The Bells Of Bruges: Georges Rodenbach.

[poliphilo]

A novel of the inner life- of the self-aggrandising dreams of a weak man, of the lies he tells himself, of the fluidity of his desires and ideals. Also a novel about a city. The original title is Le Carilloneur -a word for which there is no adequate English translation. Does he play the bells or do the bells play him? 

A better book than Bruges-la-Morte, subtler, less melodramatic- and therefore less well-known.