Karel van het Reve (19 May 1921, Amsterdam – 4 March 1999, Amsterdam) 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.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Reve, Karel van het |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | Dutch writer, translator, literary historian |
| Date of birth | 1921-05-19 |
| Place of birth | Amsterdam |
| Date of death | 1999-03-04 |
| Place of death | |
Famous quotes containing the words karel, van and/or reve:
“I’m a bad son. Is it the chromosomes, do you think, or is it England?”
—David Mercer, British screenwriter, and Karel Reisz. Morgan (David Warner)
“Unlike Descartes, we own and use our beliefs of the moment, even in the midst of philosophizing, until by what is vaguely called scientific method we change them here and there for the better. Within our own total evolving doctrine, we can judge truth as earnestly and absolutely as can be, subject to correction, but that goes without saying.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The reve was a sclendre colerik man.
His berd was shave as ny as ever he kan.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)