Spotlight
Darwin around the world
During his voyage on the Beagle, Darwin finds gigantic bones in several places in South America. They seem to be the remains of some extinct animal species. He discusses the implications of these findings with captain Fitzroy. They are discussing the Biblical flood:
“The threat of a disaster – the rising water – would have aroused the animal’s survival instinct,” Fitzroy suggested. “They would automatically be drawn to the Ark. Wouldn’t it have been easy to select them at arrival, allowing the young and small ones to come on board while excluding the large and old ones?”
“I’m not sure,” Darwin admitted awkwardly. “The measurements of the ark are given as 450 feet long and 75 feet wide. How could one vessel harbour the entire creation? Wouldn’t the animals have killed each other? I always thought it was a rather annoying story.”
“Master Charles,” Fitzroy rebuked him gently, “doesn’t the extinction of these monstrous creatures answer your question? Where are they now? They drowned in the Flood.”
“Then where are the human fossils? If all people drowned at the same time, shouldn’t there be human bones as well as the large ones from the animals that drowned? Unless these gigantic animals lived at another time, during some earlier period?
This is a passage from the wonderful novel 'This Thing of Darkness' by Harry Thompson, about the voyage of the Beagle. Slowly but surely, Darwin develops his theory in concordance – or discordance – with the colourful character of captain Fitzroy, ‘inventor’ of the weather forecast.
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A picture of the author Hugo ClausA sad story
About the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, Hugo Claus has written ‘The Sorrow of Belgium':"Even on the first day, when Guderian’s tanks rolled in, when the Belgian air force was reduced from 171 to 91 planes within hours, when Louis was at the radio, overwhelmed by a nonsensical, impatient, jubilating cold, already that first day the French (who had been waiting for their chance ever since Napoleon) jumped into our country. (..)
The French, their helmets topsy-turvy, garlic and Pernod on their breath, assaulted Flemish widows and orphans, forced their way into our houses without knocking, demanded liquor and women, yes, as if it were the dark ages. (..)
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Painting 'The Milkmaid' by Vermeer, 1658.Enchanted by a painting
In the flooded country of Groningen, after a spring tide in 1717, the farmers live in the attics of their farms. Together with their animals, but cut off from the rest of the world.The men work hard every day trying to repair the dikes; the water level slowly drops.
One day, a young couple finds a baby and a painting in their little boat. There is also a note that says± sell the painting, take care of the baby. They adopt the baby and wait for an opportunity to travel to the big city and sell the painting.
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In Dutch / In het Nederlands
Bezoek www.historische-romans.nl voor een overzicht van Nederlandse romans.
Highest rating
The Cloister and the HearthCharles Reade, 1861
The Thousand Autumns of Jacbob de Zoet
David Mitchell, 2010
The Man Who Found the Missing Link
Pat Shipman, 2001
The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals
Michael Kernan, 1994
The Winter Queen
Jane Stevenson, 2001
Recent publications
Trivia: Contains reproductions of paintings by van Meegeren, Vermeer and Frans Hals. Alternative subtitle: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger