Novel
Pallieter
Felix Timmermans · 1916
Opening lines
In die eerste Lieve vrouwkensdagen was de Lente ziek.
In those first days of Our Lady, Spring was ill.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
The Nete country, near Lier, in the month of May. Pallieter, whose age, origin and trade are unknown, lives in a small farm called the Reynaert with Charlot, who keeps house for him, a mare, a billy goat, a dog, a cat and a stork. He swims naked in the river, eats, drinks, watches the colours of the sky and the fields, and does nothing except for pleasure. At the Whitsun fair, to which he has invited Charlot's family, he meets Marieke, her goddaughter, and falls in love with her. The seasons pass in this way, from one tableau to the next.
Context
The novel first appeared, chapter by chapter, in De Nieuwe Gids from August 1912 to September 1914; the war delayed its publication in book form, with an Amsterdam publisher, until 1916. Judged blasphemous in Catholic circles, it was deprived of a prize in 1920 and appeared in expurgated form in 1933, before the return to the original text in 1966. More than a million copies of it have been sold, and it has been translated into nearly thirty languages.
Who it is for
A novel without a continuous plot, made up of pictures and colourful descriptions, with the author's drawings; translated into French as early as 1923.
Prizes and reception
Its author's best-known book, one of the great successes of Flemish prose; reissued for its centenary in 2016.