Willem Elsschot


Alphonsus Josephus de Ridder, was a Belgian writer and poet who wrote under the pseudonym Willem Elsschot. A number of his works have been translated into English.

Life

De Ridder was born in Antwerp to a baker's family. He studied economics and business. During secondary school, he developed a love for literature. He was quite restless, having various types of jobs in cities from Antwerp and Brussels to Rotterdam and Paris. During the First World War, he served as the secretary of a national food relief committee in Antwerp. After the war he started his own advertising agency, which he ran until his death.
De Ridder died in Antwerp in 1960, receiving a national literary award posthumously. He was interred in the Antwerpen Schoonselhof.

Honours

De Ridder, writing as Elsschot, made his authorial debut as a poet, but it was as a writer of prose that he achieved much of his fame. While living in Rotterdam he wrote Villa des Roses ; his most famous work came in the 1920s and 1930s: Lijmen, Kaas, Tsjip en Het Been, novels with tragic and comic elements.
Central themes in his work are business and family life. His style is characterised by detailed descriptions of surroundings and a mild cynicism. In his first books he works with the same characters, giving the readers a familiarity and a sketch of life in Antwerp during the 1930s. His characters Boorman, an entrepreneur always looking for scams and opportunities, and Frans Laarmans, a clerk, evolve through these books.

Adaptations

Film adaptations

His novel Lijmen/Het Been was adapted into film by Robbe De Hert in 2001 as Lijmen/Het Been. Villa des Roses was adapted to film in 2002 by Frank Van Passel as Villa des Roses.

Comic book adaptation

In 2008 the novel Kaas and the novella Het dwaallicht were made into graphic novels by Dick Matena.