Haasse, Hella S.

▪ Dutch author

in full  Hella Serafia Van Lelyveld-Haasse 

born Feb. 2, 1918, Batavia, Dutch East Indies [now Jakarta, Indonesia]

      Dutch novelist noted for her innovative historical fiction.

      Haasse studied at the Amsterdam Toneelschool, a dramatic arts school, and published a volume of poetry, Stroomversnelling (“Fast Current”), in 1945. Her novel Het woud der verwachting (1949; In a Dark Wood Wandering) is about Charles d'Orléans (Orléans, Charles, duc d'), a French nobleman taken prisoner by the English in 1415. Giovanni Borgia, a 16th-century Italian aristocrat, is the subject of De scharlaken stad (1952; The Scarlet City), which is narrated with unusual shifts of perspective among characters. Born into the family that produced the debauched Lucrezia (Borgia, Lucrezia) and brutal Cesare (Borgia, Cesare, Duc De Valentinois), and possibly the son of a pope, Giovanni seeks an identity apart from his infamous kin.

      Haasse revived the Marchioness of Merteuil (from Choderlos de Laclos (Laclos, Pierre Choderlos de)' novel Les liaisons dangereuses) in Een gevaarlijke verhouding of Daal-en-Bergse brieven (1976; “A Dangerous Liaison, or Letters from Daal-en-Berg”). In novels about the Dutch aristocrat Charlotte-Sophie Bentinck, Onverenigbaarheid van karakter (1978; “Incompatibility of Character”) and De groten der aarde (1981; “Great Figures of History”), Haasse used a collage form, with authentic documents, to tell her story. Haasse also wrote the play Een draad in het donker (1963; “A Thread in the Dark”), based on the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, and autobiographical works, including Zelfportret als legkaart (1954; “Self-Portrait as Jigsaw Puzzle”).

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