http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1549585339/?tag=2022091-20
(This vintage book from 1885 has been digitally converted ...)
This vintage book from 1885 has been digitally converted to downloadable format with original illustrations. A great classic for the home or classroom, an interesting old-fashioned reference book, and an outstanding find.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073HPDMN6/?tag=2022091-20
novelist Soldier writer Revolutionary poet
He was born on December 3, 1812 the son of a Frenchman, Pierre Conscience, from Besanfon, who had been chef de timonerie in the navy of Napoleon, and who was appointed under-harbourmaster at Antwerp in 1811, when that city formed part of France.
His mother died in 1820, and the boy and his younger brother had no other companion than their grim and somewhat sinister father.
Although he invariably signed his name Hendrik, his baptismal name was Henri.
When, in 1815, the French abandoned Antwerp after the Congress of Vienna, they left Pierre Conscience behind them.
He received no pension when he was discharged, and going back idle to his father's house, he determined to do the impossible, and write a Flemish book for sale.
A passage in Guicciardini fired his fancy, and straightway he wrote off that series of scenes in the War of Dutch Independence which lives in Belgian literature under the title of In't Wonderjaar 1566; this was published in Ghent in 1837.
His father thought it so vulgar of his son to write a book in Flemish that he turned him out of doors, and the celebrated novelist of the future started for Antwerp, with a fortune which was strictly confined to two francs and a bundle of clothes.
An old schoolfellow found him in the street and took him to his home; and soon various people of position, amongst them the eminent painter, Wappers, interested themselves in the brilliant and unfortunate young man.
Wappers even gave him a suit of clothes, and presented him to the king, who expressed a wish, which was not immediately carried out in consequence of some red tape, that the Wonderjaar should be added to the library of every Belgian school.
But it was under the patronage of Leopold I that Conscience published his second work, Fantasy, in the same year, 1837.
To this followed How to become a Painter, What a Mother can Suffer (1843), Siska van Roosemaei, Lambrecht Hensmans (1847), Jacob van Artevelde (1849), and The Conscript (1850).
His ideas, however, began to be generally accepted.
To write in Flemish had now ceased to be regarded as a proof of vulgarity; on the contrary, the tongue of the common people became almost fashionable, and Flemish literature began to live.
In 1845 Conscience published a History of Belgium, but he was well advised to return to those exquisite pictures of Flemish home-life which must always form the most valuable portion of his repertory.
He was now at the height of his genius, and Blind Rosa (1850), Rikketikketak (1851), The Decayed Gentleman (1851), and The Miser (1853) rank among the most important of the long list of his novels.
Nevertheless, not one of the latter has approached Conscience in popularity, or has deserved to approach him.
In 1855 the earliest translations of his tales began to appear in English, French, German and Italian, and his fame became universal.
In 1867 the post of keeper of the Royal Belgian museums was created, and this important sinecure was given to Conscience.
After a long illness he died at his house in Antwerp. He was given an official funeral and buried at the Schoonselhof cemetery in Antwerp, his tomb now being a monument in honour of the great writer.
After his death, with the decline of romanticism, his works became less fashionable but are still considered as classics of Flemish literature.
Flemish Life in Four Stories, Ludovic and Gertrude, The Young Doctor, The Amulet, De Leeuw van Vlaenderen
He is best known for his romantic nationalist novel, De Leeuw van Vlaenderen (1838), inspired by the victory of a Flemish peasant militia over French knights at the 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs during the Franco-Flemish War.
(This vintage book from 1885 has been digitally converted ...)
He was a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
