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Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)

1911 Literature

In appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers’ own feelings and stimulate their imaginations.

Count Maurice Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck achieved worldwide recognition through his literary output. He was born in Ghent, Belgium, into a wealthy family. He attended the Jesuit College of Saint-Barbe and Ghent University, where he obtained a law degree in 1885. Maeterlinck’s early life suggested that he would follow a career in law, however, after a short period of time working as a lawyer at a small firm, Maeterlinck decided he was not suited to this profession.

Deciding to follow his love of literature, he moved to Paris. While there, he socialized with the literati, especially Villiers de L’Isle Adam, who ended up having a great influence on him. These experiences were so enriching that Maeterlinck decided to move permanently to Paris in 1896. Some time later, however, perhaps in search of peace and quiet, he moved to Saint-Wandrille and restored an old abbey for his retreat.

Maeterlinck’s debut as a well-known writer in the French language had occurred some years earlier, in 1889, with the publication of a collection of poems entitled Serres chaudes (Hothouses). That same year Octave Mirbeau, at the time the literary critic for Le Figaro newspaper, greatly praised Maeterlinck’s first work for the theater, La Princesse Maleine, which made him an overnight success.

In the following years he continued to produce books full of mystery and adventure. The romantic drama Pelléas et Mélisande (1892), which was adapted to the stage, is considered a masterpiece of symbolist drama. La Vie des abeilles (The Life of the Bee), published in 1900, is one of his most meditative works and shows his more transcendent side. L’Intruse (The Intruder, 1890), Alladine et Palomides (1894), Aglavaine et Sélysette (1896), and the pieces Joyzelle (1903) and L’Oiseau bleu (1909) — one of his most popular creations — also confirm the richness of his imagination and his poetic realm. These characteristics were the basis for his being awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Maeterlinck was also awarded the Triennial Prize for Dramatic Literature in 1903, although he refused it, was made Grand Officer of the Order of Léopold in 1920, given the title of the Count of Belgium in 1932 and, in Portugal, the distinction of the Ordem de Santiago da Espada in 1939.

Maeterlinck married Renée Dahon in 1911, with whom he spent the rest of his days until his death in Nice, France.