Why a Booktrail?
1890s: The city of Bruges is so magical yet often desolate place and is a fine setting for a novel of mystery and decay.
Bruges la Morte
What you need to know before your trail
Hugues Viane is a widower and sees Bruges as a melancholy, decaying city – the ideal location in which to mourn his wife. However, it’s not long before he becomes obsessed with a young dancer who he thinks looks very like his beloved wife. This thought messes with his mind and leads him down the path of utter torment ultimately leading to murder.
Bruges, the ‘dead city’, becomes a metaphor for Hugues’ dead wife as he wanders amongst its labyrinth of streets and canals reflecting about the author’s lifelong love affair with the enduring mystery and mortuary atmosphere of Bruges.
Travel Guide
“The Belgian writer Georges Rodenbach is identified above all with the city of Bruges. He became well known for writing about its crumbing churches, houses and canals. Bruges became a desolate place which was popular in art and literature. The new port of Zeebrugge would later give the city a new lease of life”
Rodenbach interspersed his text with dozens of black-and-white photographs of Bruges. It is believed to be the first work of fiction illustrated with photographs.
“The widower reviewed his past in a sunless light which was intensified by the greyness of the November twilight, whilst the bells subtly impregnated the surrounding atmosphere with the melody of sounds that faded like the ashes of dead years.”
Where Next?
