Maurice Maeterlinck

Belgian playwright and essayist

Born: August 29, 1862 · Died: May 6, 1949

Famous Persons

Who was Maurice Maeterlinck?

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. Maeterlinck was born in Ghent, Belgium, to a wealthy, French-speaking family. His mother, Mathilde Colette Françoise (née Van den Bossche), came from a wealthy family. His father, Polydore, was a notary who enjoyed tending the greenhouses on their property. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life. In later life, Maeterlinck faced credible accusations of plagiarism. Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French.

Historical significance

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations". He was a leading member of the group La Jeune Belgique, and his plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement.

A 1902 marbled edition of The Life of the Bee, Dodd, Mead and Company, Pub.

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