HENDRIK CONSCIENCE (1847-74)

Romantic novelist who so dominated the birth and development of the Flemish novel that it was said that he "taught his people to read".

His father was French, nis mother, Flemish. During his delicate childhood his imagination was roused by the stories told by his mother. After his mother´s death (1820) when he and his father went to live outside the town walls, the boy discovered nature, which inspired him to write the remarkable Enige bladzijden uit het boek der natuur (1846; "A Few Pages From the Book of Nature").

After spending several years as an assistant teacher, he enlisted in the army in 1831. He soon fell under the spell of the Campine, a quiet region of pinewoods and heather. About this time he was introduced to French romanticism and began to write French verse. (In those days Flemish was considered too vulgar to be a literary medium).

Demobilized in 1836, he entered the literary and artistic life of Antwerp. He was fascinated by his country´s past and wrote in Flemish In`t wonderjaar (1837; "In the Year of Miracles"), a series of 16th-century historical scenes. With De leeuw van Vlaanderen (1838; The Lion of Flanders) -the epic of the revolt of the Flemish municipalities against France and the victory of the Flemish militia at the Battle of the Golden Spurs (1302)- he became not only the creator of the Flemish novel but the author of one of the outstanding historical novels of European romanticism.

Conscience, supporting himself by working as a gardener´s helper and a clerk and taking an active part in local politics, after 1840 turned more and more to an idyllic realism and wrote novels and tales about urban and rural life. These works, which have been attacked by some critics for their sentimentality, often try to point a moral -Wat een moeder lijden kan (1844; "What a Mother Can Suffer"); Siska van Roosemael (1844); Baas Gan sendonck (1850); Houten Clara (1850; "Wooden Clara"); De arme edelman (1851; "The Poor Gentleman"); as well as village idylls- Blinde Rosa (1850); De Loteling (1850; "The Conscript"); Rikke-tikke-tak (first published serially, 1845; as a book, 1851). At the same time his historical novels (e.g., Jacob van Artevelde; 1849) took a more definite shape. He was now at the hegight of his genius and his works became widely known through translations.

In 1856 he became district commissioner at Kortrijk and in 1868, curator of the Wiertz Museum in Brussels.

But his spendthrift manner of life and the burdens of an expensive household caused him to write more, sometimes to the detriment of his style. Some of the many books of this last period are of interest, among them Het Goudland (1862; "The Land of Gold"), the first Flemish adventure novel, and De Kerels van Vlaanderen (1871), a historical novel. The publication of this 100th book in 1881 led to unprecedented demonstrations in Brussels, and in 1883 a statue was set up in his honour in Antwerp.

Conscience was the most important figure in the literary and national Flemish renaissance in the 19th century. His narrative art, his imagination, his lifelike portrayal of people and events, and his rich sensibility compensate for the impurities of his language and his restricted means of expression.