The Sorrow of Belgium
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Sorrow of Belgium (1983) is a novel by the Belgian author Hugo Claus (1929–2008).
The Sorrow of Belgium explores the childhood and youth of Louis Seynaeve, a Flemish schoolboy living in the region of Kortrijk during World War II when Belgium was under German occupation.
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Background
Hugo Claus was born in Bruges, West Flanders in 1929. He grew up in a Catholic milieu and was educated at a boarding school. He was eleven at the time of the German invasion of Belgium. Under the German occupation, many of Claus' teachers and his own father were sympathetic to collaborationism and fascism. Claus himself was briefly a member of a Flemish nationalist youth organisation.
Synopsis
Belgium, 1939. Louis Seynaeve, who becomes eleven in April, goes to a boarding school led by nuns in Haarbeke, a fictitious town close to Kortrijk. Louis has a lot of fantasies. He and his friends call themselves the Four Apostles and they possess seven forbidden books. His father comes to tell him that his mother fell down the stairs, which actually means that she is pregnant. Several months later the baby is stillborn.
His family members are Flemish nationalists. Louis' father buys a printing press in Germany and a Hitler Youth doll. During the German occupation of Belgium in the Second World War his family sympathises with the Germans. Louis attends meetings of the Hitler Youth in Mecklenburg.
Louis discovers more "forbidden books" and becomes interested in Entartete Kunst. Gradually he becomes aware of the narrow-mindedness of his family and his education. He ends up being a writer. He's the author of "The Sorrow", the first part of the novel.
Main characters
- Louis Seynaeve is the protagonist, a Belgian youth who is an alter ego of the author
- Staf Seynaeve is Louis' father, a printer and a Flemish nationalist with pro-Nazi sympathies.
- Clarence Seynaeve-Bossuyt is Louis' mother. She will work for a German company during the war.
- Gerard Vlieghe is Louis' best friend at the boarding school. He will join NSJV, a Belgian movement related to the Hitlerjugend.
- Rebekka Cosijns is a girlfriend of Louis. His parents forbid him to play with her because she's a gipsy.
- Evariste de Launey is a Jesuit and a teacher of Louis. He will work for the Belgian resistance.
- Byttebier is a classmate, known as the "Apostle Barnabas".
- Dondeyne is a classmate, known as "Apostle Matthias". His younger brother is called René.
See also
- The Assault (1982) by Harry Mulisch
- My Little War (1947) by Louis Paul Boon
