''The Evenings: A Winter's Tale'' (

Dutch 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 E ...

: ''De avonden: Een winterverhaal'') is a

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

by Dutch author

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 i ...

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 Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. 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 Godfried Jan Arnold Bomans (2 March 1913 – 22 December 1971) was a Dutch author and television personality. Much of his work remains untranslated into English. Life and career Godfried Bomans was born in The Hague and grew up in and aroun ...

in ''

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

'' magazine described the novel as "grim, cynical and totally negative".

Simon Vestdijk Simon Vestdijk (; 17 October 1898 – 23 March 1971) was a Dutch writer. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature fifteen times. Life Born in the small Frisian town of Harlingen, Vestdijk studied medicine in Amsterdam, but turned t ...

, on the other hand, praised the novel's grotesque humour. In the 1950s, the novel remained popular in the Netherlands, especially among adolescents who easily identified with the main character. In a 2002 poll, members of the Society for Dutch Literature ranked ''De avonden'' first among works since 1900 in the Dutch canon. In 2007, ''De avonden'' was named as one of the Top 10 Dutch language novels of all time by readers of the newspaper ''

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 ...

''.

International release

The book was released as ''Die Abende'' in Germany in 1987, ''Les soirs'' in France in 1989, ''Az esték'' in Hungary in 1999, ''Večery'' in Slovakia and ''Kvällarna'' in Sweden in 2008, and ''Las noches'' in Spain in 2011. The novel was translated into English only in 2016, by Sam Garrett.

Adaptations

* In 1989, a

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of the book was released, directed by Rudolf van den Berg. * In November 1991, Dutch radio

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more ...

broadcast a 10-hour reading of the novel by Gerard Reve. The program has been subsequently released on CDs as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

. * The book has been adapted into a play by Joachim von Burchard in Germany in 1993, and Léon van der Sanden in 1996 and 2010. * The novel was also adapted into a comic story by

Dick Matena Dick Matena (born 24 April 1943) is a Dutch comics writer and cartoonist. He has also published under the pseudonyms A. den Dooier, John Kelly and Dick Richards. He has made several kinds of comics, from humor comics to erotic comics, but is bes ...

, first published in newspaper ''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

'' in 2001, and then released as a series of books in 2003 and 2004. Matena has won the

Bronzen Adhemar The ''Bronzen Adhemar'' (Dutch for "Brass Adhemar") is the official Flemish Community Cultural Prize for Comics, given to a Flemish comics author for his body of work. It is awarded by the Flemish Ministry of Culture during Strip Turnhout, the maj ...

prize for his adaptation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evenings, The 1947 novels Dutch novels adapted into films Netherlands in fiction Novels adapted into comics Novels by Gerard Reve Novels set in Amsterdam Novels set in the 1940s