Georges Rodenbach

Brujas la Muerta es la historia de una ciudad, a donde llega Hugues Viane tras las huellas de su amada. Dueño de un lenguaje simbolista, Rodenbach, poeta, cuentista y crítico excepcional, trasvasa la realidad flamenca al simbolo sin que nada quede afectado. En esta novela, que sin duda lo dintingue entre los escritores de su epoca, hace viajar a su personaje alli donde habia estado con su mujer, ya muerta, sin que la melancolia influyera en su gozo.

Bruges-la-Morte, which first appeared in 1892, concerns the fate of Hugues Viane, a widower who has turned to the melancholy, decaying city of Bruges as the ideal location in which to mourn his wife and as a suitable haven for the narcissistic perambulations of his inexorably disturbed spirit. Bruges, the dead city, becomes the image of his dead wife and thus allows him to endure, to manage the unbearable loss by systematically following its mournful labyrinth of streets and canals in a cyclical promenade of reflection and allusion. The story itself centres around Hugues obsession with a young dancer whom he believes is the double of his beloved wife. The consequent drama leads Hugues onto a plank walk of psychological torment and humiliation, culminating in a deranged murder. This is a poets novel and is therefore metaphorically dense and visionary in style. It is the ultimate evocation of Rodenbachs lifelong love affair with the enduring mystery and haunting mortuary atmosphere of Bruges.

A mothers struggle to stop her son becoming a priest & leaving her. Hans Cadzands father dies when he is an infant and he becomes the centre of his mothers life. As he grows up from a pretty child to a serious young man with deep religious convictions, she hopes she will remain the focus of his life. She sees his desire to enter holy orders as a threat to their life together and tries to keep him near her by marrying him off to the daughter of her closest friend. This plan founders on the rock of his vocation, but then Mevr. Cadzand engages the beautiful and experienced Ursula as housemaid... This book will appeal to readers of Symbolist prose, fin-de-siecle novels and visitors to Bruges.

Bruges-la-Morte is the story of one mans obsession with his dead wife and his souls struggle between an alluring young dancerhis late wifes doubleand the beautiful, melancholy city of Bruges, whose moody atmosphere mirrors his mourning. This hallmark of Belgian symbolist literature, first translated into English by Philip Mosley to great acclaim twenty years ago, is now back in print for the next generation of English readers to discover. With penetrating psychological force and richly metaphorical language, Bruges-la-Morte draws a haunting picture of love, grief, and murder in what has become a dead city, severely Catholic and once proud. The source of the famous opera Die tote Stadt and endless inspiration for Belgian and French artists, this novella will enthrall both the imaginations and heartstrings of an Anglophile audience.

Shortlisted for The Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize for 2008. The Bells of Bruges is a study of obsessive love which is steeped in the melancholy beauty of Bruges. There are three loves in the life of Joris Borluut, the town carillonneur of Bruges. He marries the fiery Barbara, whose dark beauty is a reminder of Belgiums Spanish heritage. Repelled by her harshness and violence, he starts an affair with her sister, the gentle, soulful, fair-haired Godelieve. When her sister discovers their affair, Godelieve enters a Beguine convent and Joris devotes himself to his first love, the old city of Bruges. it will appeal to lovers of Symbolist prose and fin-de-siecle fiction. Essential reading for anyone visiting Bruges.

Incapaz de sobreponerse a la muerte de su mujer, el taciturno protagonista de esta novela, Hugues Viane, decide instalarse en Brujas, donde el agua estancada de los canales eterniza su duelo. Durante el dia, Viane permanece en casa, resignado auna vida de aislamiento solo ritmada por el sonido de las campanas. Con el caer de la tarde, sale y pasea por calles solitarias en otro tiempo orgullosas de su rico pasado comercial. Sera en el curso de una de esas deambulaciones, siempre bajo el acecho del antiguo beffroi de la ciudad, cuando se cruce con Jane, una joven vedette en la que Viane proyectara fatalmente el recuerdo viviente de su esposa muerta. En su imaginacion en su memoria, el rostro de ambas mujeres se une hasta confundirse. Pero, con cada encuentro, las diferencias acabaran aflorando: veleidosa,trivial, amante del lujo y de la riqueza, Jane esta lejos de revelar la sustancia, la gracia y la dulzura de la difunta, y la enfermiza relacion entre ambos, alimentada solo por falsas ilusiones, tomara pronto un giro inesperado. Obra maestra de la literatura simbolista finisecular, de la que no se excluyen las tesis de lo fantastico, Brujas (la muerta) veria la luz por primera vez en 1892. Mas de un siglo despues, esta tragica historia de amor y perdida, pionera en el uso narrativo de la fotografia, conserva intacta su capacidad de fascinacion. Con una nueva e inspirada traduccion y un prologo esclarecedor de Cristian Crusat, la presente edicion restaura el texto ataviado con las treinta y cinco ilustraciones aparecidas en la publicacion original, a fin de presentarla ante una nueva comunidad de lectores.