Hendrik Conscience

Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883), Belgian novelist and short-story writer, credited with the development of the Flemish novel. Born in Antwerp to a French father and a Flemish mother, Conscience wrote mainly in Flemish. His writings are imaginative and sensitive not only reflecting his Romantic temperament but also a strong moral point of view; he has been criticized for excessive sentimentality. Conscience was employed at first as a teacher, but after a short period in the army he entered the literary life of Antwerp, first writing verse and later historical novels, such as In't wonderjaar (In the Year of Miracles, 1837), a pastiche of 16th-century life. Conscience's masterpiece, the epic De leeuw van Vlaanderen (1838; The Lion of Flanders, 1853-1857), recounting the victories of the Flemish over the French rulers in their land, became known as one of the outstanding historical novels of European Romanticism. His later novels tend to be more realistic treatments of urban and rural life.