Georges Rodenbach (1855-1898), born in Doornik, was a Symbolist poet and novelist whose writing was inspired by scenes of his native Belgium.
Rodenbach studied law in Ghent and continued his studies in Paris. His first collection of verse, “Le Foyer et les champs” (The Hearth and the Fields) was published in 1877. He returned from Paris to Brussels to practice law but later renounced the profession to devote himself to the Belgian literary renaissance movement, La Jeune Belgique.
Rodenbach’s early works were known mainly in Belgium but with the 1886 publication of “La Jeunesse blanche” (The White Youthfulness) came general recognition in France. Following this, Rodenbach settled in Paris.
His finest work includes “Bruges-la-Morte” (Bruges, the Dead City - 1892), a nostalgic novel evoking the landscape of Flanders, and “Les Vies encloses (The Enclosed Lives - 1896), moody, ruminative poems evoking the interior landscape of a self-absorbed mind.