''Eric in the Land of the Insects'', originally called ''Erik of het klein insectenboek'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Erik or the small book of insects) in Dutch, is a 1941 Dutch children's novel by

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 arou ...

. It is widely seen as a children's classic and Bomans'

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

.Peter van Zonneveld,
Godfried Bomans
(in Dutch), ''Vier lichte letterheren'', 1999.

Plot

Erik Pinksterblom is a little nine-year-old boy who lies in bed at night, worried about a test about

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

he has to perform at school tomorrow. Suddenly the paintings in his bedroom come alive, including one depicting a

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

full of insects. Erik climbs into the painting where he meets several talking insect characters. First he meets a snobbish and rich family of

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s. Erik unintentionally gives offence when he recites a poem about the "busy bee" – it turns out the wasps despise bees, because they work for people. After dinner Erik joins the wasps in playing some music, using flies as

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s, but he's forced to leave the party early when Erik accidentally causes the house fly he was playing to die. A

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

who claims to be a philosopher brings him to a hotel, made from a huge

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

's house. Erik surprises everybody by reciting interesting facts about insects he read in a natural history book. While all the insects are amazed they are also scared often doing anything if it's not reported in the book. Erik can comfort them by telling them they just have to follow their natural

instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...

s. In one of the hotel rooms a

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

changes into a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

. Together, he and Erik leave the hotel. Later the butterfly meets a female butterfly with whom he falls in love. Erik helps him write a poem for her and eventually the couple gets married, leaving Erik alone. As Erik walks through the forest he gets into a fight with a

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

. Knocked unconscious, Erik is dragged away by a

burying beetle Burying beetles or sexton beetles, genus ''Nicrophorus'', are the best-known members of the family Silphidae (carrion beetles). Most of these beetles are black with red markings on the elytra (forewings). Burying beetles are true to their name� ...

. The beetle considers himself to be the most important animal because all creatures live and die to serve as his dinner. His theory is destroyed when his entire family turns out to have been eaten by a

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

. Erik then meets a rain worm who thinks he is superior to all the others, because he has no need for things like limbs and eyes. However, the worm ties himself into a

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

and needs Erik to find somebody to help untie him. As Erik searches for help he is adopted by an

ant colony An ant colony is a population of a single ant species capable to maintain its complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the vario ...

. He once again amazes them with his knowledge about insects, but gets homesick and asks them to bring him back. While the ants travel along with them to the edge of the painting they meet another ant army, whereupon a large battle takes place. Then Erik wakes up. Despite being back home he's disappointed to find that humans are much like the insects he met. He longs to get back to the meadow, but the paintings in his bedroom never come alive again. At his school test he writes about the experiences he had during his time with the insects and fails as a result – he's even forced to stay in detention.

History

The book is seen as Bomans' most famous and acclaimed work. Right from the start it was a tremendous bestseller, with ten reprints in the first year. The story both appealed to children as well as adults due to its

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

levels. In 1994, the book was translated into English as ''Eric in the Land of the Insects'' by Regina Louise Kornblith. In 2013, the book was the central book in the Nederland Leest (Netherlands Reads) campaign of the CPNB.

Adaptations

In 1979, 1995 and 2007 the story was adapted into a television series. In 1990 the novel was adapted into a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

by Luc Morjaeu. In 1992 Peter Drost adapted the story into a solo theater performance. A theater group called "De Jonge Honden" also adapted the story into the play "Insect" (2008). In 2004 a film adaptation, ''

Erik of het klein insectenboek ''Eric in the Land of the Insects'', originally called ''Erik of het klein insectenboek'' (English: Erik or the small book of insects) in Dutch, is a 1941 Dutch children's novel by Godfried Bomans. It is widely seen as a children's classic and Bo ...

'', was made by director Gidi van Liempd. This film adaptation was also made into a TV series in 2007.Erik of 't klein Insectenboek (2007)
(in Dutch), ''Waar keek jij vroeger naar?''.

References

{{Reflist 1941 novels Child characters in literature Male characters in literature Dutch children's novels 20th-century Dutch novels Dutch fantasy novels Fiction about insects Fictional insects Novels adapted into comics Dutch novels adapted into films Dutch novels adapted into plays Dutch novels adapted into television shows Novels by Godfried Bomans Dutch satirical novels 1941 children's books