Charles De Coster, des Légendes à La Légende, de l’accusation de pastiche au chef d’oeuvre mal digéré
Charles De Coster, from Legends, charged to pastiche, toward The Legend, indigestible piece of art

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to analyse how Flemish Legends (1858) in fact announce The Legend of Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak and Their Adventures Heroical, Joyous, and Glorious in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere (1867), both written by Charles De Coster, the first great French-speaking Belgian writer. Charles De Coster sets the scene in his first work loosely based on Flemish tales, and first published in the newspaper Uylenspiegel, with a mixture of literary genres and an old-fashioned affected writing style, on a background of 16th century Wars of Religions. This unique combination of genres and styles will be widely misunderstood both in Legends and The Legend of Ulenspiegel, something highlighted in the analysis of Émile Deschanel’s preface to Flemish Legends.

• Details
• Contents