A review by franderochefort
Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach

4.0

Bruges-la-Morte is Rodenbach's short and highly influential symbolist novel, and as with the movement in general it lives mostly on its poetic and rich prose - the evocation of the city of Bruges is almost a kind of perverse declaration of love as Rodenbach uses the sleepy, decaying city as a character in itself, imbuing tragedy into the futile and tragic fate of Hugues, a widower unable to move on from his deceased wife until he finds her likeness in another woman - with unforeseen and disastrous consequences. The constant relationship of doubles - Hugues as a kind of dead, immobile entity and the equally dead and unchanging city, the living woman embodied as sordid reality vs the deceased woman as perfected ideal, are all played to the fullest extent and give rich meaning to the fluctuations of desire, despair and yes, death (the references to "la mort/e" in this novella are omnipresent and the gloom of the city is never fully allowed to dissipate for even a moment). Very painful and sad but very good.

______

A difficult read as Rodenbach's prose is some of the most complex and flowery I've encountered yet in French - my dictionary wasn't of help with a lot of the more convoluted turns of phrase here either but I didn't feel I was deprived of too much compared to if I were reading a translation. Challenging and probably not a good idea to binge in a day (though I did anyway)