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Ferdinand Bordewijk was born in Amsterdam, and moved with his family to The Hague when he was ten. He studied law at Leiden University. After graduation, he worked first at a Rotterdam law firm and became an independent lawyer in Schiedam in 1919, remaining an inhabitant of The Hague all of his life. He was married to the composer Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman. He wrote the libretto for her opera Rotonde (1941).[2]
Works
His first published work was a volume of poetry titled Paddestoelen ("Mushrooms") under the pseudonym Ton Ven. It was not particularly well received.
His breakthrough came with the short novels Blokken ("Blocks", 1931), Knorrende Beesten ("Growling Animals", 1933) and Bint (1934), later frequently published together as a set of three, followed by the longer works Rood paleis ("Red Palace", 1936) and Karakter (1938, translated into English as Character in 1966). Blokken was a dystopian work which was perceived as a criticism of communism. It is comparable to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which appeared one year later and which Bordewijk deemed to be junk ("een enorme prul").[citation needed]
Bibliography
Knorrende Beesten (1934)Blokken (1931)Bint (1934)
1916 – Paddestoelen (under the pseudonym Ton Ven)
1918 – Een koning van de frase (A king of the phrase) in: Groot Nederland
1919 – Fantastische vertellingen, verhalen (Fantastic tales), short stories
1923 – Fantastische vertellingen, tweede bundel (Fantastic tales II), short stories
1924 – Fantastische vertellingen, derde bundel (Fantastic tales III), short stories
1931 – Blokken (Cubes), novel
1933 – Knorrende beesten; de roman van een parkeerseizoen (novel)
1934 – Bint, de roman van een zender (novel)
1935 – De laatste eer, grafrede (The last honor, eulogy)
1935 – 't Ongure Huissens
1936 – Rood paleis; ondergang van een eeuw (Red palace, downfall of the century)
1936 – IJzeren agaven; studie in zwart met kleuren
1937 – De wingerdrank (short stories)
1938 – Karakter; roman van zoon en vader (novel); English translation: Character, from Dutch by E. M. Prince; London, Peter Owen, 1966, etc. Filmed as 1997 Dutch/Belgian film, directed by Mike van Diem.
Augustinus P. Dierick: "Aspects of Myth in Ferdinand Bordewijk's Karakter. In: The Low Countries: Multidisciplinary Studies (ed. Margriet Bruijn Lacy). Lanham, New York, London: University Press of America, 1990, 147-155.
