Novel
Jellen en Mietje
Not translated into English
Karel Broeckaert · 1815
Opening lines
Jellen en Mietjen waren twee gebuere-kinderen; de vader van Mietje was een ticheldekkers-knaep, en hare moeder een geirnaert-wyf die ook schurren, appels, haring, krieken, notten en moer-beziën verkogt, en 's zondags kerrekolen, en die haer meyske behoorlyk tot den zelven staet had opgebragt
Jellen and Mietjen were two neighbours' children; Mietje's father was a slater's mate, and her mother a shrimp-woman who also sold dried dab, apples, herring, cherries, nuts and mulberries, and on Sundays periwinkles, and who had brought up her girl properly for the same station
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from dbnl.org
Synopsis
Jellen and Mietje, their courtship: in Ghent, two neighbours' children. Mietje's father is a journeyman roofer, her mother sells shrimps, dried fish, apples, cherries and nuts, and on Sundays sea snails. Jellen, an orphan, was brought up by an aunt who owns his house and had him learn the potter's trade. One Sunday morning, in a new jacket and stiff boots bought at the Friday market, he comes to ask for Mietje, beginning by begging her to let him light his pipe at the foot warmer. Everything, afterwards, will hinge on a single word.
Context
According to the foreword of a 1837 reissue, the author wrote the story in 1811; submitted to the censorship of the prefecture of the Scheldt, the manuscript was sent to Paris and came back only in part, in early 1813, with a request for a French translation, which he refused. Jozef Huyghebaert, his editor of 1992, casts doubt on this account. The first chapter appeared in a Ghent almanac for 1815, the four chapters the following year in another almanac. Hippoliet van Peene drew from it in 1858 a popular farce in one act, with songs.
Who it is for
A short narrative, whose dialogues are in Ghent dialect; the 1992 edition accompanies them with a glossary. It exists neither in French nor in English.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by the histories of Flemish letters as the first novel, or the first prose narrative, of Flanders; reprinted throughout the nineteenth century, then in 1992.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.