It's a long time since I've seen the book. It's not available in the library but when I still worked at the archives my boss used to mock it something fearful. It pissed him off that some dutch people embraced this imaginary legend as part of their culture, when it's tourist fodder only. The sad thing is that now there are plenty people who think Hansje Brinker was real.
The funny thing is that anyone who has actually read the book knows that Hans Brinker and the kid who theoretically stuck his finger in the dike are two different people entirely.
I was googling around and found a letter MMD wrote when she finally got to visit the places she'd been writing about.
The novel itself is pretty fulsome, but once you've accepted that you're reading a Victorian who is writing for children and gotten over that, the story (of the novel) is pretty good, and when I was twelve I adored it. But even at twelve I thought the bit with the kid putting his finger in the dike was pretty unlikely. Not to mention overly dramatic.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-21 08:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-21 09:06 pm (UTC)I was googling around and found a letter MMD wrote when she finally got to visit the places she'd been writing about.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/classic/HansBrinkerOrtheSilverSkates/chap0.html
The novel itself is pretty fulsome, but once you've accepted that you're reading a Victorian who is writing for children and gotten over that, the story (of the novel) is pretty good, and when I was twelve I adored it. But even at twelve I thought the bit with the kid putting his finger in the dike was pretty unlikely. Not to mention overly dramatic.
But if you want to look at it, it's here:
http://www.thehollandring.com/hans-brinker-story.shtml
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-21 09:12 pm (UTC)http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/classic/HansBrinkerOrtheSilverSkates/chap9.html