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Informationen zum Autor Georges Rodenbach (1855-1898) born in Tournai, spent most of his time in Ghent and later Paris. He was a typical artist of the decadent period, unfailingly anti-bourgeois, solitary, an aesthete suffering some undisclosed malady of the spirit, a palpable ennui or spleen Rodenbach, although primarily a poet, is remembered today for his two novels set in Bruges; Bruges-la-Morte(1892) and The Bells of Bruges(1897) both translated for Dedalus by Mike Mitchell. Klappentext Hans Cadzand's father dies when he is an infant and he becomes the centre of his mother's life. As he grows up from a pretty child to a serious young man with deep religious convictions, she hopes she will remain the focus of his life. She sees his desire to enter holy orders as a threat to their life together and tries to keep him near her by marrying him off to the daughter of her closest friend. This plan founders on the rock of his 'vocation', but then Mevr. Cadzand engages the beautiful and experienced Ursula as housemaid. This long nouvelle is supplemented by shorter pieces from the collection Le Rouet des Brumes, brief episodes of love and death in characteristically atmospheric settings.
