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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 ''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 ...
'' (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 Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...
at
Groningen University The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is the ...
, 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 accept the P. C. Hooft Award for 1971. In 1977, he received the
Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren The Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (''Dutch Literature Prize'') is awarded every three years to an author from the Netherlands, Belgium or, since 2005, Suriname writing in Dutch. It is considered the most prestigious literary award in the Dutch-sp ...
, the most prestigious literary award available for writers in the language, handed out every three years alternately by the reigning Dutch and Belgian monarchs to a writer of the other country, the Belgian king Boudewijn handing the prize to Hermans. Hermans is considered one of ''De Grote Drie'', the three most important authors in the Netherlands in the postwar period, along with
Harry Mulisch Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch ( ; 29 July 1927 – 30 October 2010) was a Dutch writer. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections. Mulisch's works have been translated into over thirty languages. Along with Wi ...
and
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 ...
.


Biography


Early life

Willem Frederik Hermans was born on 1 September 1921 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 ...
to Johannes ('Johan') Hermans (1879–1967) and Hendrika ('Rika') Hillegonda Hermans-Eggelte (1884–-1967), who already had a daughter, Cornelia ('Corry') Geertruida (1918–1940). His paternal great-grandfather and grandfather were breadbakers in the town of Brielle, members of the
Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...
, and from the ranks of the "lower bourgeoisie." Johan Hermans, the only one of the eight children (two sons and six daughters) allowed to pursue an education, became a grammar-school teacher. Hermans' predominantly Lutheran maternal family was slightly more middle-class. All three sons of the great-grandfather, a goldsmith, became schoolteachers. Johan Hermans graduated as a teacher in 1898 and began his career as a teacher the same year in the Amsterdam area, where he met his future wife who was a teacher at the same school he worked. After their marriage in 1913, Rika Hermans quit working and devoted herself to the household. The couple's first child was born five years later. From 1913 to 1929, they lived on the second floor of an apartment in the "Old West" part of Amsterdam, near the center of the city, in a neighbourhood with blocks built in 1910 specially to accommodate schoolteachers. In 1929, the family moved to another apartment in the same block, where they occupied the fourth floor, Corry having a large room for herself in the attic. Johan Hermans continued to improve his teaching qualifications, eventually rising to teach beyond grammar school. Though his own career was unremarkable, he had great ambitions for his two children, both of whom he sent to the prestigious Barlaeus Gymnasium, evidently to have them prepared for a college education. To save money to pay for such education, the parents were forced to be as tight with money as they could, especially since the salaries of teachers would be decreased thirteen times in the years from 1925 to 1940, with a 10% decrease in the period 1930-1933 alone. These were precisely the years when their children were growing up. Hermans's intelligence first emerged at grammar school, where he was included in the selection of four boys who were taught a more challenging Arithmetic course than was demanded of the other classmates. Apart from that, he followed the standard curriculum: Reading, Writing, Geography (with attention to the
Dutch Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
), Native History, Gymnastics, and Singing. The grades of his admittance to the Gymnasium in 1940 were generally good, though not outstanding. Hermans's reading, remarkably well-documented from early age onward, included some favorites he could read again and again without exhausting them. Most important were children's versions of classic works: he cited the legend of
King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...
, which never ceased to give him the chills even as an elderly man, as "the most significative work" of his youth. ''
Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
'', ''
Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...
'', which he could read over and over without ever getting enough of it.
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
both charmed and scared him, especially the poem on Father William. Besides these international classics, he also read Dutch children's book, most notably ''Woutertje Pieterse'' by
Multatuli Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel ''Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the a ...
. Hermans's parents were unreligious and did not have a ''
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
'' at home. Yet on a visit with his parents to an acquaintance of theirs who was religious, he discovered a ''Bible'' for children by Siebold Ulfers, one of the century's most popular children's Bibles for its beautiful illustrations. He was allowed to take it home, though his father had some misgivings. Hermans was fascinated especially by the cruel
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
stories of
Ahab Ahab (; akk, 𒀀𒄩𒀊𒁍 ''Aḫâbbu'' 'a-ḫa-ab-bu'' grc-koi, Ἀχαάβ ''Achaáb''; la, Achab) was the seventh king of Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, ...
and
Jezebel Jezebel (;"Jezebel"
(US) and
) was the daughte ...
, and of
Jehu ) as depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III , succession = King of Northern Israel , reign = c. 841–814 BCE , coronation = Ramoth-Gilead, Israel , birth_date = c. 882 BCE , death_date = c. 814 BCE , burial_place = ...
and
Jehoram Jehoram (meaning "Jehovah is exalted" in Biblical Hebrew) was the name of several individuals in the Tanakh. The female version of this name is Athaliah. *The son of Toi, King of Hamath who was sent by his father to congratulate David on the occas ...
. Hermans's interest in science, technology and especially inventors also emerged during these years. Angel's 1927 biography of
Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
was a favorite, and Bernard Jaffe's ''Crucibles. The Story of Chemistry'', read in a Dutch translation, also made an enormous impression on the young Hermans. In 1933, Hermans enrolled in the prestigious
Barlaeus Gymnasium The Barlaeus Gymnasium is a secondary school in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is one of the five categorial gymnasia in Amsterdam, the other four being Vossius Gymnasium, Ignatius Gymnasium, Het 4e gymnasium and Cygnus Gymnasium. It offers a ...
in Amsterdam, where most teachers held an academic degree, often a doctorate. The curriculum in the first class was Latin, Dutch, French, History, Geography, Arithmetic, and Biology. In the second year this was augmented with Greek and German. In the first two classes, Hermans's results were mediocre at best, and when he had to double the third class for lack of applying himself, he vowed such thing would never happen to him again. During this time, Hermans had fallen under the spell of literature. When the school staged a performance of Sophocles's ''
Antigone In Greek mythology, Antigone ( ; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is the daughter of Oedipus and either his mother Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene.Roman, L., & Roma ...
'', Hermans was given a minor role, but the play left a lasting impression upon him: "It was my first introduction to the kind of literature that could swipe away the everyday world like a dull nightmare." In that period, during the lessons in German, Hermans delivered oral reports (in German) on
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
and
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...
.


1950–1995

Hermans married Emmy Meurs (1923–2008), a Surinam woman, in 1950. In 1957, Hermans worked as volunteer assistant to photographer Nico Jesse while writing his '' The Darkroom of Damocles'' (''De donkere kamer van Damocles'') which features a mysteriously blank photograph. In 1958, he was appointed
reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in
physical geography Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...
at
Groningen University The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is the ...
. In 1972, after accusations by among others the
Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
Member of
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and later minister Jan de Koning that Hermans was using his time writing instead of lecturing, a parliamentary committee was set up to investigate the matter. The committee found that Hermans's chief crime was his use of university stationery for writing his notes. In 1973, he resigned and settled as a full-time writer in Paris. In ' (''Among Professors'') (1975) he described university life in Groningen in a bitter and satirical way. It can be read as a
roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...
and was entirely written on the empty sides of university letters, according to Hermans's
alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...
Zomerplaag "to do something useful with this expensive paper that would normally disappear unread in the garbage bin, polluting the environment". Hermans received
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
s from the
University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...
(Luik) in 1990 and the
University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...
in 1993.


Themes

Underlying all of Hermans's works, says Hermans scholar Frans A. Janssen, is the theme of epistemological
nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
. Only the means employed by logic and the sciences are capable of producing reliable knowledge. All other fields of study, including philosophy, ethics, psychology, the humanities and societal studies, are unable to produce knowledge that can be called reliable or certain. Literature and the arts can "show truths" by employing irrational devices. For the greatest part the world is unknowable, and even language is no reliable tool of communication. Hermans's characters are personifications of this state of affairs, loners who continuously misinterpret the reality surrounding them, unable to do something meaningful with other interpretive views when confronted with them, victims to the mercy of chance, misunderstanding. They fail, going under to the discrepancy between the world and their representation of it. Eventually in this world eternal powers as aggressiveness and the strife for power win. There is no place for such concepts as freedom, responsibility, idealism: in the jungle of human existence a sacrifice for a good cause is meaningless. Specific elements of this pessimistic worldview are kindred to
Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...
,
Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', ''The Broken Jug'', ''Amphit ...
,
Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
,
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
,
Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the ''Pri ...
and
Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
. There does not exist any benefit of hindsight, and the past is just as unknowable as is the present, if only because the past is never fully accessible. Osewoudt, the protagonist of ''The Darkroom of Damocles'', is unable to convince others of his past achievements, and geologist Alfred, the protagonist of ''Beyond Sleep'', is not sure if he would recognize a meteorite crater if he saw one. A recurrent theme in many of the author's novels and stories is the discrepancy between the protagonists' own view of themselves and the images that others have of them. Essentially, this the problem of Osewoudt of the war novel '' The Darkroom of Damocles'' (1958), who driven to despair to find acceptance for his view of himself. Unable to achieve such acceptance, he loses his identity as well as his life.Raat (1989), 222


Style

His style is
existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
and generally bleak, and his writing style is unique in
Dutch literature Dutch language literature () comprises all writings of literary merit written through the ages in the Dutch language, a language which currently has around 23 million native speakers. Dutch-language literature is the product of the Netherlands, Be ...
with its short and pointed sentences. There is no doubt that he was influenced by
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 ...
and the German occupation of the Netherlands between 1940 and 1945, and his longer novels (''De tranen der acacia's'' and ''De donkere kamer van Damokles'') are set during the war. Even his more upbeat writings (''Onder professoren'' and ''Au pair'') can have a strange, existentialist twist to them.


Controversies

Hermans was notorious for his polemics, as was demonstrated in particular in the ' Weinreb affair', when he played a key role in the unmasking of a Jewish imposter who claimed to have been a resistance fighter helping other Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In 1986, the Mayor and City Council of
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 ...
,
Ed van Thijn Eduard van Thijn (; 16 August 1934 – 19 December 2021) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and historian. He was a member of the Municipal Council of Amsterdam (1962–1971), member of the House of Representatives (1967–1981; ...
, officially declared Hermans
persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...
in Amsterdam as he visited South Africa in 1983 in defiance of a cultural boycott that was declared on that country because of its
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
policy. Being married to a non-white woman, Hermans remained totally unrepentant and did not visit his birthplace again until 1993 for a book presentation, after the City Council had ended that status on his insistence. The best example of Hermans's notoriety was the minor issue of the first volume of the memoirs of the (perceivedly) "minor" writer
C. Buddingh' Cornelis "Kees" Buddingh' (7 August 1918 – 24 November 1985) was a Dutch poet, TV-presenter, translator. Amongst others he translated ''A Clockwork Orange'' and the complete works of William Shakespeare into Dutch. His son Wiebe Buddingh‘ l ...
, which Hermans savagely and condescendingly criticised in a review in 1979. The next volume was published only in 1995, ten years after the death of Buddingh' but only months after Hermans' death.


Translations in English

The earliest translation into English of a Hermans work was the novella ''The House of Refuge'' (translated by Estelle Debrot), which Steven Marcus included in his collection ''The World of Modern Fiction'' (New York, 1966). The original is called ''Het behouden huis'' and runs to just under 80 pages. ''Het behouden huis'' was translated into English again in 2017 by David Colmer and published by
Archipelago Books Archipelago Books is an American not-for-profit publisher dedicated to promoting cross-cultural exchange through international literature in translation." Located in Brooklyn, New York, it publishes small to mid-size runs of international fiction ...
as ''An Untouched House'' (2018). In 2006, the novel ''
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 ...
'' (translated by Ina Rilke) was published. The story is about a geological expedition in the north of Norway, where the sun never sets. The original is from 1966 and is called ''
Nooit meer slapen ''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 ...
'' and ranks as one of Hermans's two most important works. The other work, '' The Darkroom of Damocles'', also translated by Ina Rilke, was published in 2007. The novel is set during the occupation in World War II, and the protagonist, a member of the Dutch resistance against the Germans, is unable to come up with evidence for his resistance activities when the war is over. The original is from 1958. In 2021,
Archipelago Books Archipelago Books is an American not-for-profit publisher dedicated to promoting cross-cultural exchange through international literature in translation." Located in Brooklyn, New York, it publishes small to mid-size runs of international fiction ...
published Hermans' novel ''Herinneringen van een engelbewaarder'' (again translated by David Colmer) as ''A Guardian Angel Recalls.'' This bleakly humorous work, set on the eve of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, follows the travails of Alberegt, a lovelorn public prosecutor who has just seen off his mistress, a German-Jewish refugee steaming to the safety of America. Accompanied by his guardian angel as well as the devil, Alberegt races his Renault recklessly through the Hook of Holland. Despite the determined efforts of his guardian angel, a moment's inattention leads to a catastrophe that Alberget is ill-equipped to handle, just as the German war machine begins its onslaught on the poorly prepared Dutch.


Bibliography (selection)

* ''Moedwil en misverstand/Intention and misunderstanding'' (short stories, 1948) * ''De tranen der acacia's/The tears of the acacias'' (novel, 1949) * ''Ik heb altijd gelijk/I am always right'' (novel, 1951) * ''Het behouden huis/An Untouched House'' (novella, 1951) * ''
Paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...
'' (short stories, 1953) * ''Description et genèse des dépôts meubles de surface et du relief de l'Oesling'' (dissertation, 1955) * ''De God Denkbaar Denkbaar De God/The God Thinkable Thinkable the God'' (novel, 1956) * ''Drie melodrama's/Three pieces of melodrama'' (novel/short stories, 1957) * ''Een landingspoging op Newfoundland/An attemptive landing on Newfoundland'' (short stories, 1957) * '' The Darkroom of Damocles'' (''De donkere kamer van Damokles'', novel, 1958) * ''
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 ...
'' (''Nooit meer slapen'', novel, 1966) * ''Een wonderkind of een total loss/A child prodigy or a total loss'' (stories, 1967) * ''Herinneringen van een engelbewaarder/Memories of a guardian angel'' (novel, 1971) * ''Het evangelie van O. Dapper Dapper/The gospel of O. Dapper Dapper'' (novel, 1973) * ''Onder professoren/Amongst professors'' (novel, 1975) * ''Filip's sonatine'' (short story, 1980) * ''Uit talloos veel miljoenen/From innumerable millions'' (novel, 1981) * ''Geijerstein's dynamiek/Geijerstein's dynamic'' (short story, 1982) * ''De zegelring/The signet ring'' (short story, 1984) * ''Een heilige van de horlogerie/The saint of the clockmakers'' (novel, 1987) * ''Au pair'' (novel, 1989) * ''De laatste roker/The last smoker'' (short stories, 1991) * ''In de mist van het schimmenrijk/In the mist of the shadow empire'' (short story, 1993; ''
boekenweek In the Netherlands, the Boekenweek (; English: Book Week) is an annual "week" of ten days dedicated to Dutch literature. It has been held in March annually since 1932. Each Boekenweek has a theme. The beginning of the Boekenweek is marked by the ' ...
geschenk'' (Dutch Book Week Gift), later published as ''Madelon in de mist van het schimmenrijk/Madelon in the mist of the shadow empire'') * ''Ruisend gruis/Rustling grit'' (novel, published after his death in 1995)


See also

* ''NRCs Best Dutch novels


Notes


References


Sources

* Janssen, F.A. (in Dutch). (1985)
"Hermans, Willem Frederik."
G.J. van Bork and P.J. Verkruijsse, ''The Dutch and Flemish Authors from Medieval Times to the Present, Including the Frisian Authors''. Weesp: De Haan. * Otterspeer, Willem (in Dutch) (2013). ''De mislukkingskunstenaar: Willem Frederik Hermans''. Biografie, deel 1 (1921-1952), De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam. 'The Artist of Failure: Willem Frederik Hermans''. A Biography, Vol. 1, (1921-1952)* Raat, G.F.H. (in Dutch). (1989).
, "Alfred and His Mirror Image. Narrative Voice in ''Beyond Sleep''."
In: Wilbert Smulders (red.), ''Verboden toegang. Essays over het werk van Willem Frederik Hermans gevolgd door een vraaggesprek met de schrijver''. De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 1989, p. 204-228. Retrieved 1 September 2014.


External links


Website of Hermans's ''Complete Works''Willem Frederik Hermans instituut

Willem Frederik Hermans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermans, Willem Frederik 1921 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch male writers Dutch male novelists P. C. Hooft Award winners Writers from Amsterdam People from Haren, Groningen Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren winners University of Amsterdam alumni Physical geographers