Ferdinand Bordewijk (Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 10 October 1884 - The Hague 28 April 1965) was a Dutch author. His style, which is terse and symbolic, is considered magic realism. Character (1997), an Academy Award-winning film directed by Mike van Diem , was based on his Karakter (1938).

Biography

Ferdinand Bordewijk was born in Amsterdam and studied law in Leiden. After the completion of his studies he worked at a Rotterdam law firm. After his retirement he lived in The Hague. He was married to the composer Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman, for whose opera Rotonde (1941) he wrote the libretto.

Works

His first published work was a volume of poetry titled Paddestoelen ("Mushrooms") under the pen-name Ton Ven. It was not particularly well received.

His breakthrough came with the short novels Blokken ("Blocks", 1931), Knorrende Beesten ("Growling Animals", 1933) and Bint (1934), and two longer works Rood paleis ("Red Palace", 1936) and Karakter ("Character", 1938). Blokken was a dystopic work which was perceived as a criticism of communism, and bears comparison to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (which appeared one year later).

Other bibliography

• 1937: De Wingerdrank
• 1947: Bij gaslicht
• 1948: Noorderlicht
• 1949: Het eiberschild
• 1955: Bloesemtak
• 1958: De aktentas
• 1961: Tijding van ver

Prizes

He was awarded the prestigious P.C. Hooftprijs (P.C. Hooft award) in 1953 and the Constantijn Huygens award in 1957.