J. Bernlef (1937–2012)
Author of Out of Mind
About the Author
Image credit: Bernlef 2008-03-16 - Photo: Dh3201
Works by J. Bernlef
Inleiding tot de kennis van A. Alberts 14 copies
De dood van een regisseur 8 copies
De schaduw van een vlek 7 copies
Tindemans' dilemma 7 copies
Dit verheugd verval 6 copies
Ben even weg 6 copies
Doe maar of je thuis bent 6 copies
Stenen spoelen 6 copies
Een cheque voor de tandarts 5 copies
De verdwijning van Kim Miller 5 copies
De pyromaan 5 copies
Barbarber : tijdschrift voor teksten : een keuze uit dertig nummers — Editor — 4 copies
Wat blijft is landschap : poëzie 4 copies
Deel 2 Het land Coitha 4 copies
Bzzlletin 176-177 3 copies
Morene 3 copies
Raster 1 — Editor — 3 copies
Bermtoerisme 3 copies
Deel 4 Het land Coitha 3 copies
De schoenen van de dirigent 2 copies
Raster 3 — Editor — 2 copies
je leest het zó — Editor — 2 copies
Raster 5 — Editor — 2 copies
De zesde deur — Author — 1 copy
Wit licht 1 copy
Esther 1 copy
Het land Coita vierde boek 1 copy
Stoel: een verzameling 1 copy
Sterf de moord 1 copy
Dit verheugd geval 1 copy
Voor de spiegel 1 copy
Twee dagen, twee nachten 1 copy
Associated Works
De Nederlandse poëzie van de negentiende en twintigste eeuw in duizend en enige gedichten (1979) — Contributor, some editions — 197 copies, 1 review
De Nederlandse en Vlaamse literatuur vanaf 1880 in 250 verhalen (2005) — Contributor — 75 copies, 2 reviews
De Nederlandse en Vlaamse literatuur vanaf 1880 in 60 lange verhalen (2006) — Contributor — 40 copies, 2 reviews
Büch's boeket. 2: Boudewijn Büch koos verhalen van auteurs bij Querido (2023) — Contributor — 11 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Gelderland leest — Contributor — 8 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Noord-Holland leest (2015) — Contributor — 7 copies, 1 review
Sport : de 141 beste Nederlandse en Vlaamse sportverhalen van 1945 tot nu (2007) — Contributor — 6 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Utrecht leest (2015) — Contributor — 6 copies, 1 review
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Groningen leest — Contributor — 5 copies
Breekbare dagen — Contributor — 5 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Fryslân leest — Contributor — 3 copies
Nederland leest de mooiste korte verhalen — Contributor — 3 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Limburg leest — Contributor — 2 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Flevoland leest — Contributor — 2 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Zeeland leest — Contributor — 2 copies
Met ingehouden adem: gedichten — Translator — 2 copies
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Overijssel leest — Contributor — 1 copy
Nederland leest : de mooiste korte verhalen - Drenthe leest — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Marsman, Hendrik Jan
- Other names
- Appelman, Ronnie
Grauw, J.
Haan, Cas den
Haan, S. den
Vries, Cas de
Bernlef - Birthdate
- 1937-01-14
- Date of death
- 2012-10-29
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Netherlands
- Country (for map)
- Netherlands
- Birthplace
- Sint Pancras, The Netherlands
- Place of death
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Cause of death
- unknown illness
- Places of residence
- Sint-Pancras, The Netherlands
- Occupations
- writer
lyricist
novelist
translator - Relationships
- Hoornik, Ed (father-in-law)
Hoornik, Eva (wife) - Awards and honors
- P.C. Hooft-prijs (1994)
Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs (1960)
AKO Literatuurprijs (1987)
Constantijn Huygensprijs (1984)
Diepzee-prijs (1989) - Short biography
- Bernlef (1937) schreef een groot aantal gedichten, romans, verhalen, toneelstukken en essays. In 1959 stuurde hij enkele niet eerder gepubliceerde verhalen en gedichten in voor de Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs, die aan hem werd toegekend. De winnende gedichten verschenen in 1960 in Kokkels en de verhalen in datzelfde jaar in Stenen spoelen. De twee boeken vormen samen zijn debuut.
Gedurende de jaren zestig vertaalde Bernlef het werk van diverse Zweedse dichters en schrijvers en recenseerde hij voor onder andere De Groene Amsterdammer, Het Parool, De Gids en Haagse Post. Met G. Brands en K. Schippers begon hij in 1958 het roemruchte tijdschrift Barbarber. De poëzie die hij in deze periode schreef, werd samengebracht in de bundel Gedichten 1960-1970 (1977).
Met de roman Hersenschimmen (1984) brak Bernlef door naar het grote publiek: van het boek zijn in Nederland en Vlaanderen inmiddels meer dan een half miljoen exemplaren verkocht en het werd in meer dan tien talen vertaald. Meer dan een verhaal over dementie is Hersenschimmen een liefdesgeschiedenis, met een onvermijdelijk tragisch einde. In 1988 werd de roman verfilmd door Heddy Honigmann, met Joop Admiraal in de hoofdrol.
De jazz heeft altijd Bernlefs warme belangstelling gehad. Niet alleen dichtte hij over jazz, hij schreef er ook een aantal essays over die in 1993 gebundeld werden in Schiet niet op de pianist en in 1999 in Haalt de jazz de eenentwintigste eeuw? In 2006 publiceerde hij bovendien zijn jazzverhalen in Hoe van de trap te vallen.
Het werk van Bernlef is vaak bekroond. In 1962 kreeg hij de Poëzieprijs van de gemeente Amsterdam voor zijn dichtbundel Morene (1961) en in 1964 de Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs voor Dit verheugd verval (1963). In 1984 werd zijn hele oeuvre bekroond met de Constantijn Huygensprijs. Voor de roman Publiek geheim (1987) kreeg hij de AKO Literatuurprijs en in 1994 werd hem de P.C. Hooftprijs toegekend voor zijn poëzie.
Sinds 2002 is de J. verdwenen en publiceert de schrijver als Bernlef.
Members
Reviews
Eclips by J. Bernlef
Jan Bernlef's signature novels are about brain fog, or struggle with brain damage. This theme comes back in numerous of his novels. If Bernlef's 1993 novel Eclips doesn't eclipse his earlier masterworks such as Hersenschimmen, Meeuwen, Sneeuwor Onder ijsbergen, Eclips is definitely on a par with these great early novels of Bernlef. While in the earlier novels the theme played out subtly, in Eclips the effects and consequences of brain damage after an stroke are very evident. Yet, the novel presents Bernlef's favoured theme in a novel way in his oevre.… (more)
J. Bernlef was an extremely productive writer. Throughout his career of 50 years, he published two or three books every year. Many of his books, both novels and collections of short stories seem to comprise of two works, as if they combine two shorter works in one volume. This can be confusing, because the theme may be related but the unity of the work as a whole is less.
The short story collection Cellojaren consists of two such parts: 9 stories under the subtitle "Het begin van tranen" and 10 stories under the subtitle "Cellojaren". The short stories in the latter part are all about artists. The stories are not interconnected. They write about events that occur in the lives of different kinds of artists. For example, a painter who falls prey to a gallery who makes the artist pay for all expenses. This is quite normal practise in the Netherlands where thousands of artists look for places to organize exhibitions in hunderds of semi-professional galleries. The other nine stories were unclear.… (more)
The short story collection Cellojaren consists of two such parts: 9 stories under the subtitle "Het begin van tranen" and 10 stories under the subtitle "Cellojaren". The short stories in the latter part are all about artists. The stories are not interconnected. They write about events that occur in the lives of different kinds of artists. For example, a painter who falls prey to a gallery who makes the artist pay for all expenses. This is quite normal practise in the Netherlands where thousands of artists look for places to organize exhibitions in hunderds of semi-professional galleries. The other nine stories were unclear.… (more)
The works that Bernlef is remembered for most are but a small selection from the vast number of novels he wrote during his lifetime. There is no doubt that those are his masterpieces, novels such as Hersenschimmen, and Meeuwen. His main theme of forgetting, or not seeing the entirety in the mind, including one's own personality, such as in De pianoman are also part of many of his other novels and short stories.
Still, Bernlef wrote many more novels and short stories, some picking up on political times of the 60s and 70s, as in De man in het midden or the sexual revolution in the 1960s, as in Paspoort in duplo.
Het Komplot in the edition of the Dar pocket, a pun on the name of the publisher, with its bright yellow cover, consists of a selection of short stories taken from other publications by Bernlef. This book contains six short stories liften from Rondom een gat (1971), De schaduw van een vlek (1967) and De verdwijning van Kim Miller (1969).
The short story Het komplot is the longest and the most impressive. As the title suggests, it is about a man who sees all events as conspired against him. He also thinks he can predict them. It is a surrealist story, which fits in a tradition of surrealist writing in Dutch literature. However, the story does not contain elements of absurdism. In some ways the story is related to Bernlef's main theme of being out of mind in one's perception of reality.… (more)
Still, Bernlef wrote many more novels and short stories, some picking up on political times of the 60s and 70s, as in De man in het midden or the sexual revolution in the 1960s, as in Paspoort in duplo.
Het Komplot in the edition of the Dar pocket, a pun on the name of the publisher, with its bright yellow cover, consists of a selection of short stories taken from other publications by Bernlef. This book contains six short stories liften from Rondom een gat (1971), De schaduw van een vlek (1967) and De verdwijning van Kim Miller (1969).
The short story Het komplot is the longest and the most impressive. As the title suggests, it is about a man who sees all events as conspired against him. He also thinks he can predict them. It is a surrealist story, which fits in a tradition of surrealist writing in Dutch literature. However, the story does not contain elements of absurdism. In some ways the story is related to Bernlef's main theme of being out of mind in one's perception of reality.… (more)
J. Berlef often simply only named Bernlef without a first name or even the initial, was a very productive writer. During the period from 1960 to 2012, he published two books per year. Bernlef was never considered a major writer, but he was a constant presence, with a considerable readership. A theme which often features in his work is forgetfulness, brain fog, mental blockage or the inability to see or realize things.
However, Paspoort in duplo is a somewhat different work. It was published in 1966. The theme of this relatively short novel is adultery. Some years earlier, the main character is the novel has had an adulterous relationship with a young woman. His wife feels neglected and sleeps with another man once. This makes her husband furious.
In some sense the novel is also compatible with Berlef's main themes in his work, namely the inability to see what is going on, and misunderstandings in relationships through lack of communication or "blindness" to the needs of the other.… (more)
However, Paspoort in duplo is a somewhat different work. It was published in 1966. The theme of this relatively short novel is adultery. Some years earlier, the main character is the novel has had an adulterous relationship with a young woman. His wife feels neglected and sleeps with another man once. This makes her husband furious.
In some sense the novel is also compatible with Berlef's main themes in his work, namely the inability to see what is going on, and misunderstandings in relationships through lack of communication or "blindness" to the needs of the other.… (more)
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- Works
- 153
- Also by
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- Members
- 3,916
- Popularity
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- Rating
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- Reviews
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- ISBNs
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