| Karel van het Reve | |
|---|---|
 Karel van het Reve in 1985 | |
| Born | (1921-05-19)19 May 1921 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 4 March 1999(1999-03-04) (aged 77) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Occupation | Writer, translator, literary historian |
Karel van het Reve (19 May 1921 – 4 March 1999) was a Dutch writer, translator and literary historian, teaching and writing on Russian literature.
He was born in Amsterdam and was raised as a communist. He lost his 'faith' in his twenties and became an active critic and opponent of the Soviet regime. With his help, work of dissident Andrei Sakharov was smuggled to the west, and his Alexander Herzen Foundation published dissident Soviet literature.
He is considered to be one of the finest Dutch essayists, his interests ranging from the fallacies of Marxism to nude beach etiquette. His works include a history of Russian literature, 2 novels and several collections of essays. In 1978, Karel van het Reve delivered the Huizinga Lecture, under the title: Literatuurwetenschap: het raadsel der onleesbaarheid (Literary studies: the enigma of unreadability).
His brother, Gerard Reve, was a prominent prose writer.
The main-belt asteroid 12174 van het Reve, discovered by the Palomar–Leiden Survey in 1977, was named in his honor.
Bibliography
Novels
- Twee minuten stilte ("Two minutes' silence", 1959)
- Nacht op de kale berg ("Night on the bare mountain", 1961)
References
- ^ "12174 van het Reve (3164 T-3)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
External links
Media related to Karel van het Reve at Wikimedia Commons
- 1921 births
- 1999 deaths
- Dutch essayists
- Dutch literary critics
- 20th-century Dutch novelists
- 20th-century Dutch male writers
- Dutch male novelists
- 20th-century Dutch translators
- Dutch anti-communists
- Netherlands–Russia relations
- Writers from Amsterdam
- P. C. Hooft Award winners
- Dutch male essayists
- 20th-century essayists
- Translators to Dutch
- Translators from Russian