Jan Lambrecht Domien Sleeckx
Encyclopedia
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
writer. He started his career as a notary clerk and a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, in 1861 he became a teacher of Dutch in Lier
Lier, Belgium
Lier is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the city of Lier proper and the village of Koningshooikt. On January 1, 2010 Lier had a total population of 33,930. The total area is 49.70 km² which gives a population density of 669 inhabitants per...
and later head school inspector of primary schools.
He started his literary career with the romantic Kronyken der Straten van Antwerpen (3 volumes, 1843) but he turned himself against the idealizing style of Hendrik Conscience
Hendrik Conscience
Henri "Hendrik" Conscience was a Belgian writer. He was a pioneer in writing in Dutch after the secession from the Netherlands in 1830 left Belgium a mostly French speaking country....
, and became a convinced proponent of a moderate realism, which he defended also theoretically (Over het realismus in de letterkunde, 1862). In 1844, he was one of the founders of the Vlaemsch Belgie, the first daily paper in the Flemish interest.
In his novels and theatre plays he sketched the selfishness of farmers and citizens or the adventures of captains and seamen. He wrote the novels Tybaerts en Cie (1867), De plannen van Peerjan (1868) and the theatre plays Jan Steen (1852), a comedy; Gretry, which gained a national prize in 1861, De vissers van Blankenberg (1870), and the patriotic drama of Zannekin (1865). His animal tales are considered to be his best work, such as Arabella Knox (1855), in which he introduced the English humor in Flanders and by their lively structure remained readable for a modern audience. Together with J.F. Vandevelde he published dictionaries.
Source
- F. van Veerdeghem, Levensschets van J.L.D.S. (1902)
- Jan Lambrecht Domien Sleeckx