240 DICKENS' INFLUENCE ON DUTCHE LITERATURE By Ian F.Finlay, M.A, P.I.L. The affairs of the Netherland and England have often overlapp ed during the past three hundred years or so, and Both coun tries owe much to one another, particularly in the fields of painting and literature, Influences in the field of literature have experienced many outstanding phases, including the possible influence exerted by Joost van den Vondel's play Lucifer 1654) on Milton's Paradise Lost (1658-64)5 the founding of De Hollandsche Spectator by Justus van Effen in 1731, which was modelled on Addison's and Steele's work» the entry of the middle-class into the Dutch novel in the works of Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken, who were greatly influenced by Samuel Richardson and who likewise wrote their best-known work Sara Burgerhart (1782) in letterform^the influence of the historical novels of Walter Scott on such writers as van Lennep, Bosboom-Toussaint and Oltmansj and finally the influence of Byron and Shelley on the group of writers who flourished in Holland in the 1880's, e.g., Kloos, Verwey and van Eeden, and known as "De Tachtigers". The lack of Dutch influence on our own literature is, unfortunately, in part due to the fact that so few Dutch works have been trans lated into English, whereas virtually all the English "classics" are known in Holland, either in the original or in the form of translations In the present article, I intend discussing some of the works in nineteenth century Dutch literature which owed their birth directly or indirectly, to the writings of Charles Dickens who, of all our great novelists, has not only kept his place of honour and popularity in his own country, but has also become a favourite in most other countries of the world throug the me dium of translations and motion pictures (over sixty films have been made of his novels and stories!) Dickens' direct influence on Dutch literature was almost en tirely by way of his two earliest works, the collected Sketches by Boz which appeared in 1836, and Pickwick Papers which ap- appeared in monthly parts form 1837 to 1839, having originally been intended, on a much smaller scale, as the letterpress for

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The Dutch Dickensian | 1964 | | pagina 22