NRC's Best Dutch Novels
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NRC's Best Dutch Novels
''NRCs Best Dutch novels is a list of the most popular Dutch-language novels as of 2007. This list is based on an internet survey on books, carried out by the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad in the beginning of 2007. The Dutch public originally voted for their best-loved books from a "long-list". The long-list also contained Flemish authors like Louis Paul Boon, Hugo Claus and Willem Elsschot. From this, a "short-list" of ten books was drawn up for further voting. In March 2007 the final voting as shown below was presented on the Dutch national television. The list comprises 9 novels. The works by Nescio are three novellas which have been published together. The list no longer contains Flemish (Belgian) authors. The 10 books #Harry Mulisch, ''The Discovery of Heaven''; (1992) #Kader Abdolah, '' The House of the Mosque''; (2005) #Multatuli, ''Max Havelaar''; (1860) #J. Bernlef, '; (1984) #Willem Frederik Hermans, '' The Darkroom of Damocles''; (1958) #Willem Frederik Hermans, '' ...
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NRC Handelsblad
''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amsterdam newspaper ''Algemeen Handelsblad'' (founded 1828 by J.W. van den Biesen) and the Rotterdam ''Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant'' (founded 1844 by Henricus Nijgh). The paper's motto is ''Lux et Libertas'' – Light (referring to the Age of Enlightenment) and Freedom. Editor was succeeded on 12 December 2006, by . After a dispute with the new owners Donker had to step down on 26 April 2010 and was replaced by Belgian . In 2019, he was succeeded by René Moerland. On 7 March 2011, the paper changed its format from broadsheet to tabloid. The circulation of ''NRC Handelsblad'' in 2014 was 188,500 copies, putting it in 4th place among the national dailies. In 2015 the NRC Media group was acquired by ...
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The Darkroom Of Damocles
''The Darkroom of Damocles'' ( nl, De donkere kamer van Damokles) is a war novel by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, published in 1958. An immediate success since it was first published, the novel has been printed in numerous editions and is one of the greatest World War II novels. The book has been translated into English twice, in 1962 by Roy Edwards, and again in 2007 by Ina Rilke. It was adapted into the 1963 film '' Like Two Drops of Water'', directed by Fons Rademakers. Le Carré's spy novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was in part inspired by ''The Darkroom of Damocles'' by Hermans, who suspected plagiarism. Plot Osewoudt is a young man who was born two months premature who his mother dropped into the flush with stool. Hairless, short, half an inch short of fitness for military service, he owned a cigar store in Voorschoten, near Leiden. Living under the Nazi occupation, he makes his acquaintance with the mysterious Dorbeck, who claims to be involved in the Re ...
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Dutch Novels
Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People Ethnic groups * Germanic peoples, the original meaning of the term ''Dutch'' in English ** Pennsylvania Dutch, a group of early Germanic immigrants to Pennsylvania *Dutch people, the Germanic group native to the Netherlands Specific people * Dutch (nickname), a list of people * Johnny Dutch (born 1989), American hurdler * Dutch Schultz (1902–1935), American mobster born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer * Dutch Mantel, ring name of American retired professional wrestler Wayne Maurice Keown (born 1949) * Dutch Savage, ring name of professional wrestler and promoter Frank Stewart (1935–2013) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Dutch (''Black Lagoon''), an African-American character from the Japanese manga and anime ''Black L ...
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Publieke Werken
''Public Works'' ( nl, Publieke werken), also distributed under the title ''A Noble Intention'' is a 2015 Dutch drama film directed by Joram Lürsen. It was based on the book of the same name by Thomas Rosenboom about the troubled construction of the Victoria Hotel in Amsterdam. It was listed as one of eleven films that could be selected as the Dutch submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. The film won the Pearl Award at the Film by the Sea festival in the Netherlands in 2016. Plot The narrative is based on two historic facts: one, the Victoria hotel in Amsterdam, opposite the Central Station, has two nineteenth-century houses incrusted in its facade. Two, the pharmacist Anijs in Hoogeveen was known for his commitment to improve the lives of a group of families of dirt-poor peat-cutters. The main character, Walter Vedder, a violin maker, was in the 1880s the owner of one of the houses opposite the Central Station. Aw ...
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Thomas Rosenboom
Thomas Rosenboom (born 8 January 1956, in Doetinchem), is a Dutch author of novels and short stories. His novels ''Gewassen vlees'' and ''Publieke werken'' won him the Libris Prize in 1995 and 2000; he is the only author to have won it twice. Career Rosenboom received his secondary education in Arnhem and then studied psychology in Nijmegen, but after three years switched to Dutch literature and linguistics, gaining his degree ''cum laude'' in 1983. His authorial debut was a novella, ''Bedenkingen'', which he published in the literary magazine ''De Revisor''. His 1983 collection ''De mensen thuis'', which included ''Bedenkingen'', won him the Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs. His first novel was the 1985 thriller ''Vriend van verdienste''. In 2004 Rosenboom wrote the Boekenweekgeschenk, ''Spitzen''. He has taught at the University of Michigan, and has given classes in prose fiction writing in Amsterdam. Novels Rosenboom's novels are often historical, containing recognizable, u ...
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De Avonden
''The Evenings: A Winter's Tale'' (Dutch: ''De avonden: Een winterverhaal'') is a debut novel by Dutch author Gerard Reve released in November 1947 under the pseudonym "Simon van het Reve". The novel describes ten evenings out of the life of the 23-year-old office clerk Frits van Egters living in Amsterdam. It is partitioned into ten chapters, of which each describes an evening between 22 and 31 December 1946. The novel was written very shortly after World War II. Though the war itself is hardly mentioned, the story gives, by describing an individual's experiences, a detailed description of contemporary post-war society which was marked by fear, boredom and loneliness. Reception and accolades Upon its original release, the book shocked the critics and received mixed reviews. Godfried Bomans in ''Elsevier'' magazine described the novel as "grim, cynical and totally negative". Simon Vestdijk, on the other hand, praised the novel's grotesque humour. In the 1950s, the novel remaine ...
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Gerard Reve
Gerard Kornelis van het Reve (14 December 1923 – 8 April 2006) was a Dutch writer. He started writing as Simon Gerard van het Reve and adopted the shorter Gerard Reve in 1973. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" (''De Grote Drie'') of Dutch post-war literature. His 1981 novel ''De vierde man'' ( The Fourth Man) was the basis for Paul Verhoeven's 1983 film. Reve was one of the first homosexual authors to come out in the Netherlands. He often wrote explicitly about erotic attraction, sexual relations and intercourse between men, which many readers considered shocking. However, he did this in an ironic, humorous and recognizable way, which contributed to making homosexuality acceptable for many of his readers. Another main theme, often in combination with eroticism, was religion. Reve himself declared that the primary message in all of his work was salvation from the material world we live in. Gerard Reve was bo ...
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Nescio
Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh (born 22 June 1882 in Amsterdam; died 25 July 1961 in Hilversum), known by his pen name of Nescio (Latin for "I don't know"), was a Dutch writer. Grönloh was a businessman by profession, but as Nescio he is mainly remembered for the three novellas ''De uitvreter'' (The Freeloader), ''Titaantjes'' (Little Titans), and ''Dichtertje'' (Little Poet). His reputation as an important Dutch writer was only established after his death. Biography Nescio was born at Reguliersbreestraat 49 in Amsterdam, the eldest son of Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh, blacksmith and shopowner, with whom he shared his full name, and Martha Maria van der Reijden. Nescio grew up as Frits Grönloh, to distinguish him from his father. He was educated at a secular primary school, after which he went to the three-year HBS high school. From 1897 to 1899 he went to the ''Openbare Handelsschool'' (a college level business school). After this he started work as an office clerk in Henge ...
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Beyond Sleep
''Beyond Sleep'' ( nl, Nooit meer slapen, "Nevermore to Sleep") is a novel by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, published in February 1966. The protagonist, Dutch geologist Alfred Issendorf, has a geology dissertation in preparation, and embarks on an expedition to Finnmark, northern Norway, to verify his dissertation director's theory that craters in the local landscape were formed by meteor impacts rather than by Ice Age glaciers. Initially he is accompanied by a group of three Norwegian students of geology, but soon after two travel their own course Alfred loses his guide Arne, who falls to his death, and is then on his own in a land where the sun never sets. ''Beyond Sleep'' is one of the canonical novels of the Dutch postwar period, and a prime example of what is perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the author's work, the intense cohesion between theme and narrative strategy. Plot Alfred Issendorf, a geology student from Amsterdam, has received a grant to d ...
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Willem Frederik Hermans
Willem Frederik Hermans (1 September 1921 – 27 April 1995) was a Dutch author of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, as well as book-length studies, essays, and literary criticism. His most famous works are ''The House of Refuge'' (novella, 1952), '' The Darkroom of Damocles'' (novel, 1958), and ''Beyond Sleep'' (novel, 1966). After World War II, Hermans tried to live off his writing exclusively, but as his country was recovering from the Occupation, he had no opportunity to sustain himself. He published three collections of short stories from 1948 to 1957, chief among them the novella ''The House of Refuge'' (1952), and in 1958 became lecturer in physical geography at Groningen University, a position he retained until his move to Paris, France, in 1973. The same year 1958 he broke to a wide audience with ''The Darkroom of Damocles''. In the seventies, Hermans played an important role in the unmasking of Friedrich Weinreb as a cheater of Jews in the war. Hermans refused to a ...
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Louis Paul Boon
Louis Paul Boon (15 March 1912, in Aalst, Belgium, Aalst – 10 May 1979, in Erembodegem) was a Belgian writer of novels, poetry, pornography, columns and art criticism. He was also a painter. He is best known for the novels ''My Little War'' (1947), the diptych ''Chapel Road'' (1953) / ''Summer in Termuren'' (1956), ''Menuet'' (1955) and ''Pieter Daens'' (1971). Biography He was born in 1912 as Lodewijk Paul Aalbrecht Boon in Aalst, Belgium, Aalst, Belgium, the oldest son in a working-class family. Although he was still very young during the First World War, memories of a German soldier shooting a prisoner would end up in later autobiographical work. Boon left school at age 16 to work for his father as a car painter. He was expelled from school for possession of forbidden books. During evenings and weekends he studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts, but soon had to abandon his studies due to lack of funds. In 1936 he married Jeanneke De Wolf. Three years later, their son Jo was b ...
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Max Havelaar
''Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company'' ( nl, Max Havelaar; of, De koffi-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy) is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key role in shaping and modifying Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the novel, the protagonist, Max Havelaar, tries to battle against a corrupt government system in Java, which was then a Dutch colony. The novel's opening line is famous: "Ik ben makelaar in koffie, en woon op de Lauriergracht, Nº 37." ("I am a coffee broker, and live on the Lauriergracht, Nº 37."). Background By the mid-nineteenth century, the colonial control of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) had passed from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to the Dutch government due to the economic failure of the VOC. In order to increase revenue, the Dutch colonial government implemented a series of policies te ...
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