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)
“The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
—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)