Questions tagged [dutch-language]
For questions on literature originally written in the Dutch language. Please also make sure to use the applicable work and author tag.
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Is the character named Boorman supposed to be the same person across Elsschot's œuvre?
In analogy with the question Is the character named Laarmans supposed to be the same person across Elsschot's œuvre?, it is also possible to ask whether Boorman is the same character in the novels in ...
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Class dynamics in Elsschot's Cheese
In Willem Elsschot's Cheese, the protagonist Frans Laarmans is happy in his job as a shipping clerk, but is enticed to take on a more prestigious and potentially more lucrative role as a businessman ...
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The Netherlands vs Belgium in Elsschot's Cheese
Frans Laarmans, the protagonist of Willem Elsschot's Cheese, pursues and obtains a job as the Belgian sales representative for a large Dutch cheese manufacturing enterprise. Cultural and other ...
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Why is Laarmans so specific about the address of his representative in Bruges?
In Elsschot's novel Kaas / Cheese, the main character Laarmans has representatives for this cheese business in several Belgian cities. Because he doesn't hear back from them, he decides to visit his ...
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What does the expression "Mignon country" refer to in Elsschot's "Cheese"?
I'm reading Willem Elsschot's novel Cheese in a French translation by Xavier Hanotte. In chapter 3, I have found an expression that I believe it can be translated as "Mignon country" (...
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What is specifically Dutch about light bulbs?
In Willem Elsschot's Cheese, the narrator Laarmans bemoans the fact that his job involves selling full-cream edam imported from the Netherlands:
It's strange, but to me there was something revolting ...
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4
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Inconsistency in number of cheeses per box in Elsschot's "Cheese"
In Chapter 10 of Willem Elsschot's Cheese, the narrator Laarmans takes delivery of "three hundred and seventy patent boxes" full of cheese. He decides:
I'll sell in multiples of twenty-...
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Is the character named Laarmans supposed to be the same person across Elsschot's œuvre?
The protagonist and first-person narrator of Elsschot's delicious Cheese (1933) is a hapless clerk named Frans Laarmans who finds himself unexpectedly tasked with selling twenty tons of imported full-...
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Does van Gulik's title "The Given Day" specifically mean February 29?
Robert van Gulik's Een gegevan dag was first published in Dutch in 1963 and translated into English by the author as The Given Day the subsequent year. The story takes place on the evening of February ...
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Sources for claims about the identity of Kitty, the addressee of Anne Frank's diary entries
Anne Frank addressed her diary entries to Kitty and there has been much conjecture whether this name referred to a real person or was inspired by one. The English Wikipedia article about The Diary of ...
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Origin of the phrase “back when the animals could still speak” in Dutch fables or fairy tales
In Dutch, some fables or fairy tales (or both) begin with the words "[lang geleden] toen de dieren nog spraken / konden spreken", i.e. "[a long time ago] back when the animals still ...
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What is the evidence that Flemish fables or fairy tales began with the words “back when the animals could still speak”?
In an answer to the question Why do many Korean folk tales start with “back when tigers smoked”?, user @Flater, who comes from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium (i.e. Flanders), claims that the Dutch ...
- 47.3k
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Dutch Novel: old retired actor who receives an anonymous letter offering him one last role
It was written by one of the four (or five) "Lions" of post-war Dutch literature. The story concerns an old retired actor who lives alone. He has had some mysterious dealings with his older (or ...
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In what way is Dussel an unflattering nickname?
From 16 November 1942 onwards, Anne Frank had to share her room with the dentist Fritz Pfeffer, who had a number of habits that Anne couldn't stand. In the German biography Anne Frank (Reinbek bei ...
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1
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First Dutch children's bible
In the second half of 1943, Anne Frank received a children's bible from her father. Her older sister Margot objected to the idea of giving Anne a Bible on Hannukah, so her father thought giving it on ...
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