{"id":2758,"date":"2008-01-18T01:19:33","date_gmt":"2008-01-18T01:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=2758"},"modified":"2008-07-15T17:51:46","modified_gmt":"2008-07-15T16:51:46","slug":"bruges-la-morte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2008\/01\/18\/bruges-la-morte\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruges-la-Morte"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rodenbach.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Portrait of Georges Rodenbach by Lucien L\u00e9vy-Dhurmer (1895).<\/em><\/p>\n

Georges Rodenbach’s short, atmospheric novel is one of the key texts of Symbolism, not only for its themes but also for the art it either inspired or complemented. Bruges-la-Morte<\/em> was first published in 1892 and the recent Dedalus Books edition<\/a>, edited by Alan Hollinghurst and with a new translation by Mike Mitchell and Will Stone, was reprinted late last year.<\/p>\n

Bruges-la-Morte<\/em>…concerns the fate of Hugues Viane, a widower who has turned to the melancholy, decaying city of Bruges as the ideal location in which to mourn his wife and as a suitable haven for the narcissistic perambulations of his inexorably disturbed spirit. Bruges, the ‘dead city’, becomes the image of his dead wife and thus allows him to endure, to manage the unbearable loss by systematically following its mournful labyrinth of streets and canals in a cyclical promenade of reflection and allusion. The story itself centres around Hugue’s obsession with a young dancer whom he believes is the double of his beloved wife. The consequent drama leads Hugues onto a plank walk of psychological torment and humiliation, culminating in a deranged murder. This is a poet’s novel and is therefore metaphorically dense and visionary in style. It is the ultimate evocation of Rodenbach’s lifelong love affair with the enduring mystery and haunting mortuary atmosphere of Bruges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n\"rodenbach2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

One of the Bruges-la-Morte photographs. <\/em><\/p>\n

Bruges-la-Morte<\/em> was one of the first (the<\/em> first?) novels to incorporate photographs with the text and any decent edition of the book should always include these. Rodenbach’s novel is usually linked with French Symbolist artist Lucien L\u00e9vy-Dhurmer<\/a> since the two men were friends and the artist produced the well-known portrait of Rodenbach shown above. L\u00e9vy-Dhurmer’s drawings and paintings of Bruges are a good match for Rodenbach’s writing, and one his Bruges pieces illustrates the cover of the Dedalus edition.<\/p>\n

\"levy-dhurmer.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Bruges\u2014Snow Effect by Lucien L\u00e9vy-Dhurmer (1900).<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

I usually contend, however, that it was another Symbolist artist inspired by Bruges and by Rodenbach’s novel, the Belgian Fernand Khnopff, whose work manages to be even more evocative than L\u00e9vy-Dhurmer’s, and consequently more suited to the theme. His touch was lighter and he had a superb ability to convey a sense of stillness and quiet mystery. (Coincidentally but unsurprisingly, both artists produced works entitled Silence<\/em>.) Khnopff’s curious Abandoned City<\/em> of 1904 (below), showing the sea flooding a town square, prefigures Surrealism and the haunted vistas of fellow Belgians Ren\u00e9 Magritte and Paul Delvaux.<\/p>\n

\"khnopff1.thumbnail.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Bruges-la-Morte by Fernand Khnopff (1892). <\/em><\/p>\n

\"khnopff5.thumbnail.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Une Ville Abandonn\u00e9e by Fernand Khnopff (1904).<\/em><\/p>\n

Dedalus Books has had its existence threatened recently due to proposed Arts Council cuts which would prevent the publisher from financing new translations of decadence and imaginative fiction. I’ve already signed their petition<\/a> against this and I’d encourage anyone who cares for this kind of work to do the same. And if you’re feeling generous, you could always buy one of their books<\/a>, of course.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/em>
\n\u2022 Bruges of sighs by Alan Hollinghurst<\/a>
\n\u2022 Bruges, Paris and the spectres of Symbolism<\/a><\/p>\n

\"khnopff2.thumbnail.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Le Lac d\u2019amour, Bruges by Fernand Khnopff (1904\u20131905).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"khnopff3.thumbnail.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Souvenir de Bruges. L\u2019entr\u00e9e du B\u00e9guinage by Fernand Khnopff (1904).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"khnopff4.thumbnail.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A Bruges. Un Portail by Fernand Khnopff (1904).<\/em><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Hugo Steiner-Prag\u2019s Golem<\/a>
\n\u2022 The art of F\u00e9licien Rops, 1833\u20131898<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portrait of Georges Rodenbach by Lucien L\u00e9vy-Dhurmer (1895). Georges Rodenbach’s short, atmospheric novel is one of the key texts of Symbolism, not only for its themes but also for the art it either inspired or complemented. Bruges-la-Morte was first published in 1892 and the recent Dedalus Books edition, edited by Alan Hollinghurst and with a … Continue reading “Bruges-la-Morte”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,42,51,44,45],"tags":[8398,148,1517,1202,1074,402,349,115],"class_list":["post-2758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-books","category-cities","category-painting","category-symbolists","tag-alan-hollinghurst","tag-bruges","tag-dedalus-books","tag-felicien-rops","tag-fernand-khnopff","tag-golem","tag-paul-delvaux","tag-magritte"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-Iu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}