Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 10

127

UBG hs 3426 P (17)

[Briefkaart, poststempel 4-5 jan. 1886]

The Athenaeum (Saturday, January 2, 1886):

‘The most important work of the year and the one that has excited the most general notice is Miss Virginie Loveling's new tale “Sophie”. It is a most vivid picture of clerical tyranny in Flanders of late years, during which our Catholic clergy, like those of Ireland, have thrown themselves heart and soul into politics, and have

[p. 107]

rendered the yoke of the Flemish rural population almost impossible to be borne. The vigour and artistic force of this tragic picture are really admirable. The first edition of “Sophie” was exhausted in a few weeks, which is a fact almost unprecedented in Flemish literature, the number of whose readers is comparatively restricted.’

(Continental literature in 1885. - Belgium by Emile De Laveleye & Paul Fredericq, p. 8.)⁽¹⁾

(1) Over de kroniek van E. de Lavelye en P. Fredericq in The Athenaeum zie de bijdrage van Marysa Demoor verder in deze Mededelingen; het stuk dat hier geciteerd wordt, zal worden afgedrukt in Mededelingen XI (1995).