oversee or prosecute some of the larger crimes within the jurisdiction. In some offices, the Exec ADA has the responsibility of hiring lawyers and support staff, as well as supervising press-releases and overseeing the work of the office.


title: District attorney

text: The salary of an ADA will be lower than the elected DA. The non-monetary benefits of the job induce many to work as an ADA; these include the opportunity to amass trial experience, perform a public service, and network professionally.


title: District attorney

text: Upon leaving employment as an ADA, persons seek employment as a judge, in private law firms, or as U.S. Attorneys.


title: District attorney

text: Depending on state law, appeals are moved to appellate courts (also called appeals courts, courts of appeals, superior courts, or supreme courts in some states). During the appeals process district attorneys, in many cases, hands all relative prosecutorial materials to a state appellate prosecutor who in turn will represent the state in appellate courts with the advice and consent of the district attorney.


title: District attorney

text: Some district attorneys maintain their own law enforcement arm whose members are sworn peace officers. Depending on the jurisdiction, they are referred to as "district attorney investigators" or "county detectives".


title: District attorney

text: In England and Wales, the vast majority of criminal prosecutions are prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is appointed by the Attorney General for England and Wales. Within the CPS, 14 Chief Crown Prosecutors, answering to the DPP, head regional teams of Crown Prosecutors. With the exception of the AG and Solicitor General for England and Wales, no prosecutors are political officials in England and Wales and no prosecutor in England and Wales is a law enforcement official by virtue of their job.


title: District attorney

text: In Canada, the equivalent position to a district attorney is a "crown attorney", "crown counsel" or "crown prosecutor" depending on the province, and the equivalent to an assistant district attorney is the assistant crown attorney, assistant crown counsel or assistant crown prosecutor respectively.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: White Noise is the eighth novel by Don DeLillo, published by Viking Press in 1985. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: "White Noise" is a cornerstone example of postmodern literature. It is widely considered DeLillo's breakout work and brought him to the attention of a much larger audience. "Time" included the novel in its list of "Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005." DeLillo originally wanted to call the book "Panasonic", but the Panasonic Corporation objected.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Set in the bucolic college town Blacksmith, "White Noise" follows a year in the life of Jack Gladney, a professor at the College-on-the-Hill who has made his name by pioneering the field of Hitler studies (though he has not taken German lessons until this year). He has been married five times to four women and rears a brood of children and stepchildren (Heinrich, Denise, Steffie, Wilder) with his current wife, Babette. Jack and Babette are both extremely afraid of death; they frequently wonder which of them will be the first to die. The first part of "White Noise", called "Waves and Radiation," is a chronicle of contemporary family life combined with academic satire.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: There is little plot development in this first section, which mainly serves as an introduction to the characters and themes which dominate the rest of the book. For instance, the mysterious deaths of men in "Mylex" (intended to suggest "Mylar") suits and the ashen, shaken survivors of a plane that went into free fall anticipate the catastrophe of the book's second part. "Waves and Radiation" also introduces Murray Jay Siskind, Jack's friend and fellow college professor, who discusses theories about death, supermarkets, media, "psychic data," and other facets of contemporary American culture. Jack and Murray visit the most photographed barn in the world, discussing how its notoriety renders truly seeing the barn an impossibility, and later present an impromptu joint lecture juxtaposing the lives of Hitler and Elvis Presley.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: In the second part of the novel, "The Airborne Toxic Event," a chemical spill from a rail car releases a black noxious cloud over Jack's home region, prompting an evacuation. Frightened by his exposure to the toxin (called Nyodene Derivative), Jack is forced to confront his mortality. An organization called SIMUVAC (short for "simulated evacuation") is also introduced in part two, an indication of simulations replacing reality.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: In part three of the book, "Dylarama," Jack discovers that Babette has been cheating on him with a man she calls "Mr. Gray" in order to gain access to a fictional drug called Dylar, an experimental treatment for the terror of death. The novel becomes a meditation on modern society's fear of death and its obsession with chemical cures as Jack seeks to obtain his own black-market supply of Dylar. However, Dylar does not work for Babette, and it has many possible side effects, including losing the ability to "distinguish words from things, so that if someone said 'speeding bullet,' I would fall to the floor and take cover."


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Jack continues to obsess over death. During a discussion about mortality, Murray suggests that killing someone could alleviate the fear. Jack decides to track down and kill Mr. Gray, whose real name, he has learned, is Willie Mink. After a black comedy scene of Jack driving and rehearsing, in his head, several ways in which their encounter might proceed, he successfully locates and shoots Willie, who at the time is in a delirious state caused by his own Dylar addiction.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Jack puts the gun in Willie's hand to make the murder look like a suicide, but Willie then shoots Jack in the arm. Suddenly realizing the needless loss of life, Jack carries Willie to a hospital run by German nuns who do not believe in God or an afterlife. Having saved Willie, Jack returns home to watch his children sleep.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: The final chapter describes Wilder, Jack's youngest child, riding a tricycle across the highway and miraculously surviving. Jack, Babette, and Wilder join a crowd gathering to watch the brilliant sunset, possibly enhanced by the airborne toxic event, from an overpass, before Jack describes his avoidance of his doctor and the hypnotic and spiritual nature of the supermarket.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: "White Noise" is written in the first person through the eyes of the main character, Jack Gladney. Jack is middle-aged and overly concerns himself with the inevitability of death. The first-person perspective gives the audience the ability to see Jack's true thoughts and feelings. The majority of the novel is written in dialogue, primarily focusing on the interactions between the characters and Jack's interpretations. Author DeLillo purposefully creates Jack's dialogue to be philosophical. The diction is not complex, but rather the sentence structure of Jack's dialogue is complex. Jack's character's dialogue throughout the story provides a better meaning than the other characters'.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: "White Noise" begins in the town of Blacksmith. Jack spends much time at his job at the college, the College-On-The-Hill. Blacksmith is a college town. The novel carries on about pollution issues regarding the weather. Toward the end of the book, the family tends to be on the move from different places and travels.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: The exact geographical setting of "White Noise" is unidentified, but elements of the novel evoke the Midwestern United States, especially the Rust Belt and Upper Midwest. The fictional Iron City shares its name with the Pittsburgh beer company of the same name. Critic John Pistelli wrote that a Midwestern setting was "thematically appropriate to the novel's concern with the vanishing of labor and laboring know-how."


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Jack Gladney is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He is a professor of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in middle America.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Babette is Jack's wife. They have seven children from previous marriages, and they are currently living with four of these children. Babette has an affair with Willie Mink, whom she calls Mr. Gray, in order to obtain Dylar.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Heinrich Gerhardt is the fourteen-year-old son of Jack and Janet Savory. He is precociously intellectual, prone to be contrary, and plays correspondence chess with an imprisoned mass murderer.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Denise is the eleven-year-old daughter of Babette and Bob Pardee. She suspects her mother is a drug addict and steals the bottle of Dylar to hide it.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Wilder is Babette's two-year-old son, and the youngest child in the family. Wilder is never quoted for dialogue in the novel (however, at one point, it is said that he asked for a glass of milk) and periodically Jack worries about the boy's slow linguistic development.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Bee is the twelve-year-old daughter of Jack and Tweedy Browner. She lived in South Korea for two years.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Dana Breedlove is Jack's first and fourth wife and the mother of Mary Alice and Steffie. She works part time for the CIA and conducts covert drop-offs in Latin America. She also writes book reviews.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Janet Savory is Jack's second wife and the mother of Heinrich. She manages the financial businesses of an ashram in Montana, where she is known as Mother Devi. Before that she worked as a foreign-currency analyst for a secret group of advanced theorists.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Eugene is Babette's eight-year-old son who lives with his unnamed father in Western Australia. His father is also Wilder's father.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Murray Jay Siskind is a colleague of Jack's. He wants to create a field of study centered on Elvis Presley in the same way that Jack has created one around Hitler. He teaches a course on the cinema of car crashes, watches TV obsessively, and cheerfully theorizes about many subjects, including media saturation, mindfulness, and the meaning of supermarkets.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Winnie Richards is a scientist at the college where Jack works, to whom Jack goes for information about Dylar.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: "White Noise" explores several themes that emerged during the mid-to-late twentieth century, e.g., rampant consumerism, media saturation, novelty academic intellectualism, underground conspiracies, the disintegration and reintegration of the family, human-made disasters, and the potentially regenerative nature of violence. The novel's style is characterized by a heterogeneity that utilizes "montages of tones, styles, and voices that have the effect of yoking together terror and wild humor as the essential tone of contemporary America."


title: White Noise (novel)

text: A recurring question that Babette and Jack constantly battle is, "Who is going to die first?" Throughout the novel, Jack's low self-esteem is noticeable. Jack believes that he is a fraud and he would have no importance in death. He believes his academic career is insignificant. Jack's battle with his fear of death is a constant conflict throughout the book. Similarly, Babette also battles death but in a different way. Babette takes Dylar in order to forget about the fear of death, whereas Jack acknowledges what death is and his fear. Although the couple's fear of death is different, it also surrounds their whole life and causes them to experience insanity. In a meta commentary on the role of narrative plot in storytelling, Gladney, and the novel, asserts that once a plot is set in motion it only moves "deathward". All courses of action that center around a plan ultimately end in death. The novel illustrates this through Jack's crippling fear, and its highly fragmented organization of events and chapters. This fragmentation stagnates the plot compared to the typical novel, and for Jack's purposes keeps death at arm's length.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: The novel is an example of academic satire, where the shortcomings of academia are ridiculed through irony or sarcasm. Critic Karen Weekes notes that the professors at University-on-the-Hill "fail to inspire respect" from their students and that "the university itself is 'trivialized by the nostalgic study of popular and youth culture by offering classes on Adolf Hitler, Elvis Presley, and cinematic car crashes. Critic Ian Finseth adds how "the academic profession ...[has a] tendency to divide up the world and all human experience." DeLillo uses Hitler Studies as a way the characters can deal with complex information, enabling them to cope with the intricacy of their society.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Critic Stephen Schryer goes on to note the satirical way that characters in "White Noise" "lay claim to specialized knowledge that can be transmitted to others, regardless of their educational accomplishments or actual income." According to Schryer, the characters' vocations suggest "pseudo-professionalism," as if each can claim a professional expertise or outstanding intellect that "[renders] this class dependent on hyper-specialized forms of expertise." Critic David Alworth suggests that characters deal with unknowns like death via the "pseudo-professional"; they respond by pretending that they are educated to understand it.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Ecocritic Cynthia Deitering has described the novel as central to the rise of "toxic consciousness" in American fiction in the 1980s, arguing that the novel "offers insight into a culture's shifting relation to nature and to the environment at a time when the imminence of ecological collapse was, and is, part of the public mind and of individual imagination." Alexander Davis has similarly made the argument that "White Noise" reflects humanity's changed relationship to nature as a result of rampant consumerism.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: DeLillo critiques modern consumption by connecting identity to shopping in "White Noise". In a 1993 interview, DeLillo states that there is a "consume or die" mentality in America, which is reflected in the novel. Characters in the novel try to avoid death through shopping. For example, Jack goes on a shopping spree where he is described as feeling more powerful with each purchase: "I traded money for goods. The more money I spent, the less important it seemed. I was bigger than these sums." Postmodern critic Karen Weekes expands on this idea and argues that Americans "consume and die"; even though Jack tries to avoid death through shopping, he can't. Life is represented by shopping and death is represented by checking out at the registers. Critic Ahmad Ghashmari addresses the connection between advertising's influence on shoppers and the world in "White Noise" by stating, "Shoppers are attracted to colors, sizes, and the packaging; the surface is what draws and grips their attentions and ignites their desires to buy items regardless of their need for them." According to Ghashmari, "The supermarket, with its spectacle of goods has effaced reality and replaced it with a hyper reality in which the surfaces replace the real products." Additionally, critic Ruzbeh Babaee argues that in the novel, "There is a belief in the produced through media advertising, that one can shop his/her way out of any personal trauma. When shopping, people may define an identity, an idea of who they are." The characters in "White Noise" shop in order to create their own identity and escape the fear of death. On the topic of consumerism, DeLillo himself states that "through products and advertising people attain an impersonal identity." In other words, because shoppers all buy the same products, they can't be unique.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Through the theme of technology, DeLillo demonstrates the effect media has on human behavior. Most critics agree that "White Noise" functions as a cautionary tale about high-tech America by focusing on the effects of technology on social relations. Critic Ahmad Ghashmari says, "TV is as important and influential as the protagonist of the novel… TV seems to control all people; they believe nothing but TV." He points to chapter 6 of the novel, explaining, "Heinrich refuses to trust his senses in observing the weather and chooses to believe the radio instead. He believes that all what is broadcast on the radio is true." One critic adds that television does not stop at molding the thoughts of DeLillo's characters, but more invasively, television and its advertising subliminally shape their unconscious behavior. For example, in chapter 21, Jack witnesses television's influence when he observes his daughter uttering Toyota Celica in her sleep. DeLillo has said that "there's a connection between the advances that are made in technology and the sense of primitive fear people develop in response to it." Critic John Frow connects the theme of technology to the greater postmodern theoretical issues the book addresses. He suggests that a second televised narrative is embedded within the narrative of the novel's plot through constant references to television's interjections. The world of "White Noise" is so saturated by television shows and other media messages that "it becomes increasingly difficult to separate primary actions from imitations of actions." Thoughts and actions are replaced by programmed responses, which have been learned.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Indeed, it is a world that seems determined by simulation which, according to Jean Baudrillard, is "the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal." This is illustrated, in the eyes of Haidar Eid of Rand Afrikaans University, by much of the imagery used to convey the incomprehensible reality of the Toxic Cloud and is explicitly thematized through Jack's conversation with the intake clerk from SIMUVAC which concludes Part 2 of the novel. Here Jack is told that even though the evacuation taking place is real, the SIMUVAC team is treating it "as a model" to be used to perfect the protocol they will use in future disaster simulations. In effect, the reality of "The Airborne Toxic Event" has been displaced by their performance in something like street theater. Such an ironic reversal of reader expectations is reinforced when the Simuvac Man further acknowledges that using "the real event in order to rehearse the simulation" has inherent difficulties and that "You have to make allowances for the fact that everything we see tonight is real." In Baudrillard's words, "It is no longer a question of imitation, nor of reduplication, nor even of parody. It is rather a question of substituting signs of the real for the real itself." That is why the Simuvac Man concludes his remarks by conceding that "There's a lot of polishing we still have to do. But that's what this exercise is all about." Such a substitution of the sign for the reality is what Baudrillard calls a "simulacrum", and in "White Noise" this is emblematically represented by "the most photographed barn in America" which, according to Peter Knight, "has perhaps become the 'Most Discussed Scene in Postmodern Fiction'." Such a postmodern understanding is expressed by Murray when he declares that "No one sees the barn," for "Once you've seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn." Created by photography and tourism, the barn is "a packaged perception, a 'sight'...not a 'thing'." Because as Murray explains "we've read the signs, seen the people snapping the pictures," the barn is a cultural reality which has what Delillo calls an "aura." This aura, says Murray, prevents us from even speculating about what the "original" barn might have really been like because "We can't get outside the aura," and every photograph taken by the tourists only "reinforces the aura" of the barn. According to Frank Lentricchia, this loss of the referent, the dissolving of the object into its representations, lends the passage the status of a "primal scene," but one which is for Murray an occasion for celebration because it is a "technological transcendence" and "We're part of the aura. We're here, we're now."


title: White Noise (novel)

text: DeLillo also portrays the children as being smarter and more mature than the adults in "White Noise". In a 1985 book review of the novel by Jayne Anne Phillips from "The New York Times", Phillips says "Children, in the America of "White Noise", are in general, more competent, more watchful, more in sync than their parents." These children have the composure normally expected of an adult, yet the parents have a constant sense of self-doubt that makes them appear immature and paranoid. A scholar from University of Washington, Tom Leclaire, adds to the argument by saying that children are the center of knowledge: "Gladney's children are making his family a center of learning." However, Joshua Little, of Georgia State University, provides a different point of view that "the possibility of transcendence through the innocence of children is hinted at in the novel." According to Little, in the context of the turn of the century, knowledge is connected to having a higher social standing. Adina Baya, a specialist in media communication, supports this idea as she points out that children during the 1980s had greater access to mass media and marketing than before.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: DeLillo interprets religion in "White Noise" unconventionally, most notably drawing comparisons between Jack's local supermarket and a religious institution on several occasions. Critic Karen Weekes argues that religion in "White Noise" has "lost its quality" and that it is a "devaluation" of traditional belief in a superhuman power. According to critic Tim Engles, DeLillo portrays protagonist Jack Gladney as "formulating his own prayers and seeking no solace from higher authority." In addition, in the places the reader would expect to see religion, it is absent. Novelist and critic Joshua Ferris points out that "in a town like Blacksmith, the small midwestern university town of "White Noise", the rites and rituals of traditional religion, such as church, bible study, and signs for Jesus, are expected". However, God is largely absent in this suburb. He adds, "The absence of religion is obvious, and places the novel in an entirely non-spiritual, post-Christian world. In "White Noise", not even Catholic nuns believe in God." However, Professor Majeed Jadwe countered with, ""White Noise" begins and ends with a ritual. The first is the convoy of station wagons arriving for the new school year, which Jack describes as an event which he has not missed in 21 years. It ends with the public ritual of self-hood perfection." Professor Jadwe implies that although religion is not presented in the book, the concept of ritual is still present. The society portrayed in White Noise utilizes ritual in other areas such as Jack never missing the convoy. The world of "White Noise" is still obsessed with ritual despite the absence of religion. Associate Director of Language and Writing, Christopher S. Glover, agreed by stating, "Just after the nun tells Jack that there exists nothing worth believing in and that anyone who does believe in something is a fool, DeLillo dangles this event in front of us, daring us to believe in something—anything—by using religious buzzwords such as 'mystical,' 'exalted,' and 'profound' but countering those words with others like 'lame-brained.'" In his interview with the "Paris Review's" Adam Begley, Don DeLillo stated the religious aspect employed in "White Noise" by stating that the paranoia of the characters operates as a form of religious awe. He added that "[religion] is something old, a leftover from some forgotten part of the soul. And the intelligence agencies that create and service this paranoia are not interesting to me as spy handlers or masters of espionage. They represent old mysteries and fascinations, ineffable things. Central intelligence. They're like churches that hold the final secrets." Don DeLillo claims "Religion has not been a major element in my work, and for some years now I think the true American religion has been 'the American People.'"


title: White Noise (novel)

text: Interpol released a single, "The Heinrich Maneuver," the title of which is an apparent reference to Jack's son.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: The rights to film the novel were acquired by HBO and later by James L. Brooks's Gracie Films, and then again in 1999 by Sonnenfeld/Josephson with Barry Sonnenfeld set to direct, but the option lapsed. In 2016, Uri Singer acquired the rights and pushed the project into development.


title: White Noise (novel)

text: In 2021, it was announced that Noah Baumbach would write and direct the adaptation for Netflix starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie (born Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie was born into the British royal family. Her parents were Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Marie's early years were spent in Kent, Malta and Coburg. After refusing a proposal from her cousin, the future King George V, she was chosen as the future wife of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, the heir apparent of King Carol I, in 1892. Marie was Crown Princess between 1893 and 1914, and became immediately popular with the Romanian people.


title: Marie of Romania

text: After the outbreak of World War I, Marie urged Ferdinand to ally himself with the Triple Entente and declare war on Germany, which he eventually did in 1916. During the early stages of fighting, Bucharest was occupied by the Central Powers and Marie, Ferdinand and their five children took refuge in Western Moldavia. There, she and her three daughters acted as nurses in military hospitals, caring for soldiers who were wounded or afflicted by cholera. After the war, on 1 December 1918, the historical region of Transylvania, following Bessarabia and Bukovina, united with the Old Kingdom. Marie, now queen of Greater Romania, attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where she campaigned for international recognition of the enlarged Romania. In 1922, she and Ferdinand were crowned in a specially-built cathedral in the ancient city of Alba Iulia, in an elaborate ceremony which mirrored their status as queen and king of a united state.


title: Marie of Romania

text: As queen, Marie was very popular, both in Romania and abroad. In 1926, she and two of her children undertook a diplomatic tour of the United States. They were received enthusiastically by the people and visited several cities before returning to Romania. There, Marie found that Ferdinand was gravely ill and he died a few months later. Now queen dowager, Marie refused to be part of the regency council which reigned over the country under the minority of her grandson, King Michael. In 1930, Marie's eldest son Carol, who had waived his rights to succession, deposed his son and usurped the throne, becoming King Carol II. He removed Marie from the political scene and strived to crush her popularity. As a result, Marie moved away from Bucharest and spent the rest of her life either in the countryside or at Balchik Palace, her summer residence in Southern Dobruja by the Black Sea. In 1937, she became ill with cirrhosis and died the following year.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Following Romania's transition to a People's Republic, the monarchy was excoriated by communist officials. Several biographies of the royal family described Marie either as a drunkard or as a promiscuous woman, referring to her many alleged affairs and to orgies she had supposedly organised before and during the war. In the years preceding the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Marie's popularity recovered and she was offered as a model of patriotism to the population. Marie is primarily remembered for her work as a nurse, but is also known for her extensive writing, including her critically acclaimed autobiography.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie was the eldest daughter and second child of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and the former Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, respectively the son of Queen Victoria and the daughter of Emperor Alexander II. She was born at her parents' residence, Eastwell Manor in Kent, on 29 October 1875, at 10:30 a.m., in the presence of her father. Her birth was celebrated by firing the Park and Tower guns. She was named Marie Alexandra Victoria, after her mother and grandmothers, but she was informally known as "Missy". The Duke of Edinburgh wrote that his daughter "promises to be as fine a child as her brother and gives every evidence of finely developed lungs and did so before she was fairly in the world." As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch in the male line, Marie was formally styled "Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Edinburgh" from birth.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie's baptism took place in the private chapel of Windsor Castle on 15 December 1875 and was officiated by Arthur Stanley and Gerald Wellesley, Dean of Windsor. The baptism, "of a strictly private nature", took place one day after the ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of her paternal grandfather, Prince Albert. Marie's godparents were Empress Maria Alexandrovna (her maternal grandmother, for whom Queen Victoria stood proxy), the Princess of Wales (her paternal aunt), the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (her great-aunt, for whom Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein stood proxy), the Tsarevich of Russia (her maternal uncle, for whom Count Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov stood proxy) and the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (her paternal uncle, for whom the Duke of Albany stood proxy).


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie and her siblings, Prince Alfred (b. 1874, known as "Young Affie"), and Princesses Victoria Melita (b. 1876, known as "Ducky"), Alexandra (b. 1878, known as "Sandra") and Beatrice (b. 1884, known as "Baby Bee"), spent much of their early life at Eastwell Park, which their mother preferred instead of Clarence House, their official residence. In her memoirs, Marie would remember Eastwell fondly. The Duke of Edinburgh was largely absent from his children's lives, due to his position in the British Royal Navy, and their life was governed by their mother. Marie would later state that she did not even know the colour of her father's hair until she looked at later portraits of him, believing it to be much darker than it actually was. When he was at home, the Duke would often play with his children, inventing many games for them. Of all her siblings, Marie was closest to her sister Victoria Melita, who was one year younger, but whom everyone believed to be the older girl because of her stature, much to the princesses' dismay. The Edinburgh children were all baptised and raised in the Anglican faith; this upset their Russian Orthodox mother.


title: Marie of Romania

text: The Duchess of Edinburgh was a supporter of the idea of separating generations and Marie deeply regretted the fact that her mother never allowed chatting between the two "as if [they] were equals". Nonetheless, the Duchess was independent-minded, cultured and "the most important person" in her children's lives. At the behest of their mother, Marie and her sisters were taught French, which they detested and rarely ever spoke. Overall, the Duchess neglected her daughters' education, considering them not very bright or gifted. They were permitted to read aloud, but in the fields of painting and drawing, areas in which they had inherited Queen Victoria's talent, the girls received only a "pedestrian instruction". The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh frequently received members of the royal family at Eastwell Park, inviting them for breakfast nearly daily and in 1885, Marie and Victoria Melita served as bridesmaids at the wedding of their aunt Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg. Among Marie's playmates were her maternal cousins, Grand Dukes Nicholas (called "Nicky") and George (called "Georgie") and Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia; the other two Russian cousins, Grand Duke Michael (called "Misha") and Grand Duchess Olga being too young for the Edinburgh girls. Other playmates included the children of their maternal uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia.


title: Marie of Romania

text: In 1886, when Marie was eleven years old, the Duke of Edinburgh was named commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet and the family took up residence at San Antonio Palace in Malta. Marie would remember her time in Malta as "the happiest memory of my existence". It was in Malta that Marie found her first love, Maurice Bourke, the captain of the Duke's ship, whom Marie called "Captain Dear". Marie was prone to fits of jealousy when Bourke would pay more attention to one of her sisters than to her. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were greatly loved in Malta and San Antonio Palace was frequently full of guests. Marie and Victoria Melita received white horses from their mother and went to the local hippodrome nearly daily, apart from Saturday. During their first year in Malta, a French governess oversaw the princesses' education, but, due to her failing health, she was replaced the following year by a much younger German woman. At San Antonio, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh always maintained a room ready for Prince George of Wales, the second son of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who was in the Royal Navy. George called the three elder Edinburgh girls "the three dearests", but favoured Marie the most.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Meanwhile, the Duke of Edinburgh became heir presumptive to his childless paternal uncle, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, upon the Prince of Wales's renunciation of his rights to the duchy. Consequently, the family relocated to Coburg in 1889. Marie later came to view this moment as "truly the end of a life that had been absolute happiness and joy without clouds, of a life with no disappointments or delusions and without any discordant note." The Duchess, who was pro-German, hired a German governess for her daughters, bought them plain clothing and even had them confirmed in the Lutheran faith. The family spent their summers at Rosenau Castle. Duke Ernest was described by Marie as "having his oddities"; his court was less strict than other German courts of the time. In Coburg, the princesses' education was broadened: more emphasis was placed on painting and music, which were taught by Anna Messing and Mrs. Helferich, respectively. On Thursdays and Sundays, Marie and her sisters went to the Coburg Theatre, an experience which they enjoyed greatly. Marie and Victoria Melita often observed their brother's friends and made comments on whom they liked better, an aspect which Marie believed was inevitable in the lives of girls who have brothers. Another activity which the girls enjoyed at Coburg was attending winter parties organised by their mother, during which they would ice-skate and play different games, such as ice hockey.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie grew into a "lovely young woman" with "sparkling blue eyes and silky fair hair"; she was courted by several royal bachelors, including Prince George of Wales, who in 1892 became second in line to inherit the throne. Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh all approved, but the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh did not. The Princess of Wales disliked the family's pro-German sentiment and the Duchess of Edinburgh did not wish for her daughter to remain in England, which she disliked. She also disliked the fact that the Princess of Wales, whose father had been a minor German prince before being called to the Danish throne, was higher than her in the order of precedence. The Duchess of Edinburgh was also against the idea of a marriage between first cousins, which was not allowed by her native Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, when George proposed to her, Marie informed him that the marriage was impossible and that he must remain her "beloved chum". Queen Victoria would later comment that "Georgie lost Missy by waiting & waiting".


title: Marie of Romania

text: Around this time, King Carol I of Romania was looking for a suitable bride for Crown Prince Ferdinand, in order to secure the succession and assure the continuation of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Possibly motivated by the prospect of removing tensions between Russia and Romania on the subject of control over Bessarabia, the Duchess of Edinburgh suggested that Marie meet Ferdinand. Marie and Ferdinand first became acquainted during a gala dinner and the pair conversed in German. She found him shy but amiable, and their second meeting went just as well. Once the pair were formally engaged, Queen Victoria wrote to another granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, that "[Ferdinand] is nice & the Parents are charming–but the country is very insecure & the immorality of the Society at Bucharest quite awful. Of course the marriage will be delayed some time as Missy won't be 17 till the end of October!" German Empress Victoria, Marie's aunt, wrote to her daughter, Crown Princess Sophia of Greece, that "Missy is till now quite delighted, but the poor child is so young, how can she guess what is before her?" In late 1892, King Carol visited London in order to meet the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Victoria, who eventually agreed to the marriage and appointed him a Knight of the Garter.


title: Marie of Romania

text: On 10 January 1893, Marie and Ferdinand were married at Sigmaringen Castle in three ceremonies: one civil, one Catholic (Ferdinand's religion) and one Anglican. The civil ceremony was performed in the Red Hall of the castle by Karl von Wendel, the German Emperor being the first of the witnesses present to sign the marriage act. At four o'clock, the Catholic ceremony took place at the Town Church, with Marie being led to the altar by her father. The Anglican ceremony was more modest and was conducted in one of the chambers of the castle. Although King Carol granted the couple ""Honigtag"" (one day of honeymoon), Marie and Ferdinand spent a few days at the Castle of Krauchenwies in Bavaria. From there, they left for the countryside, their journey being interrupted briefly by a stop at Vienna, where they visited Emperor Franz Joseph. Due to growing tensions between Austria and Romania (the visit took place during the ongoing movement of the Transylvanian Memorandum), the couple's visit was brief and they arrived in the border town of Predeal following a nighttime crossing of Transylvania by train. Marie was warmly welcomed by the Romanian people, who were longing for a more personal monarchy.


title: Marie of Romania

text: The first years of Marie and Ferdinand's marriage were not particularly easy, and Marie would later tell her husband that "it is such a shame that we had to waste so many years of our youth just to learn how to live together!" Gradually, the couple's relationship became based on a cordial friendship: Marie accorded Ferdinand respect she believed he was due as a man and, later, as king, and he respected her because he realised that she had a better understanding of the world than he did. Eventually, Marie came to believe that she and Ferdinand were "the best associates, the most loyal companions, but our lives intertwine only in certain matters". Ferdinand enjoyed Marie's presence during military marches and consequently, she was frequently invited to this sort of event.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie gave birth to her first child, Prince Carol, only nine months after the marriage, on 15 October 1893. Although Marie requested the use of chloroform in order to ease the pains of labour, doctors were reluctant to do so, believing that "women must pay in agony for the sins of Eve". After Marie's mother and Queen Victoria insisted, King Carol eventually allowed the use of the drug on his niece-in-law. Marie did not derive much joy from the arrival of her firstborn, later writing that she "felt like turning [her] head to the wall". Similarly, although Marie was constantly reminded by Carol's wife Elisabeth that childbirth is "the most glorious moment in [Marie's] life", she could only feel a longing for her mother at the birth of her second child, Princess Elisabeth, in 1894. After becoming accustomed to life in Romania, Marie began to rejoice at the births of her children, namely Princess Maria (1900–61), nicknamed "Mignon" in the family, Prince Nicholas (1903–78), nicknamed "Nicky", Princess Ileana (1909–91) and Prince Mircea (1913–16).


title: Marie of Romania

text: King Carol and Queen Elisabeth promptly removed Prince Carol and Princess Elisabeth from Marie's care, considering it inappropriate for them to be raised by their young parents. Marie loved her children, but found it difficult to even scold them at times, thus failing to properly supervise them. Consequently, the royal children were given somewhat of an education, but were never sent to school. As the royal household could not provide what a classroom education would have, most of the children's personalities became severely flawed as they grew older. Prime Minister Ion G. Duca would later write that "it was like [King Carol] wished to leave for Romania heirs completely unprepared for succeeding."


title: Marie of Romania

text: From the start, Marie had trouble adjusting to life in Romania. Her personality and "high spirits" frequently created controversies at the Romanian court, and she disliked the austere atmosphere of her household. She wrote that she "had not been brought down to Romania to be adored and spoilt and made much of; she had come to be part of the machinery King Carol had wound up. She had been imported to be trimmed, educated, cut down and trained according to the great man's conception of things." When describing her early days in Romania, Marie wrote that "for long hours [she] would mope, whilst [her] young husband did his military service, all alone in rooms [she] hated, heavy German rooms". Marie's paternal aunt, the Empress Frederick, wrote to her daughter, the Crown Princess of Greece, that "Missy of Roumania is more to be pitied than you. The King is a great tyrant in his family, & has crushed the independence in Ferdinand so that no one cares about him, & his beautiful & gifted little wife, I fear, gets into scrapes, & like a butterfly, instead of hovering over the flowers, burns her pretty wings by going rather near the fire!" Easily learning to speak the Romanian language, she followed her mother's advice to dress carefully and show respect for Orthodox rituals.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie and Ferdinand were advised by King Carol to maintain a restricted group of friends; thus, Marie would lament that her familial circle had been shrunk to only the King and Ferdinand, "who stood in mighty awe of the iron old man, forever trembling that any action of [hers] might displease that duty-bound head of the family". "The Times Literary Supplement" wrote that Marie had found herself, "from the hour of her arrival in Bucharest under the tutelage of that stern disciplinarian King Carol I".


title: Marie of Romania

text: In 1896, Ferdinand and Marie moved to Cotroceni Palace, which had been extended by the Romanian architect Grigore Cerchez, and to which Marie added her own designs. The following year, Ferdinand was struck down with typhoid fever. For days, he was delirious and, despite his doctor's best efforts, came close to dying. During this time, Marie exchanged numerous letters with her family in Britain and was terrified at the prospect of losing her husband. King Carol still had an heir in Prince Carol, whose young age presented issues; thus, the whole family desperately wished for Ferdinand to pull through. Eventually, he did, and he and Marie went to Sinaia, the site of Peleș Castle, for a period of recovery. Nonetheless, the couple was not able to attend celebrations for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee that summer. During Ferdinand's convalescence, Marie spent most of her time with her two children, taking them on long walks and picking flowers with them. The winter of 1897/1898 was spent with the Russian Imperial family on the French Riviera, where Marie often rode horses, in spite of the low temperatures.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Around this time, Marie met Lieutenant Gheorghe Cantacuzène, a member, albeit through an illegitimate branch, of an ancient Romanian princely family and a descendant of Prince Șerban Cantacuzino. Although not very good looking, Cantacuzène stood out using his sense of humour and fashion, as well as his talent in horse-riding. The two soon became romantically involved, but their affair was terminated after it became known by the public. As much as she condemned Marie's behaviour, her mother allowed her to come to Coburg when, in 1897, she apparently became pregnant. Historian Julia Gelardi believes that Marie gave birth to a child at Coburg; the child may either have been stillborn or sent to an orphanage immediately following its birth. There was speculation on whether Marie's second daughter, "Mignon", was Cantacuzène's daughter, and not Ferdinand's. Over the following years, Marie was also rumoured to have been romantically linked to Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia, Waldorf Astor, Prince Barbu Știrbey and Joe Boyle. In 1903, Ferdinand and Marie inaugurated the Pelișor Castle, an Art Nouveau castle in Sinaia that King Carol commissioned for the royal couple. Marie only learned of the extent of repression used to quell the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt once it was too late to intercede. She afterwards took to dressing quite often in folk costume, both at home and in public, initiating a fashion trend among young upper-class women.


title: Marie of Romania

text: On 29 June 1913, the Tsardom of Bulgaria declared war on Greece, thus starting the Second Balkan War. On 4 July, Romania entered the war, allying itself with Greece. The war, which lasted a little over a month, was worsened by a cholera epidemic. Marie would look upon her first encounter with an epidemic as a turning point in her life. With the help of Dr. Ioan Cantacuzino and Sister Pucci, a Red Cross nurse, Marie travelled between Romania and Bulgaria, lending a helping hand in hospitals. These events would prepare her for her experiences in the Great War. As a result of the war, Romania gained possession of Southern Dobrudja, including the coastal town of Balchik ("Balcic"), which Marie would come to cherish in 1924 and use to host her residence, called The Quiet Nest. Soon after the war ended, Carol became ill.


title: Marie of Romania

text: On 28 June 1914, at Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated. This came as a shock to Marie and her family, who were vacationing at Sinaia when the news reached them. On 28 July, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and, as Marie saw it, "the world's peace was torn to shreds". Then, on 3 August, King Carol held a Crown Council at Sinaia, in order to decide whether Romania should enter the war. Although Carol was in favour of his country supporting Germany and the Central Powers, the council decided against it. Not long after the council, Carol's illness worsened and he became bed-ridden; the possibility of his abdication was even discussed. Eventually, he died on 10 October 1914 and Ferdinand automatically succeeded as king.


title: Marie of Romania

text: On 11 October 1914, Marie and Ferdinand were acclaimed as king and queen in the Chamber of Deputies. Princess Anne Marie Callimachi, a close friend of Marie's, wrote that "as Crown Princess, [Marie] had been popular; as queen, she was more loved". Marie maintained a certain influence on her husband and the entire court, leading historian A. L. Easterman to write that "it was not [Ferdinand], but Marie who ruled in Romania". At the time of Ferdinand's accession, the government was led by the liberal prime minister Ion I. C. Brătianu. Ferdinand and Marie jointly decided to not make many changes in court and let people accept the transition from one regime to another, rather than force them. Thus, many of Carol and Elisabeth's servants were kept in place, even the ones who were not particularly liked. With Brătianu's help, Marie began pressuring Ferdinand into entering the war; concurrently, she contacted various reigning relatives in Europe and bargained for the best terms for Romania, in case the country would enter the war. Marie favoured an alliance with the Triple Entente (Russia, France and Britain), partly because of her British ancestry. Neutrality was not without perils, and entering the war with the Entente meant that Romania would act as Russia's "buffer" against possible attacks.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Eventually, Marie demanded of Ferdinand in no uncertain terms that he enter the war, leading the French minister to Romania, Auguste Félix de Beaupoil, Count of Saint-Aulaire, to remark that Marie was twice an ally to the French: once by birth and once by heart. Ferdinand gave in to Marie's pleas, and he signed a treaty with the Entente on 17 August 1916. On 27 August, Romania formally declared war on Austria-Hungary. Saint-Aulaire wrote that Marie "embraced war as another might embrace religion". After informing their children that their country had entered the war, Ferdinand and Marie dismissed their German servants, who could only remain in their employ as "war prisoners" of sorts. Early on during the war, Marie was involved in aiding the Romanian Red Cross and visited hospitals daily. During the first month of hostilities, Romania fought no less than nine battles; some, such as the Battle of Turtucaia, took place on its own soil.


title: Marie of Romania

text: On 2 November 1916, Marie's youngest son, Prince Mircea, who had been sick with typhoid fever, died at Buftea. Marie was distraught and wrote in her journal: "Can anything ever be the same?" After Bucharest fell to Austrian troops, the royal court was transferred to Iași, capital of the Moldavia region, in December 1916. There, she continued to act as a nurse in military hospitals. Daily, Marie would dress as a nurse and go to the train station, where she would receive more injured soldiers; then she would transport them to hospital.


title: Marie of Romania

text: After the conclusion of the Russian Revolution in early November 1917 and the victory of the Bolsheviks, Romania became, in the words of diplomat Frank Rattigan, "an island surrounded on all sides by the enemy, with no hope of assistance from the Allies". Soon afterwards, Ferdinand signed the Treaty of Focșani, on 9 December 1917. Marie considered the treaty perilous, while Brătianu and Știrbey believed it was a necessary measure for obtaining more time. Later turns of events would prove Marie to have assumed correctly. In 1918, Marie vehemently opposed the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest, giving rise to her description as "truly the only man in Romania". The Armistice with Germany (11 November 1918) put an end to fighting in Europe and, thus, to the war.


title: Marie of Romania

text: In the tenth century, the Principality of Hungary had begun conquering Transylvania, which Hungarians had fully occupied by around 1200. The idea of a "Greater Romania" had existed in the minds of Romanians in Transylvania for some time and Brătianu had actively supported the concept before the war. In 1918, both Bessarabia and Bukovina voted for union with Romania. An assembly took place in the ancient city of Alba Iulia on 1 December 1918, where Vasile Goldiș read the resolution for the union of Transylvania with the Old Kingdom. This document, supported by Romanian as well as Saxon deputies, established a "High National Romanian Council" () for the province's temporary administration. Marie wrote, "the dream of "România Mare" seems to be becoming a reality ... it is all so incredible that I hardly dare believe it." After the assembly, Ferdinand and Marie returned to Bucharest, where they were met by general mirth: "a day of 'wild, delirious enthusiasm', with the bands crashing and the troops marching and the people cheering". Allied troops took part in the celebration and Marie was elated to see the Entente on Romanian soil for the first time. Around this time, Marie became infected with the Spanish flu, with symptoms peaking a week after Alba Iulia; her diary describes "a changed being, miserable and weak, brought to the brink of despair by so much headache and terrible sickness that sapped me of my strength".


title: Marie of Romania

text: Because Ferdinand had refused to sign the Treaty of Bucharest and because Romania had been hostile towards the Central Powers until the end of the war, its place among the winning countries during the Paris Peace Conference was guaranteed. The official delegation was led by Brătianu, who had just begun his third term as Prime Minister. Brătianu's rigidity, combined with French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau's reluctance to overlook Ferdinand's acceptance of the Treaty of Bucharest led to open conflict and the Romanian delegation left Paris, much to the dismay of the "Big Four". Hoping to resolve the situation, Saint-Aulaire suggested that Marie should be sent to the conference instead. The Queen was delighted at the prospect.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie arrived in Paris on 6 March 1919. She was immediately popular with the French people, due to her boldness during the War. Upon meeting Marie, Clemenceau abruptly told her, "I don't like your Prime Minister", to which she replied, "Perhaps then you'll find me more agreeable." He did, and president Raymond Poincaré noticed a change in Clemenceau's attitude towards Romania after Marie's arrival. After staying in Paris for a week, Marie accepted King George V and Queen Mary's invitation and crossed the English Channel, lodging at Buckingham Palace. Hoping to acquire as much goodwill for Romania as possible, Marie became acquainted with many important political figures of the time, including Lord Curzon, Winston Churchill and Waldorf and Nancy Astor. She also frequently visited her son Nicky, who was then in school at Eton College. Marie was elated to have returned to England after so much time, writing that "it was a tremendous emotion to arrive in London, and to be greeted at the station by George and May."


title: Marie of Romania

text: After the end of her visit in England, Marie returned to Paris, where the people were just as excited for her arrival as they had been a few weeks before. Crowds gathered around her frequently, waiting to see the "exotic" Queen of Romania. American President Woodrow Wilson remained unimpressed by Marie, and her comments on Russian laws dealing with sexual relations, which were considered inappropriate, did not help. Marie shocked many officials by waving all her ministers aside and leading negotiations herself. On this, she would later comment, "Never mind, you'll all just have to get used to accepting me with the faults of my virtues." Marie left Paris with numerous supplies for Romania's relief and later that year, the conference resulted in the international recognition of Greater Romania, thus doubling Ferdinand and Marie's kingdom to and increasing the population by ten million. This led Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, who briefly lived in Bucharest, to conclude that "by her charm, beauty, and ready wit, [Marie] could obtain anything she desired".


title: Marie of Romania

text: In 1920, Marie's eldest daughter, Princess Elisabeth, was engaged to Prince George of Greece, the eldest son of the deposed King Constantine I of Greece and Marie's cousin Sophia. After inviting George and his two sisters, the Princesses Helen and Irene, to lodge with them at Sinaia, Marie organised numerous activities for the young couple and was delighted at the prospect of marrying off her daughter, whose character was severely flawed. In October, reports of King Alexander's death came from Greece; the Greek princesses had to return to their parents as soon as possible. The following day, news arrived that Marie's mother had died in her sleep in Zurich. Marie made arrangements for her departure to Switzerland, where she would take Helen and Irene to their parents and arrange her mother's funeral. Meanwhile, George and Elisabeth would remain at Sinaia.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Soon enough, Crown Prince Carol proposed to Princess Helen and they were married the following year. Marie was delighted, as she had frowned upon Carol's relationship with Zizi Lambrino and had been worried at the birth of their illegitimate son Carol, who, to her great relief, had been given his mother's surname. In 1922, Marie married her second daughter, "Mignon", to Alexander I of Serbia (later of Yugoslavia). She was delighted at the births of her two royal grandsons, Prince Michael of Romania (1921–2017) and Prince Peter of Yugoslavia (1923–1970); the births of two grandchildren destined to sit on Europe's thrones seemed to cement her ambitions. Marie's dynastic efforts were viewed by critics as those of a manipulative mother who would sacrifice her children's happiness in order to fulfil her ambitions; in reality, Marie never forced any of her children to marry. While attending Peter’s baptism, Marie met the Duchess of York, later Queen Elizabeth, by whom she was enchanted.


title: Marie of Romania

text: In 1924, Ferdinand and Marie undertook a diplomatic tour of France, Switzerland, Belgium and the United Kingdom. In England, she was warmly welcomed by George V, who declared that "apart from the common aims, which we pursue, there are other and dear ties between us. Her Majesty the Queen, my dear cousin, is British born." Similarly, Marie wrote that the day of her arrival in England was "a great day for me, one of emotions, sweet, happy and the same time glorious emotions to come back as Queen to my own country, to be received officially, in all honour and enthusiastically into the bargain – to feel your heart swell with pride and satisfaction, to feel your heart beat and tears start into your eyes, while something gave you a lump into your throat!" These state visits were a symbolic recognition of the prestige Romania had gained after World War I. Whilst visiting Geneva, Marie and Ferdinand became the first royals to enter the newly established headquarters of the League of Nations.


title: Marie of Romania

text: The location for Marie and Ferdinand's coronation was Alba Iulia, which had been an important fortress in the Middle Ages and where Michael the Brave had been declared "Voivode" of Transylvania in 1599, thus bringing Wallachia and Transylvania under his personal union. An Orthodox cathedral was built as the Coronation Cathedral in 1921–1922. An elaborate set of jewellery and clothing was made especially for the coronation. Marie's crown was designed by painter Costin Petrescu and it was made in the Art Nouveau style by "Falize", a Parisian jewelry house. The crown was inspired by that of Despina, the wife of 16th-century Wallachian ruler Neagoe Basarab, and it was made entirely out of Transylvanian gold. The crown had two pendants on the sides; one contained an image of the royal arms of Romania and the other, the arms of the Duke of Edinburgh, which Marie had used as her own arms prior to her marriage. The crown, which cost around 65,000 francs, was paid for by the state, via a special law.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Among the guests at the royal couple's coronation were Marie's sister "Baby Bee", the Duke of York and French generals Maxime Weygand and Henri Mathias Berthelot, who had led the French military mission to Romania. The ceremony was conducted by the Metropolitan of All Romania, Miron Cristea, but it was not performed inside the cathedral as Ferdinand, a Roman Catholic, refused to be crowned by a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. After placing his crown on his own head, Ferdinand crowned Marie, who had knelt before him. Immediately, cannons were fired as a sign that the first king and queen of Greater Romania had been anointed. A feast was given in the same room where the union had been proclaimed in 1918; there, more than 20,000 peasants were offered roast steaks. The following day, Ferdinand and Marie triumphantly entered Bucharest. The splendour of the coronation was subsequently cited as evidence of Marie's theatricality. Marie would be received into the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1926, mentioning a desire to be closer to her people.


title: Marie of Romania

text: The Maryhill Museum of Art in Maryhill, Washington, was initially designed as a mansion for wealthy businessman Samuel Hill. However, at Loie Fuller's behest, the building was turned into a museum instead. Hill wished it to be dedicated in 1926, and he conceived it as a monument to peace, to his wife Mary, and to Queen Marie herself. Marie agreed to come to America and witness the dedication, especially as Fuller was an old friend of hers. Fuller quickly put together a committee that supported Marie's "tour" of America and arrangements were made for her departure. Marie viewed the tour as an opportunity to "see the country, meet the people and put Romania on the map". She travelled by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and disembarked in New York, on 18 October 1926, accompanied by Prince Nicholas and Princess Ileana.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Upon her arrival, Marie was welcomed enthusiastically with the "whistle of steamers, roar of guns in white smoke puffs against gray fog, voices cheering in a stinging rain". She was formally greeted by Jimmy Walker, the Mayor of New York City. Constance Lily Morris, author of "On Tour with Queen Marie", wrote that the people were excited for Marie's arrival mainly because of her almost mythical allure, which had been created by papers and rumour throughout her life; she observed that "the modest Queen of the Belgians had once come with her king for a brief visit and years ago the dusky Hawaiian ruler had honored us, but there had been no others. The time could not have been better set." Marie was also fairly popular within suffragette circles, where she was viewed as "a woman whose wits had devised many a coup d'état, whose brains had thought out many a difficult problem for her people, who had used the gifts given her to further every good purpose".


title: Marie of Romania

text: During their time in America, Marie, Nicholas and Ileana undertook tours of several cities, including Philadelphia. They were very popular, and were greeted with equal enthusiasm in each city they visited, so much so that "[Nicholas and Ileana] seemed fairly dazed by their tremendous ovation". At the White House, the official dinner was marked by awkward moments, due to the morose attitude of President Calvin Coolidge and his wife Grace; Marie lingered less than two hours. Before leaving the United States, Marie was presented with a bullet-proof armored town car by Willys-Knight, which she joyfully accepted. On 24 November, Marie and her children were seen off by a delegation from Washington, D.C., as they prepared to leave by ship from New York Harbor. Morris wrote that "our last view was of Her Majesty, her children on either side, waving back with that tear-and-smile of those who pass from happy scenes." Morris accompanied the queen throughout her journey and offered a very detailed account of Marie's time in America in her book, published in 1927.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie was delighted with the visit, and wished to return to America as soon as possible. She wrote in her diaries:


title: Marie of Romania

text: "both my children and I have but one dream: to return! To return to that stupendous New World, which makes you almost guiddy because of its immencity, its noise, its striving, its fearful impetuous to get on, to do always more, always bigger, quicker, more astonishingly a restless, flaring great world, where I think everything can be realised ... I know, as long as I live, breathe and think, the love for America will beautify my life and thoughts ... Perhaps Fate will allow me one day to go back to America."


title: Marie of Romania

text: Prince Carol sparked a dynastic crisis when he officially renounced his rights to succeed Ferdinand on 5 January 1926, simultaneously waiving all parental rights over Prince Michael, who had been proclaimed heir apparent. A Provisional Regency Bill was passed, creating a regency council composed of Prince Nicholas; the Orthodox Patriarch, Miron Cristea; and Gheorghe Buzdugan, the president of the Court of Cassation. However, both Marie and Ferdinand were reluctant to leave the country in the hands of a five-year-old boy, even overseen by a regency, for fear that the lands gained during World War I would be reclaimed by neighbouring countries and that political disturbances might lead to civil unrest. Nevertheless, when Marie returned from America, Ferdinand's death seemed imminent. He was suffering from intestinal cancer, and by April 1927 had come so close to death as to be given the last rites of the Catholic Church. He died on 20 July, in Marie's arms. She later wrote: "'I am so tired' were his last words and when he lay so quiet in my arms one hour later, I knew that I must thank God for "him" at least. This was rest indeed."


title: Marie of Romania

text: Michael automatically succeeded as king upon Ferdinand's death and the regency council took charge of his role as monarch. In May 1928, Carol, who had found his life abroad with Magda Lupescu unsatisfactory, attempted to return to Romania with the help of the 1st Viscount Rothermere. He was prevented from doing so by English authorities, who then proceeded to expel him from England. Infuriated, Marie sent an official apology to George V on behalf of her son, who had already begun plotting a coup d'état. Carol succeeded in divorcing Princess Helen on 21 June 1928, on grounds of incompatibility.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie's popularity was severely affected during Michael's reign and, after refusing to be part of the regency council in 1929, she was accused by the press, and even by Princess Helen, of plotting a coup. During this time, there were numerous rumours as to Princess Ileana's marriage. After talk of Ileana marrying the Tsar of Bulgaria or the Prince of Asturias, she was eventually betrothed to Alexander, Count of Hochberg, a minor German prince, in early 1930. This betrothal was, however, short-lived and Marie never managed to conclude a political marriage for her youngest daughter, instead marrying her to Archduke Anton of Austria–Tuscany in 1931.


title: Marie of Romania

text: On 6 June 1930, Carol arrived in Bucharest and made his way into Parliament, where the Act of Succession 1927 was duly declared null. Thus, Carol usurped the throne from his son, becoming King Carol II. Upon hearing of Carol's return, Marie, who was abroad, was relieved. She had been growing anxious with the direction in which the country was heading and viewed Carol's return as the return of the Prodigal Son. However, as soon as she arrived in Bucharest, she became aware that things would not go well. Carol refused to accept his mother's advice to take Helen back and never sought Marie's counsel during his reign, thus making the already existing breach between mother and son complete.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Desolate and almost stripped of her belief, Marie turned to the religious teachings of the Baháʼí Faith, which she found "vastly appealing". She was particularly attracted by the idea of humanity's unification under one faith, given her own religiously divided family. Introduced to the doctrine by Martha Root, Marie carried on a correspondence with Shoghi Effendi, then head of the Faith, where she expressed herself as a follower of the Baháʼí teachings. Additionally, she made several public statements promoting the teachings of Baháʼu'lláh, describing him as a prophet similar to Jesus or Muhammad. This written correspondence has led Baháʼís to regard her as the first royal convert to their religion. Biographer Hannah Pakula notes that Marie "continued to attend the Protestant Church", even though she "prayed 'better at home with my Baha-u-llah books and teachings.'" In 1976, William McElwee Miller published a polemical book against the religion, which included selections from a letter written in 1970 by Marie's daughter Ileana denying any such conversion had taken place.


title: Marie of Romania

text: In 1931, Prince Nicholas eloped with Ioana Doletti, a divorced woman. Marie strongly disapproved of her son's actions and felt hurt by Doletti's repeated attempts to keep Nicholas from communicating with his mother. Although she blamed the women in her sons' lives for a while, she also came to blame herself, for failing to educate them properly. However, she stubbornly and continually refused to meet Magda Lupescu, even after Carol's pleas. Until her last years, Marie seldom even mentioned Lupescu's name.


title: Marie of Romania

text: With Carol's mistress hated throughout the country, it was only a matter of time before opposition to the King emerged. This opposition most prominently came under the form of the Iron Guard, a group supported by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. After Carol turned to Ion Duca for help, the Iron Guard assassinated Duca in December 1933. After Duca's death, Carol's popularity plummeted and there were rumours that an attempt would be made on his life at the annual independence parade. In order to avoid this, he instead had Marie attend the parade, in what would be her final public appearance.


title: Marie of Romania

text: After the parade, Carol set out to destroy his mother's popularity among Romanians and tried to push her out of the country. Marie, however, did not comply, instead retreating to either of two locales. The first was Bran Castle. Located near Brașov in southern Transylvania and given to her as a gift in 1920 by grateful local officials, she had it restored over the next seven years. The other was Balchik, where she had built a palace and a small chapel called "Stella Maris" and tended to her garden. She also visited Ileana and her children in Austria. Ileana rarely received permission from Carol to visit Romania; this irritated Marie greatly. She also spent some time in Belgrade with her daughter "Mignon" and her son-in-law, King Alexander. In 1934, Marie visited England once again.


title: Marie of Romania

text: During the summer of 1937, Marie fell ill. Her personal physician, Dr. Castellani, determined she had pancreatic cancer, although her official diagnosis was cirrhosis of the liver. Marie had not been a drinker and, upon hearing the news, she reportedly said: "then there must be a non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, because I have never in my life tasted alcohol." She was prescribed a diet of cold foods, injections and bed rest. Marie was so weak at times that she could not even pick up a pen. In February 1938, she was sent to a sanatorium in Italy, in hopes that she might recover. There, she was visited by Nicholas and his wife, whom Marie eventually forgave for her transgressions. She was also visited by Princess Helen, whom she had not seen in nearly seven years, and Waldorf Astor. Marie was eventually transferred to a sanatorium in Dresden. Growing weaker and weaker, she requested that she be taken back to Romania, in order to die there. Carol denied her a journey by aeroplane, and she declined a medical flight offered by Hitler, instead choosing to return to Romania by train. She was brought to the Pelișor Castle.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie died on 18 July 1938, at 5:38 p.m., eight minutes after lapsing into a coma. Her two eldest children, Carol and Elisabeth, accompanied by Prince Michael, were at her deathbed. Two days later, on 20 July, Marie's body was brought to Bucharest, where she lay in state in the white drawing room at Cotroceni Palace. Her coffin was surrounded by flowers and glowing tapers and was guarded by officers of the Fourth Hussars. Thousands of people filed by Marie's bier during the three-day lying in state and, on the third day, the palace was opened for factory workers. Marie's funeral cortege made its way to the train station, passing under the Arch of Triumph. Her coffin was taken to Curtea de Argeș Monastery, where she was interred. Marie's heart, according to her own wishes, was placed in a small golden casket embellished with the emblems of the Romanian provinces and interred in her "Stella Maris" chapel in Balchik. In 1940, after Southern Dobrudja was ceded to Bulgaria during World War II, her heart was transferred to Bran Castle. There, Ileana built a chapel to house the heart, kept in two nested boxes placed inside a marble sarcophagus.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie was the last queen consort of Romania, as Princess Helen was accorded only the title of Queen Mother between 1940 and 1947. She was one of Queen Victoria's five crowned granddaughters and one of three to retain their positions as consort after the conclusion of World War I, alongside the Queen of Norway and the Queen of Spain.


title: Marie of Romania

text: According to one of her biographers, Diana Mandache, Marie published 34 books and short stories during her lifetime. Encouraged to write by her aunt Queen Elisabeth, she found a source of inspiration in the memoirs of King Carol I. Her first book, "The Lily of Life", appeared at Bucharest in 1912. Written in the English she would always use, but soon translated into Romanian, it is a fairy tale with symbolic characters. "My Country", published in London in 1916 and in Paris the following year, combined a variety of genres in an effort to raise Allied support for Romania. Nicolae Iorga wrote and published a Romanian translation in 1917, and an expanded version appeared in 1925.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Her critically acclaimed autobiography, "The Story of My Life", published by Cassell in London, in three volumes, came out in 1934-1935. The book was reviewed by Virginia Woolf, who felt it was too familiarizing of the royal family. She stated that "suppose that among the autumn books of 2034 is "Prometheus Unbound", by George the Sixth, or "Wuthering Heights", by Elizabeth the Second, what will be the effect upon their loyal subjects? Will the British Empire survive? Will Buckingham Palace look as solid then as it does now? Words are dangerous things, let us remember. A republic might be brought into being by a poem." At the same time, she appreciated its depiction of a “royal animal” escaping its gilded cage. Critic Octav Șuluțiu emphasized the work’s value as a historical document and its psychological insight.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie wrote a few diary pages in 1914 upon the death of Carol I, but started keeping a daily diary in August 1916, on the day Romania entered World War I. She wrote new entries almost every day during the war and after, with some pauses in her later years. The first volume was published in 1996. Ten additional books of entries appeared between 2006 and 2014; Marie’s war diary, edited by Lucian Boia, was published in 2014; and the entries from her final years were released to the public in 2018.


title: Marie of Romania

text: Even before becoming queen, Marie had succeeded in establishing her public image as that of "one of the best-looking and richest princesses in Europe". She was known primarily for her talent in horse-riding, writing, painting, sculpting and dancing, as well as for her beauty. Her popularity was dimmed by two slanderous campaigns: that conducted by the Central Powers during World War I; and that led by Communist officials after Romania's transition to a Socialist Republic in 1947.


title: Marie of Romania

text: During Romania's 42 years under Communist rule, Marie was alternately depicted as either an "agent of English capitalism" or as a devoted patriot who believed that her destiny was intertwined with that of Romania. In the 1949 "Adevărata istorie a unei monarhii" ("The True History of a Monarchy"), author Alexandru Gârneață refers to orgies that supposedly were held by Marie at Cotroceni and Balchik and claims that her cirrhosis was caused by her heavy drinking, even offering examples of instances when a drunken Marie needed to be carried off a yacht by her fellow drinkers. Marie's supposed extramarital affairs were brought forward as evidence of promiscuity, which contravened Communist values. In 1968, Communist officials vandalised the chapel sheltering Marie's heart, opening the sarcophagus and taking the boxes as well as the heart into Bran Castle. In 1971, these were transferred to Bucharest's National Museum of Romanian History. It was not until the late period of Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime, the last years before the Romanian Revolution, that Marie's merits came to be acknowledged.


title: Marie of Romania

text: In Romania, Marie is known by the nickname "Mama Răniților" ("Mother of the Wounded"), or simply as "Regina Maria", while in other countries she is remembered as the "Soldier Queen" and "Mamma Regina". Marie is also nicknamed "the mother-in-law of the Balkans", due to her children's marriages into the region's ruling houses. By the time of her death, Marie's children had ruled in three Balkan countries, although her descendants no longer occupy any European throne. Marie was called "one of the greatest figures in Romanian history" by Constantin Argetoianu, and in her honour, Romania established the Order of the Cross of Queen Marie in 1917.


title: Marie of Romania

text: A statue of Queen Marie was unveiled in Ashford, Kent, in December 2018, to mark her birth and childhood at the nearby Eastwell Park. Soon afterwards, a fictionalized account of her role in the Paris Peace Conference was portrayed in a feature film, "Queen Marie", while American author Laurie R. King depicted the queen at Bran in the mystery novel "Castle Shade".


title: Marie of Romania

text: Prior to 2009, many of Marie's personal belongings were on display at Bran Castle, her residence in her later years, which functions as a museum. That year, when the castle was legally restored to Princess Ileana's heirs, the Culture Ministry moved the collection of her items to a nearby building, "Vama Medievală", which is also open to visitors. In 2015, the casket containing the queen's heart was placed on a pedestal in the room at Pelișor where she died; the display can be viewed by the public.


title: Marie of Romania

text: The Maryhill Museum of Art holds a permanent exhibition titled "Marie, Queen of Romania". This display includes the queen's coronation gown, a copy of the crown, silverware, gilt furniture, and jewelry, among other items.


title: Marie of Romania

text: The Queen Marie of Romania Sapphire is named from its association with Marie. Originally set in a necklace by Cartier in 1913, the drop jewel weighs 478 carats. It was transferred to a diamond necklace in 1919 and King Ferdinand purchased it for Marie in 1921. The price was 1,375,000 francs, to be paid in four instalments until 1924. At the time, large jewelry had not excited Marie's interest; she preferred to wear a Greek cross or, when she attended the Paris Opera, her pearls. However, the sapphire sautoir (jewel chain) was an ideal match for the sapphire tiara she had bought from Russian exile Grand Duchess Vladimir. She wore them both at her coronation receptions and when sitting for her portrait by Philip de László. During her visit to the United States, when she presided over a ball at the New York Ritz-Carlton, one observer remarked: "There was a heavy chain of diamonds, broken at intervals with squares of massive design. From this chain was suspended an unbelievable egg-shaped sapphire, one of the largest, it is said, in the world".


title: Marie of Romania

text: As a male-line grandchild of a British Sovereign, Marie bore the arms of the kingdom, with an inescutcheon for Saxony, differenced by a five-point label argent, the outer pair of which bore anchors azure, the inner roses gules, and the central a cross gules. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by Royal Warrant from George V.


title: Marie of Romania

text: A large part of Queen Marie's papers (including correspondence and photographs) is preserved in different American institutions, including the "Queen Marie of Romania Papers" collection in the Library of Kent State University (Kent, Ohio), the "George I. Duca Papers" collection in the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford, California), and the "Lavinia A. Small Papers" collection in the Library of the University of Colorado at Boulder (Boulder, Colorado).


title: Marie of Romania

text: Marie's letters to her parents-in-law, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Antonia of Portugal, between 1892 and 1904 are preserved in the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family archive, which is in the State Archive of Sigmaringen (Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen) in the town of Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Marie's letters to her husband's grandmother, Josephine of Baden, between 1893 and 1899 are also preserved in the State Archive of Sigmaringen (Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen).


title: Watch Dogs

text: Watch Dogs (stylized as WATCH_DOGS) is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Ubisoft, and developed primarily by its Montreal and Toronto studios using the Disrupt game engine. The series' eponymous first title was released in 2014, and it has featured three games in total, the most recent being 2020's "". Several tie-in books and a comic book miniseries set in the games' universe have also been published.


title: Watch Dogs

text: Gameplay in the "Watch Dogs" games focuses on an open world where the player can complete missions to progress an overall story, as well as engage in various side activities. The core gameplay consists of driving, shooting, and stealth segments, with occasional role-playing and puzzle elements. The "Watch Dogs" games are set in fictionalized versions of real-life cities, at various points in time, and follow different hacker protagonists who, while having different goals to achieve, find themselves involved with the criminal underworlds of their respective cities. The antagonists are usually corrupt companies, crime bosses, and rival hackers who take advantage of ctOS (central Operating System), a fictional computing network that connects every electronic device in a city together into a single system and stores personal information on most citizens. The player also has access to ctOS, which can be used to control various devices to assist them in combat, stealth, or solving puzzles.


title: Watch Dogs

text: The games have received generally positive reviews for their gameplay elements, mission structure, and world design, with criticism for frequent technical issues, while the narratives and characters have garnered mixed reactions. The series has been financially successful, with lifetime sales for the first two games exceeding 20 million units in total.


title: Watch Dogs

text: Set within a fictionalized version of the Chicago metropolitan area in 2013, the first installment in the series follows gray hat hacker and vigilante Aiden Pearce's quest for revenge after the killing of his niece. The game's development began in 2009, with a budget of $68 million. "Watch Dogs" was derived from a potential sequel from the "Driver" series which had been in development at Ubisoft Montreal coincident to "" at Ubisoft Reflections and was released in 2011. "Driver: San Francisco" did not have a strong commercial performance, leading to the "Driver" game at Montreal being reworked into one that focused on hacking but still incorporated driving elements. Ubisoft Montreal was "Watch Dogs" lead developer, with additional support provided by Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Quebec, and Ubisoft Bucharest. The game was heavily anticipated following its gameplay reveal at E3 2012, though the final game, which was accused of graphical downgrading, triggered controversy. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in May 2014, and a Wii U version was released in November 2014. The game received generally positive reviews despite criticism aimed at certain technical issues, the discrepancy in graphical quality between marketing and the real game, narrative, and protagonist. It sold more than 10 million copies by the end of 2014.


title: Watch Dogs

text: Downloadable content (DLC) for the game, titled "Watch Dogs: Bad Blood", was released in September 2014. Starring Raymond Kenney, a main character from the base game's story, as the playable protagonist, the DLC adds ten story missions, new "Street Sweep" contracts, as wells as new weapons, outfits, side missions, and an RC car.


title: Watch Dogs

text: Set within a fictionalized version of the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016, "Watch Dogs 2" follows the story of hacker Marcus Holloway, who is punished for a crime he did not commit through ctOS 2.0, and joins the hacking group DedSec in their efforts to raise social awareness about the dangers posed by ctOS 2.0. and expose the corruption of its creators, the Blume company. This installment expanded upon the multiplayer options from the first game and introduced new weapons and gadgets. Unlike "Watch Dogs", the game features a much more vibrant and optimistic tone. The game was released in November 2016 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Ubisoft Montreal was the lead developer, with Ubisoft's studios in Toronto, Paris, Bucharest, Kyiv and Newcastle assisting the development. The game received generally positive reviews upon release, with critics generally regarding it as an improvement over the original game. While the game struggled at launch commercially, more than 10 million units were sold by 2020.


title: Watch Dogs

text: Five downloadable content packs for "Watch Dogs 2" have been released: the "T-Bone Content Bundle", "Human Conditions", "No Compromise", "Root Access Bundle", and "Psychedelic Pack". As per an exclusivity agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment, all DLCs were timed exclusives for PlayStation 4.


title: Watch Dogs

text: Set within a fictionalised representation of a futuristic, dystopian London, "Watch Dogs: Legion" follows the local branch of DedSec as they seek to clear their names after being framed for series of terrorist bombings. DedSec also attempt to liberate London's citizens from the control of Albion, an oppressive private military company which turned the city into a surveillance state following the bombings. The game introduces a multiple playable characters system, allowing players to recruit virtually any NPC found in the game's open world. Each playable character has their own unique skills and backgrounds, and can be lost permanently if players enable the option of permadeath before starting a new game. There are multiple ways to complete missions depending on which playable character is selected. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Stadia on October 29, 2020; PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions were also made available once the consoles released. Ubisoft Toronto led the game's development, with Clint Hocking serving as its creative director. "Legion" received overall mixed reviews; most of the criticism was aimed at the playable characters' lack of personality, poor voice acting, and imbalance between their abilities, as well as the game's world, driving mechanics, inconsistent difficulty, repetitive missions, online features and technical problems.


title: Watch Dogs

text: The game's online multiplayer component, which was delayed from its planned December 3 release to March 2021, allows up to four players to complete exclusive cooperative missions, participate in various competitive game modes, or simply explore London together. Following its release, "Legion" was supported with several free updates that added new missions, game modes, and characters, including a few special operatives, such as Mina Sidhu, a former test subject who has gained mind-control powers; Aiden Pearce, returning from the original "Watch Dogs"; Wrench, a major supporting character from "Watch Dogs 2"; and Darcy Clarkson, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood, as part of a non-canonical crossover with Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed" franchise. A paid story expansion titled "Watch Dogs: Legion - Bloodline", featuring Aiden and Wrench in a new storyline set after their respective games but before the events of "Legion"'s main campaign, was released on July 6, 2021. Reception to the post-release content has been generally more positive than the base game.


title: Watch Dogs

text: The "Watch Dogs" series is part of a genre known as sandbox games. The series combines elements of action, adventure, stealth and vehicular gameplay. The player can freely roam the virtual world on foot or by use of vehicles and make use of an array of weapon and melee-based combat. Illegal activities such as assaulting non-player characters (NPC) will instigate a proactive and usually lethal response from authoritative figures. In the instance of death, the player will respawn near the area where they were killed.


title: Watch Dogs

text: In each game, the player assumes control of a hacker, who can hack into various electronic devices connected to the fictional ctOS system with their in-game smartphone. While most of the abilities granted by ctOS are useful for solving puzzles or in stealth sections, the player can make use of them at almost any given time during gameplay to create different scenarios, such as hacking into the traffic lights to create a traffic jam or calling the police on unsuspecting NPCs. In each game, the player can level up and unlock new abilities and gadgets. In "Watch Dogs 2", more weapons and hacker gadgets were introduced, such as a taser and a quadcopter.


title: Watch Dogs

text: The "Watch Dogs" games take place in fictionalized versions of real-life cities that have implemented ctOS. "Watch Dogs" is set in the Chicago area, "Watch Dogs 2" in the San Francisco Bay Area, and "Watch Dogs: Legion" in Greater London. While the first two games take place during modern times, "Legion" is set in the "near future" (circa 2030), depicting significant advancements in technology.


title: Watch Dogs

text: An eBook, "//n/Dark Clouds" by John Shirley as a continuation of the first "Watch Dogs", was released in conjunction with the game. A comic book miniseries, "Watch Dogs: Return to Rocinha", was published by Titan Comics in 2019; it was later merged into a single book. Two "Watch Dogs: Legion" prequel novels, "Day Zero" and "Resistance Report", were released prior to the game, and a spin-off comic book series was released monthly beginning in November 2021 by Behemoth in the United States and in two collected editions in France by Glénat.


title: Watch Dogs

text: In 2013, it was rumored that a film adaptation of the first "Watch Dogs" game was in development by Ubisoft Motion Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and New Regency. In 2014, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were commissioned to write the film. In 2016, Engadget published an article stating that the film was still in development and that Ubisoft planned to make film renditions for all of its franchises. While a film adaptation of Ubisoft's most popular franchise, "Assassin's Creed", was released that same year, there have been no news about the "Watch Dogs" film since, and the project remains stuck in development hell.