Bruges-la-Morte: Georges Rodenbach

[poliphilo]

 Written in the 1890s- and very fin de siecle- very school of Huysmans- Bruges-la-Morte is yet another story about a man who kills a woman; and of course like all the other stories about men who kill women it's about him- not her- and the sufferings of his noble soul. More interestingly, it's a story about Bruges, with the man being a projection of the city or the city a projection of the man; take your pick. Rodenbach got people interested in Bruges- in his day a silted up port town full of gloomy catholics - and it's partly thanks to him that it's no longer Bruges-la-Morte but the cheery, cosmopolitan, tourist town we know today.