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

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

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

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 pu ...

of the 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 ...

. It was 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 ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

'' 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 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 ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...

''.

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 transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

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 ''Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep'', lit. 'Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcaster', nowadays known as ''Omroepvereniging VPRO'') is a Netherlands, Dutch Public broadcasting, public broadca ...

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 sch ...

. * 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 "Bronze 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 ma ...

prize for his adaptation.

References

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