Timmermans, Felix

▪ Belgian novelist

born July 5, 1886, Lier, Belg.

died Jan. 24, 1947, Lier

      Flemish writer of regional and idyllic novels and stories.

      Timmermans, who was also a popular painter and illustrator, established his literary reputation with the novel Pallieter (1916). An “ode to life” written after a moral and physical crisis, the book was warmly received by his readers as an antidote to the misery of World War I in occupied Belgium. For the characters in his books he drew on the people of his native town. His affectionate humour, wealth of anecdote, and observational skill mask his lack of depth. Besides many novels and short stories, he wrote romanticized biographies of Pieter Bruegel (Bruegel, Pieter, the Elder) (1928) and St. Francis of Assisi (Francis of Assisi, Saint) (1932), as well as travel tales, autobiographical works, and plays. In 1935 he published his best work, Boerenpsalm (“Peasant Psalm”), a novel that reveals a deep knowledge of suffering, in which praise of nature gives way to praise of humanity.

      A yearbook of the Felix Timmermans Society has been published since 1973.

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