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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Georges Eekhoud (1854–1927)
Eekhoud, Georges (āk’hout). A notable Belgian novelist; born at Antwerp, May 27, 1854; died in 1927. He first published two volumes of poetry, ‘Myrtles and Cypresses’ and ‘Poetic Zig-Zags’; then became a newspaper literary critic in Brussels, and wrote a few short stories. His first considerable novel, ‘The Militia of St. Francis’ (1886), is a masterly portrayal of Flemish peasant life, especially its naïve mystic religiousness. His masterpiece, ‘New Carthage,’ paints Antwerp life in its naked actuality. Notable also is ‘The Fusillades at Mechlin,’ a story of the peasants’ uprising against the French in 1798; ‘Escal Vigor’ (1899); and ‘Les Libertins d’Anvers.’ In poetry he developed from romanticism to pronounced realism. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).