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The Belgian Writers (2)


HUGO CLAUS

(contemporary)

[Photo of Hugo Claus]
Hugo Claus: the most reputed contemporary Belgian writer

Hugo Claus is certainly the most acclaimed Belgian writer in the present days. His writing in Flemish (equivalent to Dutch) is translated in many languages in Europe and is widely successful. He is certainly the most famous modern writer of the Flemish literary domain.
Well known playwright he is also a prominent poet. He was attracted by painting in his youth as well and induced in film making later in his career. He was recently nominated for the Nobel prize in Literature.

POETRY FIRST!
Born in 1929 in Bruges, the historical city of the North of Belgium, Claus was first attracted by poetry and published in 1948 his first set of poems: 'Registreren'- Registration. His further publication 'Oostakkerse Gedichten' - Poems from Oostakker, in 1955 made him one of the most prominent poet of his generation for the Flemish-Dutch domain.
The early fifties were a highly creative period for Hugo Claus: his first novel was published in 1950: De Metsiers (Duck's Game), followed by two more until 1956. His first theatrical play appeared in 1955, and he quickly met success with his theater in Belgium and The Netherlands.
At the same time he was involved with the COBRA group, the international European painting movement grouping top artists.
^ Booklet produced with K.Appel
He collaborated closely with Karel Appel the Dutch painter in Paris from 1950 to 1953 and even produced some short-live mini books, handmade with his text and Appel's illustrations.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
Due to the vicinity of the French language publishers in Belgium, the literary qualities of the novels of Hugo Claus could readily be spread outside Belgium and the Dutch domain, by competent translations into French that were published in Belgium first then in France.
His inspiration was most in the expressionist vein for characters and plots, but with a forceful literary construction and efficient language.
If his poetry can be of the experiment type, his novels are mainly mainstream for their construction and themes, but treated with his own touch in a personal style.
He devoted a lot of his talent to theatrical plays, these outnumbering his novels, as he obviously likes this kind of expression.
His reputation as first class author grew all along the years and peaked with the publishing in 1983 of his novel: 'Het Verdriet van België' - Le Chagrin des Belges - The Sorrow of Belgium. The acclaim for the novel was unanimous and beyond the French and Dutch domain!
Astonishingly he stayed faithful to published poetry all along his career, and as you may check in the Bibliography of Hugo Claus, poetry (=Poësie,Gedichten) is still an important part of his work.
NB: Toneel= theatrical plays, Proza= novels and essays in that list.
A very productive author indeed: his latest novel 'Belladonna' is from 1994, he wrote 3 plays in 95 and 96 and his latest poems are from 1993!!
Gossip: he married the Dutch cinema star Sylvia Kristel, famous for her part as Emanuelle in soft erotic European movies of the mid 70's. Sylvia Kristel star of Emanuelle >>>

Hugo Claus is undoubtedly the greatest living Belgian writer; his view of humanity and intense dramas of life make him one of the great European writers of the second half of this century as well.

[image] CLAUS' WRITINGS
The following books are a selection from Claus' work.

JEAN RAY

1887 - 1954

[Cover of Jean Ray book]
Jean Ray: Fantastic and Surreal worlds



Jean Ray is one of the most successful Belgian writer of popular fiction. His fame increased after his death with a new breed of readers all appreciating good Fantastic literature. The best of this prolific author was constantly reprinted in French since the end of the fifties.
This talented writer had no equivalent for the quality of his writing describing the unspeakable and pure fears, in short-stories and novels. He wrote in the two national Belgian languages : Flemish and French, and produced also an incredible number of pulps-like novelettes describing adventures, action and investigations in the great tradition of the 'roman-feuilleton' popularized early in the century by the French newspapers.
But it is definitely for his impact in the Fantastic genre that Jean Ray will be remembered. He is one of a kind in the French domain!

JOHN FLANDERS
Raymond De Kremer, later known as Jean Ray, was originated from the region of Ghent, in the North of Belgium. He quickly went to writing for newspapers, pulps and short fiction. Starting to write in Flemish, his original language, he finally went to publish in French in order to give him a wider audience.
He used numerous aliasses like John Flanders, John Sailor... Nothing much of his real life is known with precision, as with some personal humor he always liked to keep the confusion going inventing ten biographies for his colleagues reporters... Up to the 1950's some critics were still presenting John Flanders and Jean Ray as two separate writers of popular fiction and fantastic!
Finally, it is under the name of Jean Ray that he got most of his fame and this is the name he kept in the second part of his life, when his reputation of talented writer was growing, after WWII.
Previously he got some fame by re-inventing a series dedicated to an American detective-adventurer: Harry Dickson. He wrote close to 100 novelettes for the character!

JEAN RAY
The art of Jean Ray in the short stories of the fantastic and surreal genres was tremendous. He could set tense atmospheres in his stories in very few pages and playing masterpieces on the reader's imagination. Fear and angst were mostly produced by suggested situations and unclear settings. There was practically no explicit gore and certainly no unnecessary bloody scenes, no complaisance in explicit horrors scenes... as it is too often the case in the present days with a lot of horror stories writers with poor imagination and lack of talent. Jean Ray is in the league of H P Lovecraft as a writer. His open goal is to reconstruct fear and the dark zone around everything terrifying the humans. The seas and their dangers, medieval cities, traces of distant pasts are all triggers allowing him to propel you in his parallel world of pure fear ... "indiscibles peurs" (unspeakable fears)...

[image] JEAN RAY'S BOOKS AND SHORT STORIES
The following is a selection among the best of his writings.
Most of the time his short stories are grouped in books as a collection of Tales (contes).
Some of his best short stories:

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