Ferdinand Bordewijk Explained

Ferdinand Bordewijk (10 October 1884 – 28 April 1965) was a Dutch author. His style, which is terse and symbolic, is considered to belong to New Objectivity and magic realism. He was awarded the P. C. Hooft Award in 1953 and the Constantijn Huygens Prize in 1957. He wrote novels and short stories; of his novels, his 1938 Character is canonical in the Netherlands, and was the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.^[1]

Biography

Ferdinand Bordewijk was born in Amsterdam, and moved with his family to The Hague when he was ten. He studied law at Leiden University. After graduation, he worked first at a Rotterdam law firm and became an independent lawyer in Schiedam in 1919, remaining an inhabitant of The Hague all of his life. He was married to the composer Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman. He wrote the libretto for her opera Rotonde (1941).^[2]

Works

His first published work was a volume of poetry titled ("Mushrooms") under the pseudonym Ton Ven. It was not particularly well received.

His breakthrough came with the short novels Dutch; Flemish: Blokken ("Blocks", 1931), Dutch; Flemish: Knorrende Beesten ("Growling Animals", 1933) and Bint (1934), later frequently published together as a set of three, followed by the longer works Dutch; Flemish: Rood paleis ("Red Palace", 1936) and Dutch; Flemish: Karakter (1938, translated into English as Character in 1966). Dutch; Flemish: Blokken was a dystopian work which was perceived as a criticism of communism. It is comparable to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which appeared one year later and which Bordewijk deemed to be junk ("").

Bibliography

• 1916 – (under the pseudonym Ton Ven)
• 1918 – (A king of the phrase) in: Groot Nederland
• 1919 – (Fantastic tales), short stories
• 1923 – (Fantastic tales II), short stories
• 1924 – (Fantastic tales III), short stories
• 1931 – (Cubes), novel
• 1933 – (novel)
• 1934 – (novel)
• 1935 – (The last honor, eulogy)
• 1935 –
• 1936 – (Red palace, downfall of the century)
• 1936 –
• 1937 – (short stories)
• 1938 – (novel); English translation: Character, from Dutch by E. M. Prince; London, Peter Owen, 1966, etc. Filmed as 1997 Dutch/Belgian film, directed by Mike van Diem.
• 1940 –
• 1940 – (Three plays)
• 1941 – Apollyon
• 1946 – (Oaks of Dodona)
• 1946 –
• 1947 – (By gaslight)
• 1947 – (Five fantastic tales)
• 1948 –
• 1948 – (Plato's death, symphonic poem)
• 1948 – (opera)
• 1949 – , Bint (Cubes, grunting animals, Bint), compilation
• 1949 –
• 1949 –
• 1949 –
• 1950 – (Tales from the other side)
• 1951 –
• 1951 –
• 1952 –
• 1954 –
• 1954 – (Misses and mister Richebois; twenty short stories)
• 1955 – (compendium)
• 1955 –
• 1955 –
• 1956 –
• 1956 – (play)
• 1956 – (Ten stories)
• 1957 – (Idem; ten parodies)
• 1958 –
• 1959 – (The gypsies; twelve short stories and a sketch)
• 1960 – (Centre of silence; five stories)
• 1961 – (Faraway tidings)
• 1961 – (under the pseudonym Ton Ven)
• 1964 – (Spring, seven stories)
• 1964 – (under the pseudonym Ton Ven)
• 1965 –
• 1981 –
• 1982 – (Seven fantastic tales)
• 1982–1991 – (Complete works, thirteen parts)
• 1983 – (Five little stories)

See also

• Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize

References

• Augustinus P. Dierick: "Aspects of Myth in Ferdinand Bordewijk's Karakter. In: The Low Countries: Multidisciplinary Studies (ed. Margriet Bruijn Lacy). Lanham, New York, London: University Press of America, 1990, 147-155.

Notes and References

1. http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_ves001199801_01/_ves001199801_01_0022.php Hans Anten, Het non plus ultra in Nederlands proza. S. Vestdijk en F. Bordewijk over elkaar
2. Book: The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers . Julie Anne . Sadie . Rhian . Samuel . 1994 . 9780393034875 . 30 January 2011.